This is how the life of King Mohamed VI of Morocco was saved by the Spanish nannies who took care of him in Rabat when he was a child #farokani #rii #ancientworld #senser #rameses2

The life of King Mohamed VI of Morocco is marked by the presence of strong women, from his powerful sisters to the nannies who saved his life as a child.

The last royal appointment that has taken place in Moroccan lands left us with a surprising image: that of the king's sister, the powerful Lalla Meryem , conversing with Queen Máxima of the Netherlands in perfect Spanish.

Because Alfredo Fraile reminded us in his book Confessable Secrets, the bond between the Moroccan royal family and Spain goes much further than its good relationship with King Juan Carlos. Both King Mohammed VI and his sisters and even his own father, Hassan II, grew up sheltered by Spanish women.

In fact, Hassan II himself had employees of our nationality in his court who helped him become king; like Paquita Gorroño , who arrived in Rabat fleeing the civil war in 1939 and ended up becoming Mulay Hassan 's secretary before becoming king.

But two of these women from the old Moroccan court, Ascensión Díaz Folgueras and Juana Labajos González , were decisive in the life of Mohammed VI because they did more than ensure the upbringing of Hassan II's five children, they saved his life.

Muhamad had a diploma in Child Care from the Salus Infirmorum Nursing Faculty. She took care of the crown prince from her birth and was in charge of the "Spanish salus" that took care of the king's children.

Juana Labajos González was part of that team of nannies who watched over the comfort of the royal offspring from the day the first of them came into the world, Princess Lalla Meryem . Juana Labajos was also the first to suffer the consequences of the 1971 coup that nearly annihilated the Moroccan royal family.

It happened on July 10, 1971. Hassan II , father of the current monarch Mohamed VI, wanted to celebrate his 42nd birthday with a big party that would last several days and in which he entertained about a thousand guests in one of his summer palaces. But the celebration ended in tragedy.

The head of the Moroccan army, General Mohamed Medhub , ordered two classes of the Moroccan non-commissioned officer school, about 1,400 strong, to storm the summer palace of Skhirat where the monarch's birthday was celebrated.

A hundred guests were massacred with the irruption of the soldiers, twenty of them superior commanders and commanders of the Royal Armed Forces. Although there were never official figures, it was claimed that 180 to 200 guests of the attendees were injured.

Juana Labajos was in the front line of the first shooting by the coup leaders, but miraculously she was saved with one thought in her head: to reach the children who were resting in the royal residences of the palace. At that time, Prince Mohamed was seven years old.

Despite the drama of the coup, the Spanish press reflected at that time that the massacre could have been even worse if Hassan II had chosen any other of his summer palaces to celebrate his birthday.

Although it is called a palace, the residence that the Moroccan royal house owns in Skhirat, on the outskirts of Rabat, looks more like a luxury resort than a lavish building. It consists of a complex of bungalows and villas that run along the beach and are separated from the main road by a golf course. The guests tried to run away along that same beach while the military rebels came through the golf course and pointed a machine gun at that area.

The initial objective of the ringleader of the rebellion, the coup general Mohamed Medbuh , was to hold the guests hostage in order to force the king to sign his own abdication. Medbuh himself selected Juana Labajos from among the group of hostages as the first bargaining chip. But he couldn't execute her play.

What no one counted on at that time was that someone would shoot the rebel general and kill him, and that his unexpected death would give Hassan II a three-hour window in which the rebel troops did not know how to organize, but he did.

But before being able to take advantage of that advantage, Juana and Amparo faced the most difficult moment of their lives. With Medbuh dead, the next man in charge of the coup, Colonel Ababou, ordered the killing of the king and the entire royal family, including children.

Neither the Spanish embassy in Morocco nor Juana Labajos's own family agree on who was the woman who faced the coup plotters with the prince in her arms. One affirms that it was Juana, others that Amparo . What the witnesses of the time did collect is that the caretakers of the princes and princesses rescued them and locked themselves in the women's bathroom, protecting the children with their bodies while one of the Spanish women faced the assailants.

Four days after the attack on the royal palace, a dozen leaders of the conspiracy against the king were executed in a military camp near Rabat: four generals, five colonels and a commander.

And curiously it was the husband of another Spaniard, Dr. Fadel Benyaich , husband of Carmen Millán Monleón from Granada , who saved the life of Hassán II and his children on the day of the attack. The doctor put on the royal robe to mislead the attackers and was the one who shot the coup leader, giving the heir's nanny the chance to escape and go guard him. Fadel Benyaich died in the assault and his sons received the honor of studying from then on, sharing a desk with the king's sons.

Juanita Labajos died in Madrid six years after that coup, but before her death the monarch granted her two of the most important distinctions that the Moroccan court can give to a woman. On the day of her burial, her coffin carried a laurel wreath sent by the royal family of Morocco.

#farokani #rii #ancientworld #senser #rameses2