The Nationalist under Emilio Mola launched an attack on Madrid. The Republican XI International Brigade arrived in the city on the same day. Fighting was expected to be brief.
Mola was Cuban born, of a Spanish family.
Former Spanish colonies Guatemala and El Salvador recognized Francoist Spain.
Guatemala was ruled by authoritarian military figure Jorge Ubico, so it's not too surprising that Guatemala opted for the Nationalist. Likewise, El Salvador was governed by far right wing military figure Maximiliano Hernández Martínez.
The American press was already characterizing the Nationalist as "fascists", which isn't quite accurate.
They certainly weren't democratic, but Spanish fascists made up a minority of their support. They were rather nationalist extreme conservatives, at a time at which Spain's government, just elected, was effectively communist. The Spanish civil war is often inaccurately filtered through the lens of what was occurring in Italy and Germany, both of which of course supported the Nationalist.
But then we do the same. In our own time, as we'll discuss in an upcoming thread, a lot of people still refer to the MAGA branch of the Republican Party as "conservative", when in fact it's fascist.
The Spanish language press used the same terms.
250,000 people gathered in Hyde Park in support of the Jarrow Marchers whose protest on their dire economic condition had concluded.
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