Xavier Borràs
Xavier Borràs | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairman of the Standing Committee of Armed Forces Command | |
| In office 22nd May 1975 – 16th November 1980 | |
| President | Ignazio Antoniotto Luciano Pella |
| Preceded by | Umberto D'Aloia |
| Succeeded by | Vincenzo Rustichelli |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 4, 1932 Santa Maria, San Marco, Marirana |
| Died | November 23, 2004 (aged 72) File:FedFlag.jpg Jackson, Asteria |
| Spouse | Eleonora Fanelli |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | San Marco Military Academy |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Marirana |
| Branch/service | Army (1950-1980) |
| Rank | Brigadier general |
| Battles/wars | Mariranan insurgency |
Brigadier general Xavier Borràs (4 June 1932-23 November 2004, aged 72) was a Mariranan military officer who was the Chairman of the Standing Committee of Armed Forces Command and as such the de facto leader of Marirana from 1975 to his resignation in 1980 during the Mariranan civic-military dictatorship.
Part of a generation of young officer corps of the reconstructed Mariranan army following the Great War Borràs had a relatively conventional military career, being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1970. Borràs was a member of the "Organisation of Patriotic Officers" who were responsible for the 1972 coup d'état against president Romano Emanuele Orlando that created a civic-military dictatorship. He was appointed to the Standing Committee of Armed Forces Command, a junta which soon served as the main executive body in the regime, being promoted to a brigadier general.
Borràs was instrumental in the creation of the Federal Counterintelligence Agency, the secret police of the new regime and as such quickly played a large role in political disappearances, arbitrary arrests, tortures and executions of anti-regime dissidents. Borràs was seen as a hardliner who was close to president Ignazio Antoniotto who supported a "national revolution" that would re-orientate Marirana into a corporatist, traditionalist dictatorship believing SCAFC chairman Umberto D'Aloia was to moderate. As such following a small stroke D'Aloia lost political support and forced to retire with Borràs being appointed chairman.
As chairman of the SCAFC Borràs oversaw the most repressive period of the regime. Relying on support from hardline generals, intelligence chiefs and neo-functionalist figures his government attained an infamous reputation overseas for its reliance on torture (via methods such as electrocution, rape, rat torture and others) and extrajudicial execution, often through forced disappearances and death flights dissidents, primarily leftists. He also created the Federal Corrective Facilities Programme, a system of forced labour camps where dissidents were often sent to to be tortured as "correctional measures". The murder of Bishop Giuliano Tabacci in 1976 following the bishops criticism of the regime led to an armed uprising and the start of the Mariranan insurgency, with Borràs's government soon supporting right-wing death squads.
Borràs was a supporter of a "third way" between free-market capitalism and socialism, taking the official line of the regime's Party of National Reconstruction for the creation of a corporatist, autarkic state. These economic policies were a disaster leading to high inflation and consistent government deficits - as a result the government turned to illicit means to gain revenue, cooperating with the mafia to raise money from human, weapons and drug trafficking.
The collapse of the economy and the hardline, neo-functionalist direction of the regime led to other members of the junta worried that they were losing power to attempt to curb Borràs's power. In 1978 although his preferred candidate for the regime's ceremonial president, Luciano Pella, was elected president the PRN itself was slowly purged of the most ardent neo-functionalists under the direction of the new PRN chairman [Francesco Boselli]]. In 1980 with the complete collapse of the economy and the government being forced to consider a loan from the Global Institute for Fiscal Affairs Borràs was seen as a liability on various grounds by senior members of the military and persuaded to retire being replaced by his deputy Vincenzo Rustichelli.
Although protected from prosecution for human right abuses following the 1989 general amnesty for all figures associated with the military regime Borràs moved to the Federation of Asteria in 1992 in a self-imposed exile. Whilst in Asteria he was accused in Marirana of having embezzled up to $8 million during his time as SCAFC but was never formally arrested nor brought to trial. He died in 2004 from throat cancer.
Early and personal life
Xavier Borràs was born in the city of Santa Maria in San Marco in 1932 to working-class parents of Floren descent. His father Artur was a infantryman for the Mariranan army during the Great War whilst his mother Irnes was recorded as being deeply religious. His family led a relatively modest life, with Borràs being educated in a church school at a young age and a military prep school during his teenage years. Due to his father's military background he was encouraged to enlist to the army when he was 18 in 1950 applying to join the San Marco Military Academy. He graduated from the academy in 1953 as an artillery officer.
Borràs married his childhood friend Eleonora Fanelli in 1955. With her he had 2 children, two girls named Rosa and Laura born in 1960 and 1964 respectively. Fanelli would outlive her husband for 5 years after his death in 2004.