General Godet declared a state of war and the military took control of the city. The republican resistance was swiftly crushed, with two dead in the Plaza de Cort.
On July 19, 1936, Palma awoke with the streets occupied by stationed troops. General Manuel Godet, who just 24 hours earlier had sworn allegiance to the Republic to the civil governor Antonio Espina, proclaimed a state of war and ordered the occupation of the city's key points. The military coup was materialising in Mallorca.
The decree issued by Godet left no room for doubt: "Anyone who attempts, in any way, by deed or word, to make the slightest resistance to the Salvador Movement of Spain will be executed." This threat would be fulfilled in the following months with a systematic repression that claimed hundreds of lives.
The conspiracy that deceived the governor
Antonio Espina, an intellectual sympathetic to Manuel Azaña, had met with Godet on Saturday, July 18. The general gave him his formal promise that the military in Mallorca would respect republican legality. Espina believed him and refused to arm the organisations of the Popular Front, despite demands from unions and leftist parties.
In reality, Godet and most of the chiefs and officers had been committed for months to General Emilio Mola, the leader of the uprising. Among the conspirators were Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers Antonio García Ruiz and Commander Mateo Torres Bestard, who would later be key in the repression.
According to contemporary history professors Sebastià Serra, Miguel Deyá, and Antoni Marimón, the coup was perfectly planned. Godet declared the state of war to great surprise for Espina, who was deposed and replaced by García Ruiz at the head of the Civil Government.
The night of July 18 at the Círculo Mallorquín
As night fell on July 18, the coup plotters finalised the details of the uprising at the headquarters of the General Command, in the Almudaina palace, and in the salons of the Círculo Mallorquín. There, the civil plot of the coup —fascist parties like Falange, and right-wing sectors like CEDA and Renovación Española— awaited military orders to take to the streets.
Lieutenant Colonel García Ruiz, well-connected with the civilians, was responsible for relaying updates to those who spent the night awake at the Círculo. Beside him, the Marquis of Zayas, the top leader of Falange in Mallorca, organised the civil squads that from the very beginning were distinguished by their unrestrained repression.
At dawn, the troops went out to secure the key points and closed down the offices of the Popular Front organisations. Attempts at resistance were immediately crushed, although a tragic incident could not be avoided in the Plaza de Cort, next to the Town Hall.
A column of soldiers entered the square and encountered a group of heavily armed civilians. The officer in command thought they were republicans and ordered them to open fire. An artillery captain and a civilian were killed. The civilians were, in fact, falangists. The mistake left two fatalities on the same coup side.
The repression that was looming
With control of Palma secured by mid-morning on Sunday, the new authorities took charge of the institutions. García Ruiz assumed the Civil Government; Mateo Zaforteza, imposed by Godet, the mayoralty of Palma; and Ramos Unamuno, the presidency of the Provincial Council. Colonel Díaz Freijóo also joined the new order.
The repression did not take long to begin. García Ruiz and Torres Bestard, the latter a personal friend of General Franco, took charge of the mass executions that began in August. They were joined by the police Barrado, who, along with Falange, was responsible for murdering numerous republicans in the ditches.
In other towns in Mallorca, the republican resistance lasted somewhat longer, but by the same day 19 the military already controlled the entire island. The coup had been completed, and terror took hold in Mallorca during the following months and years.
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