CARRILLO, SANTIAGO

born Jan. 18, 1915, Gijn, Spain secretary-general of the Spanish Communist Party from 1960 to 1982. He received wide publicity from his book Eurocommunismo y Estado (1977; Eurocommunism and the State), which espoused the freedom and independence of national communist parties. A native of Asturias, Carrillo joined the Spanish Communist Party at the time of the Popular Front's electoral victory in Spain in 1936. He was in charge of public order in Madrid, and some held him responsible for the massacre of prisoners at Paracuellos in November of that year. After the Spanish Civil War he went to the Americas, and he later spent many years in Paris. He participated in the founding, in July 1974, of the Junta Democrtica Espaola, which partially united the opposition to the Franco regime, and in March 1977 he helped found the Coordinacin Democrtica, which incorporated the opposition parties and Spain's regional autonomy movements. After its legalization in 1977, the Spanish Communist Party maintained a low profile while winning votes and parliamentary seats. Carrillo cooperated in the drafting of Spain's new constitution and supported the government in its attempts to cope with Spain's economic difficulties and its efforts to overcome terrorism. He favoured working for a plurality of political parties and for democratic alternation between the majority and the minority, and he supported the Basque and Catalan sections of the Communist Party in their desire to take an independent stance based on the needs of their own regions.