Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja (1870-1930), Spanish soldier and dictator. Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja was born in the province of Cádiz. During the Spanish-American War he served in Cuba and in the Philippines. He fought in Morocco from 1909 to 1913 and was military governor of Cádiz from 1915 to 1917. In 1922 he became military governor of Barcelona. At the request of King Alfonso XIII, he established a military dictatorship in Spain. When the military directorate was abolished in 1925, Primo de Rivera became prime minister of the new civil government. Despite the successful suppression of a Moroccan revolt (1926) and the launching of a public works program, his administration aroused much opposition, particularly among liberals. Forced to resign in 1930, he went into voluntary exile in Paris.

His son José Antonio, founder of the Fascist-oriented Falange Party (1933), was executed by the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and was revered as a martyr by the regime of General Francisco Franco.