May 13, 1936 – After the victory of the far-left Popular Front (coalition of Socialists, Communists and left-wing Liberals, supported by Anarchists) in General Elections in the winter of that year – after which Azana became president of the Republic – his associate, Santiago Casares Quiroga, became the new prime-minister. During the famous parliamentary debates of June 16, during which the leader of the right-wing opposition, monarchist Jose Calvo Sotelo, blamed the Popular Front government for the disorder and violence that reigned in Spain those days, Casares answered to him that if something happens, the only responsible party will be Calvo Sotelo himself. Leftwing radicals who attended the session, understood this menace [statement] in the sense, that if they commit some actions against right-wing opposition and Calvo Sotelo personally, they will not be punished by the government.

 July 13, 1936 – At 3:00 a.m., a group of the Republican police, accompanied by the members of the Spanish Socialist Party, came to the Calvo Sotelo apartment in Madrid, unlawfully arrested him and later murdered him in the police car.

The murder of the leader of the parliamentary opposition by the state police had such resounding effect on the country, that it was exactly after that, many people, including General Franco, who still doubted about their joining the possible insurrection against governing revolutionary forces, decided to act before it was too late.

The ensuing insurrection which began on July 17-18, 1936, would end in April of 1939 with (to use the words of Pope Pius XII) “the victory of Catholic Spain.” The other interesting fact about all this – Jose Calvo Sotelo, murdered on that “Fatima date” of July 13, 1936, was born in the town of Tuy, in a house situated not far from the convent in which in 1929 the Holy Trinity with Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucy!