Word: caudillo
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Carlos to come to full and permanent power before Franco died would have required either 1) the dictator's resignation, or 2) a decree by the Cabinet, ratified by the Cortes and the National Council, stating that Franco was not competent to rule. Encouraged by his family, el Caudillo made it clear last week that he wanted to die with all his power and titles, and thus would not resign. Arias and his Cabinet, moreover, were worried about insulting the dying man by stripping him of his authority...
...seemingly futile struggle to keep el Caudillo alive was waged inside the second-floor bedroom of the turreted El Pardo Palace outside Madrid, where a 24-man team of doctors attended him round the clock. The medical bulletins that streamed from the sickroom told of "cardiac insufficiency," "gastric hemorrhaging," "intestinal paralysis," "blood clotting" and at least five heart attacks over a 13-day period. Yet the 82-year-old Franco, who a week earlier was believed to be only hours away from death, hung on-just as he had hung on to absolute power for nearly four decades...
...grand scheme that Franco devised for an orderly transfer of power to Juan Carlos was frustrated two years ago. While he had long wanted the Prince to have the title of head of state, el Caudillo also intended that the regime's authoritarian rule should be carried on by his closest friend, the ultraconservative Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, who for seven years had served as Franco's subservient Vice President. Thus in 1973 Franco transferred his titles of President and head of government to Carrero Blanco, 70, who presumably would have become the real power behind Juan Carlos...
...sporting life, which offered Franco virtually his only escape from official routine, was abandoned in recent years for the regal pleasures of a cloistered castle existence: liveried servants, Moorish guards on white stallions, walls covered with Goya tapestries-and obsequiousness everywhere. Foreign ambassadors who were granted audiences with the Caudillo had a precise protocol of steps and bows. In addition to his love of pomp, Franco was a man of rigid decorum, methodical habit and deep Christian piety; his orderly days included regular attendance at Mass and midnight recitation of the rosary with his wife, the former Carmen Polo...
...Caudillo spent his last years in public life trying to keep a lid on Spain's seething political cauldron. The nation's conservatives reacted nervously not only to the death of Admiral Carrero Blanco but to events in neighboring Portugal. In the wake of the Lisbon coup, the army, the dreaded militia known as the Guardia Civil and the Cabinet were safely installed in conservative hands...