Word: caudillo
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Francisco Franco has long sworn that he would remain in power "as long as God grants me life and a clear mind." Last week the wizened 80-year-old Caudillo stood erect for two hours while taking the salute at a Madrid parade marking the 34th anniversary of his Civil War victory. He then went off on one of his routine fishing trips and even attended a bullfight. But late in the week, after that impressive display of either vigor or iron will, Franco announced that he was stepping down as President and head of government. His successor: crusty, authoritarian...
Inured as they were to constantly recurring rumors that El Caudillo was ailing or senile or about to quit, Spaniards were nonetheless taken unawares...
...hangs on an aged frame. His mouth sags. His palsied right hand sometimes shakes so badly that he must grip it in his left. His voice, always shrill, is strained and thin. Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde-known more familiarly as Francisco Franco and el Caudillo (the Leader)-turns 80 this week, a pinnacle granted few world leaders. The man who has ruled Spain since 1939 planned to celebrate quietly in Madrid's elegant Pardo Palace, where he lives with his wife Carmen Polo de Franco, 72, amid Goya tapestries, Velásquez paintings...
Anchor. Franco has notably failed to prepare his countrymen for the upheaval that could follow more than three decades of one-man rule. Six years ago, to be sure, he did draw up a "law of succession." Under that law and codicils added to it last July, el Caudillo will be succeeded by two men. Prince Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón, 34, grandson of Alfonso XIII, the last Spanish monarch, will be crowned King and chief of state. The head of government will be Vice Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, 69, a Franco crony...
...institutions, in short, are more suited to the world of 1892, the year Franco was born in the Galician seaport of El Ferrol (now El Ferrol del Caudillo), the son of a navy paymaster. Francisco hoped to become a naval officer but he could not; one version is that he was too short (5 ft. 3 in.), another is that when he came of age the Navy was too poor and too battered by the '98 war with the U.S. to accept new officer-candidates. Franco, in any case, entered the army instead. He forsook wine, women, friendships...