Early Life
Mola was born in Placetas, Cuba - at that time a Spanish province - where his father, an army officer, was stationed. He enrolled in the Infantry Academy of Toledo in 1907. He served in Spain's colonial war in Morocco where he received the Medalla Militar Individual, and became an authority on military affairs. By 1927 he was a Brigadier-general.
Mola was made Director General of Security in 1930. This was a political post and his conservative anti-democratic views made him unpopular with opposition liberal and socialist politicians. When the left-wing Popular Front government was elected in February 1936 Mola was made military governor of Pamplona in Navarre, which the government regarded as a backwater. But the area was a center of Carlist activity and Mola himself secretly collaborated with the movement.
Read more about this topic: Emilio Mola
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