Chief of Staff of the Army (Spain)

Chief of Staff of the Army
Coat of Arms of the Office of the JEME
Flag of the Chief of Staff of the Army
Incumbent
General of the Army
Francisco Javier Varela Salas
since March 31st, 2017
Army Staff
Ministry of Defence
Style The Most Excellent
Status Highest-ranking officer in the Army
Abbreviation JEME
Member of Army Staff
National Defence Council
Council of Chiefs of Staff
Reports to Minister of Defence
Seat Buenavista Palace, Army Headquarters, Madrid
Nominator The Minister of Defence after being discussed in the Council of Ministers
Appointer The King
Term length No fixed term
Constituting instrument Law of July 17, 1904
Inaugural holder Camilo García de Polavieja
Formation December 13, 1904
Deputy Second Chief of Staff of the Army
Website (in Spanish) Website of the Spanish Army Staff

The Chief of Staff of the Army (JEME) is a military office held by a four-star general in the Spanish Army. Because of this, the JEME is the principal advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff on ground warfare and it's also an advisor to the Minister of Defence, the Secretary of State of Defence and the Under Secretary of Defence.

Under the authority of the defence minister, the Chief of Staff of the Army exercises command over the land branch of the Armed Forces.

The JEMA has two main roles: the support role by which advice the Minister of Defence about the air force military policy, the JEMAD about how to use the personnel and their operative status, the SEDEF about the economic, armamentistic and infraestructure policies and the SUBDEF about the personnel and teaching policy and the operative role by which prepare the force for combat, instructs the military personnel, establishes the organization of its military branch and watches over the welfare of the personnel under his command and evaluates the needs of the Army.

The Chief of the Staff of the Army calls the meetings and coordinates the efforts of the Army Staff (EME), the main support body of the JEMA responsible for providing the necessary elements of judgment to base its decisions, translate these into orders and ensure their fulfillment. The EMA has a whole body of military officers at its service, and among the main officers include the Second Chief of Staff of the Army, General Chief of the Terrestrial Headquarters of High Availability, the Chief of the Land Force and the General Chief of the Command of Personnel of the Army, among others.

The position is currently held by Army General Francisco Javier Varela Salas.[1]

History

The creation of an Army Staff (Estado Mayor Central del Ejército) (EMCE) was planned on the Law of July 17, 1904 by which the Ministry of War was authorized to modify its structure. On December 13, 1904, the Minister of War approved a Regulation developing that structure and creating the Army Staff and in front of it a Chief of Staff. The JEME needed to be a lieutenant general and at the same time was created the office of the Second Chief of Staff of the Army with the rank of divisional general.[2] On May 30, 1907, the National Defence Board and the JEME was part of it.[3]

The EMCE was suppressed on December 29, 1912 and it was replaced by a section called Section of Army Staff and Campaign and the powers of the JEME were assumed by the Under Secretary of War.[4]

The need to recover the Army Staff did not take long to appear and in November 1915 the Council of Ministers approved the draft bill of the Army Staff[5] that was approved by the Cortes Generales and on January 26, 1916 the EMCE was re-created with mere technical functions, because it had no executive functions and was only granted such in times of war.

In this new law the position was reserved to captain general or lieutenant general officers and in times of war it was granted to the JEME total command of the Army unless the King put himself in charge of it. The JEME was indistinctly titled Chief of the Army Staff or General Chief of the Army Staff.[6]

In 1925, the EMCE was once again suppressed and the functions of the JEME were assumed directly by the Minister of War, and the Directorate-General of Campaign Preparation, which served as the Army Staff, was created.[7] It was recovered by the provisional government of the second republic in July 1931.[8]

During the Civil War, as with the rest of the military branches, each side created its own General Staff. With the end of the civil war, the Francoist government maintained the structure of the Army Staff that existed previously, and did not change until the arrival of democracy, which changed the name of Chief of the Central Staff of the Army to Chief of Staff of the Army in 1977.[9]

