Segismundo Casado

Segismundo Casado López
Segismundo Casado
Birth nameSegismundo Casado López
Born(1893-10-10)10 October 1893
Died18 December 1968(1968-12-18) (aged 75)
Allegiance Spanish Republic
BranchSpanish Republican Army
RankColonel
CommandsCommander of an Army Corps (1938), Commander of the Army of the Centre (1939)
ConflictsRif War
Spanish Civil War
Signature

Segismundo Casado López (10 October 1893 – 18 December 1968) was an officer of the Spanish Army. He served during the late Restoration, the Primo de Rivera dictatorship and the Second Spanish Republic. Following outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he sided with the Republicans, gradually rising to commander of the Army of the Centre. He is best known as leader of the coup against the government of Juan Negrín; its objectives were preventing a Communist takeover and terminating fratricidal bloodshed during the war, considered already lost. The rebels seized control of the Republican zone; in their quasi-government Casado served as the minister of defense. Negotiations with the Nationalists failed; Casado went on exile, first to Britain and from 1947 to Latin America, returning to Spain in 1961.