Francisco Javier Varela Salas
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Francisco Javier Varela Salas (born 1952 in Puertollano, Spain) is a Spanish Army general. He was the Chief of Staff of the Army from 2017 to 2021. He was enrolled in the Army in 1978 after he graduated from
General Military Academy The General Military Academy (in Spanish: Academia General Militar) is a higher training center of the Spanish Army, responsible for the initial training for officers of the Arms and Corps of the Army, and for the officers of the Civil Guard. I ...
,
Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
and was commissioned as 2nd lieutenant. He was moved to Special Operations Company No. 41,
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
. He was promoted to captain and served in the Military School of Mountain and Special Operations then as a teacher. He attended the
Army Staff College Staff colleges (also command and staff colleges and War colleges) train military officers in the administrative, military staff and policy aspects of their profession. It is usual for such training to occur at several levels in a career. For exa ...
in 1990, and he was made lieutenant colonel to serve in
Rapid Action Force The Rapid Action Force (RAF) is a specialised wing of the Central Reserve Police Force of India to deal with riot and crowd control situations. History RAF was raised on 11 December 1991 with headquarters in New Delhi. It became fully oper ...
from which he later commands the Legion's XIX Special Operations Flag until 2003. He also participated in the
UNPROFOR The United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR; also known by its French acronym FORPRONU: ''Force de Protection des Nations Unies'') was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav War ...
in 1992 and was made a member of KFOR
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
in 2001. When he was made colonel, he served in the Operations Command and Light Forces HQ in 2005. He was chief general of the Legion's Brigade "Rey Alfonso XIII" II in 2009 until 2011 and chief of the Light Forces Command until 2014.


Commands

He was made chief general of
Land Force An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
after promotion to lieutenant general in 2014, and he became head of the High Availability Land HQ Bétera,
Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
until 2017.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varela Salas, Francisco Javier Living people 1952 births People from Puertollano Grand Crosses of the Royal and Military Order of San Hermenegild Order of Civil Merit members Officers of the Legion of Honour