List of Chiefs of Staff of the Army

No. Rank Name Appointed Dismissed
1º Lieutenant general Camilo García de Polavieja 25 December 1904 19 March 1906
2º Lieutenant general Vicente Martítegui y Pérez de Santa María 23 March 1906 8 November 1908
3º Lieutenant general Diego de los Ríos 8 March 1909 14 January 1910
4º Lieutenant general Julián González Parrado 14 January 1910 27 December 1912
Office suppressed between 1916 and 1922
5º Captain general of the Army Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau 14 January 1916 5 January 1922
6º Lieutenant general Luis Aizpuru y Mondéjar 7 January 1922 27 May 1923
7º Captain general of the Army Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau 28 July 1923 6 October 1925
Office suppressed between 1925 and 1931
8º Divisional general Manuel Goded Llopis 31 July 1931 30 June 1932
9º Divisional general Carlos Masquelet Lacaci 17 February 1933 4 April 1935
10º Divisional general Francisco Franco 19 May 1935 23 February 1936
11º Divisional general José Sánchez-Ocaña y Beltrán 23 February 1936 19 July 1936
Civil War
Disputed Divisional general  Spain Toribio Martínez Cabrera 19 July 1936 20 May 1937
Disputed Lieutenant general  Spain Vicente Rojo Lluch 20 May 1937 9 February 1939
Disputed Brigadier Fidel Dávila Arrondo 2 October 1936 1939
End of the Civil War
12º Artillery Colonel Carlos Martínez de Campos 30 September 1939 12 May 1941
13º Brigadier general Carlos Asensio Cabanillas 12 May 1941 4 September 1942
14º Divisional general Rafael García Valiño y Marcén 4 September 1942 24 March 1950
15º Lieutenant general Fernando Barron 24 March 1950 9 November 1952
16º Lieutenant general Emilio Esteban Infantes 9 November 1952 5 October 1955
17º Lieutenant general Antonio Alcubilla Pérez 5 October 1955 27 April 1959
18º Lieutenant general José Cuesta Monereo 27 April 1959 30 December 1961
19º Lieutenant general Valero Valderrábanos Samitier 30 December 1961 16 November 1962
20º Lieutenant general Ramón Gotarredona Prats 16 November 1962 6 August 1965
21º Lieutenant general César Mantilla Lautrec 6 August 1965 18 June 1968
22º Lieutenant general Fernando González-Camino y Aguirre 18 June 1968 2 July 1971
23º Lieutenant general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Ziburu 2 July 1971 12 November 1973
24º Lieutenant general Emilio Villaescusa Quilis 12 November 1973 1 July 1976
25º Lieutenant general Emilio Villaescusa Quilis 1 July 1976 26 October 1976
26º Lieutenant general Ramón Cuadra Medina 3 November 1976 13 January 1977
27º Lieutenant general José Vega Rodríguez (*) 13 January 1977 24 May 1978
28º Lieutenant general Tomás de Liniers y Pidal (*) 24 May 1978 18 May 1979
29º Lieutenant general José Gabeiras Montero (**) 18 May 1979 15 January 1982
30º Lieutenant general Ramón Ascanio y Togores (**) 15 January 1982 11 January 1984
31º Lieutenant general José Sáenz de Tejada y Fernández de Bobadilla (**) 11 January 1984 31 October 1986
32º Lieutenant general Miguel Íñiguez del Moral (**) 31 October 1986 18 May 1990
33º Lieutenant general Ramón Porgueres Hernández (**) 18 May 1990 14 February 1994
34º Lieutenant general José Faura Martín (**) 14 February 1994 1 October 1998
35º Lieutenant general Alfonso Pardo de Santayana y Coloma (***) 1 October 1998 17 January 2003
36º General of the Army Alfonso Pardo de Santayana y Coloma 1 October 1998 17 January 2003
37º General of the Army Luis Alejandre Sintes 17 January 2003 25 June 2004
38º General of the Army José Antonio García González 25 June 2004 28 April 2006
39º General of the Army Carlos Villar Turrau 28 April 2006 18 July 2008
40º General of the Army Fulgencio Coll Bucher 18 July 2008 27 July 2012
41º General of the Army Jaime Domínguez Buj 27 July 2012 31 March 2017
42º General of the Army Francisco Javier Varela Salas 31 March 2017 Present

(*) Promoted posthumously to General of the Army in 1999. (**) Promoted to General of the Army ad honorem in 1999. (***) Promoted to General of the Army while in office.

See also

References

  1. ↑ El Consejo de Ministros aprueba el nombramiento de los nuevos jefes de Estado Mayor de Tierra, Armada y Aire
  2. ↑ "Real decreto reorganizando el Ministerio de la Guerra y demás dependencias de la Administración central" (PDF). 13 December 1904.
  3. ↑ "Real decreto disponiendo que el Subsecretario del Ministerio de la Guerra forme parte, en reemplazo del Jefe del Estado Mayor Central del Ejército, de la Junta de Defensa Nacional, creada por el Real decreto de 30 de Mayo de 1907" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "Royal decree suppressing the Central Staff of the Army and the General Inspectorate of the Establishments of Instruction and Military Industry; organizing a Section that will be called the General Staff and Campaign and reorganizing the distribution of personnel affairs and staff of this Ministry, in accordance with the provisions of the Budget Law for 1913" (PDF). 29 December 1912.
  5. ↑ "Royal Decree authorizing the Minister of War to present a bill to the Cortes organizing the Army Staff" (PDF). 9 November 1915.
  6. ↑ "Royal decree that creates the Army Staff" (PDF). 26 January 1916.
  7. ↑ "Royal decree suppressing the Central Staff of the Army and the Undersecretariat of the Ministry of War, and creating an auxiliary Secretariat and two General Directorates that will be called Instruction and Administration and Campaign Preparation respectively" (PDF). 15 December 1925.
  8. ↑ "Decree providing that, depending on the Central Staff, there is an organization with the title of "Center for Higher Military Studies", whose essential mission is to prepare and develop the preparation courses of Coroneles for promotion" (PDF). 23 July 1931.
  9. ↑ "Royal Decree 2723/1977, of November 2, by which the Ministry of Defense is structured organically and functionally". 2 November 1977.
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