Massacre of Badajoz - Background

Background

The situation in Extramadura had been extremely tense for several months before the Civil War broke out on July 18, 1936. The Republican government had passed an Agrarian Reform Law, which gave the poor farmers, more than 50% of the active population, the right to become owners of the land they worked. This had resulted in a major confrontation between them and the region's major landowners, especially since, in March 1936, labourers in the Badajoz region decided to accelerate the implementation of the law by invading and occupying the farmlands in question.

Since the outbreak of the Civil War, several bloody events had occurred in the area, known as the "republican repression", as a part of the Spanish Red Terror. Queipo de Llano and Juan Yagüe would later justify the massacre at Badajoz as punishment for the republican massacre of Nationalists in the immediate aftermath of the military rebellion.

In Fuente de Cantos, 56 people were shut in a church on the night of the rebellion, July 18–19. The Church was set on fire from outside. Twelve of those inside died, eight of them burned. This operation was repeated in Almendralejo on August 17, when 28 Nationalist supporters, who had been held in prison, were executed. Eleven Nationalist supporters were executed in Badajoz itself. In all, 243 people were executed in the western part of the province of Badajoz by the republican forces.

The Nationalists also committed atrocities on the march of General Yagüe's column from Seville to Badajoz. In every city conquered by Yagüe's men dozens to thousands of people were killed.

After the occupation of Fuente de Cantos by Yagüe's column, 325 republicans were executed. Another 403 republicans were executed after the fall of Almendralejo . Between 6,610 and 12,000 persons were killed by the nationalist forces in the western part of the province of Badajoz (including the city of Badajoz itself),. Most of the victims were journeymen and farmers The massacre was part of the Spanish "white terror".