evacuation of those who were most at risk. Casado's coup Plot From the end of February 1939, Colonel Segismundo Casado had been preparing a coup against the Negrín government to start peace negotiations with the Nationalists, believing that the government was too subordinate to the communists. Colonel José Cendaño, a fifth column agent in the Republican army, promised him that Franco would guarantee the lives of the Republican officers who had committed no crimes. Most noncommunist elements of the Popular Front in Madrid supported the plot, including one of the leaders of the PSOE, Julián Besteiro, because they believed that continuing the war was useless. Furthermore, after the surrender of Menorca, many Republican officers in the central zone believed that they could negotiate a deal with the Nationalists. On 2 March, Negrín announced a number of new appointments in the Central Zone. Colonel Casado and the communists Juan Modesto and Antonio Cordón García became generals, General Manuel Matallana was appointed as head of the central general staff and communist officers were appointed to command the ports of Murcia (Manuel Tagüeña), Alicante (Etelvino Vega) and Cartagena (Francisco Galán).(according to Beevor, Francisco Galán was appointed military governor of Cartagena, Etelvino Vega governor of Alicante, Leocadio Mendiola commander of Murcia and Inocencio Curto commander of Albacete). The noncommunist elements believed that the communists wanted to control the evacuation harbours and joined the plot against Negrín. Coup On 5 March 1939, Colonel Segismundo Casado, supported by General Matallana, the CNT (Cipriano Mera), the secret service of the Republic (the Military Investigation Service, Servicio de Investigación Militar, or SIM), a section of the PSOE (Julian Besteiro) and a section of the UGT (Wenceslao Carrillo), deposed Negrín and formed a military junta, the National Council of Defence (Consejo Nacional de Defensa) in order to negotiate a peace deal with Franco. On 6 March, Miaja joined the rebellion and was appointed president of the junta. The other members of the junta were Casado, Julian Besteiro, Wenceslao Carrillo, Gonzalez Marín and Eduardo Val (CNT), Antonio Perez (UGT), and the Republicans Miguel San Andrés and Jose del Río. Colonel Adolfo Prada was appointed commander of the Army of the Centre, the communist commanders of the I, II and III Army Corps of the Army of the Centre were relieved, the PCE's newspaper Mundo Obrero was closed and Casado ordered massive arrests of communist commissars and militants. Ironically, Casado's justification