page_title: Requetés
section_title: Civil War (1936-1939): repression, crimes and atrocities
hierarchical_section_title: Requetés / New Requeté (1930-1939) / Civil War (1936-1939): repression, crimes and atrocities
caption_attribution_description: Español: Vista de Monreal (Navarra)
context_page_description: The Requetés were members of the Carlist organization, Requeté. As an organised structure it operated between the mid-1900s and the early 1970s, though exact dates are not clear.
context_section_description: Along combat engagements, during the Civil War requeté were also taking part in repression. At times various tercios or other frontline units were assigned related tasks in their zones of deployment, e.g. in Cantabria, Aragón, Extremadura or Andalucia. They were usually peformed on temporary and makeshift basis; in some sources these measures are referred as “policing”, in other they are noted as part of “political cleansing”. However, Traditionalist militia are best known for repressive measures executed in areas where Carlism remained a major or significant political force, notably in Navarre and Vasconagadas. In these regions requetés formed major and fixed part of the Nationalist system of institutionalized terror, aimed against political enemies; some scholars list them as one of 4 agents of violence. Their exact role remains disputed. According to one theory, requeté units executed repressive actions which had been planned and approved beforehand by the military; the competitive one claims that at least until late 1936, requeté “death squads” acted independently and with full autonomy.
  The only province where requeté operated an entire system of terror was Navarre. It was supervised and at times directed by the local Carlist political executive, Junta Central Carlista. The system consisted of requeté running a giant intelligence network; a specialized branch busy with arrests, terror raids and on-the-spot executions; two Carlist-only prisons - Colegio de los Escolapios and Colegio de los Salesianos in Pamplona, which served as places of detention, interrogation, torture, and execution; filtering bodies which marked inmates for execution, further incarceration or liberation; and death squads which extracted prisoners and shot them later on. Some of these structures were replicated in Vascongadas, especially in Gipuzkoa and Álava; though in these provinces there were only makeshift Carlist-operated prisons, requeté organisation included similar units dedicated to policing and repression tasks, euphemistically named “auxiliary services”.
  The key branch entrusted with repressive measures was Requeté Auxiliar. The service grouped individuals too young or too old to qualify for regular combat units, though also other volunteers and these released from frontline troops due to wounds suffered. They were assigned numerous rearguard tasks, like postal censorship, manning convoys, gendarmerie duties, grave-digging, liaison, medical services etc, though they were primarily busy with repression; some of their informal units, like Tercio Móvil or Partida Volante, gained notoriety as excelling in terror missions. Fully supervised by Junta Central, requeté members were also delegated to regular police structures in Comisaría de Investigación y Vigilancia, the key police branch busy with pursuit of presumed political enemies, or in Delegación de Orden Público; some of them later grew to major positions. Over time requeté death squads developed their own modus operandi; first detailed information on presumed enemies was collected by local informers, but a unit which performed repressive action in a given area originated from another location to ensure personal relations do not prevent ruthless and no-mercy attitude. The area subjected to particularly heavy requeté terror was part of Navarre, Àlava and Logroño known as Ribera; officially known as “pacificación”, in more blunt statements it was referred as “persecución y captura” of political opponents. 
  The largest single atrocity involving requeté occurred on October 21, 1936 in the Navarrese village of Monreal. Once an attempt to raid a Tafalla prison and lynch the inmates failed due to rigid stand of local Guardia Civil, the assailants obtained an official authorisation. Three days later they extracted 65 prisoners and shot them; the entire operation, including the execution itself, was performed by requetés of Tercio Móvil. The second in terms of scale comes a so-called Valcardera Massacre of August 23, 1936, which produced 52 dead; it is usually noted that requetés who shot the 
caption: Monreal
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