José Novo

José Novo Rodríguez (Betanzos, 1893 - id., July 29, 1936) was a Republican tailor and politician from Galicia, Spain, a victim of repression in the Francoist zone during the Civil War. José Novo was elected councilor of the municipal council of Betanzos in the municipal elections of 1931, in the call of May, since those of April were annulled when counting more than 1000 votes that voters had the population due to an attempt of the right local control of municipal power. At that time Novo belonged to the Autonomous Republican Autonomous Organization (ORGA) (although later it would integrate in Left Republican), that along with other progressive forces topped the lists to the elections. Proclaimed the Second Republic, was appointed first lieutenant of mayor, position that maintained until 1932 in which was chosen mayor until 1933. Married and father of five children, Novo was of deep republican convictions and fervent anticlerical, and did not hide his opinions that did when it considered it necessary in its political interventions, leaflets and articles in local publications. Their position on the Catholic Church was critical, especially with the prevailing situation that they enjoyed in Galician society, although it never favored or instigated any persecution or participated in violent acts. Their anti-clerical positions were manifested, above all, in opposition to ecclesiastical prebends of all kinds. In Galicia of the time, the political right, and especially the Regional Union of Rights of Betanzos and the Women's Association of the Regional Union of Rights, created during the Republic, saw in Novo an enemy that was attributed a legend of evil, making sure that she participated in raffles to distribute the local girls along with other militants left in the House of the People, totally false accusations that the majority considered a joke. Local accusations were also attributed to the accusations of fomenting the shot in the neck for his opponents, but the truth is that until the outbreak of war, there was no single crime in Betanzos in the Republican period.

At the time of the coup d'état of July 1936 with which the war began, Novo, along with the one who had also been mayor of Betanzos, the socialist Tomás López Datorre, left the city on 22 July with the entrance of the revolted columns coming from Corunna and the end of the little resistance that could support the city. Both were intercepted in Guitiriz. While Lopez Datorre was taken to the Betanzos jail and from there to La Coruña, where he was to be shot in October, Novo remained in Betanzos until July 29, when he was taken out and executed at dawn. Next to him was also executed the driver who transferred to the execution by order of the insurrectionists, since at first it had refused to the trip due to its kinship with Novo. After the execution, the local judge, an intimate friend of Novo, was forced to testify to the celebration of a sumarísimo council of war against Novo under the accusation of fomenting the military revolt against the insurrectionists and to set fire to the church and the monastery of San Francisco de Betanzos, facts that happened after the departure of Novo and Lopez Datorre and that in fact were provoked by elements of the political right from Ferrol to justify the repression later.

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