for the coup was that Negrín and the PCE wanted to carry out a communist takeover, an identical justification to that of the Nationalist uprising, which began the Civil War, but in fact, he rose against the government because he wanted to negotiate peace and believed that removing Negrín and the communists was a precondition to negotiations with Franco. In addition to other assurances, the British government said that Franco would guarantee the lives of the Republicans. Casado had said to the commander of the Republican Air Force, Hidalgo de Cisneros: "I give you my word ... that I can obtain better terms from Franco than Negrín ever can. I can even assure you that they will respect our ranks". After a failed attempt to negotiate with Casado, Negrín fled to France from the Monòver's airfield, near Elda, with Hidalgo de Cisneros, the leaders of the PCE (La Pasionaria and Vicente Uribe), and the foreign minister Julio Álvarez del Vayo on 6 March to avoid capture by the supporters of Casado (Casado wanted to arrest the government and the PCE's leaders and to hand them over to the Nationalists). Fight in Madrid Casado's coup was supported by the commanders of the other three armies of the Republican Army (Leopoldo Menéndez López, commander of the Levante Army; Antonio Escobar, commander of the Estremadura Army; and Domingo Moriones, commander of the Andalusia Army). Nevertheless, the army units settled around Madrid and controlled by the PCE (the I corps of the Army of the Centre led by Luis Barceló and the Emilio Bueno's II and Colonel Antonio Ortega's III Corps), rose against the junta on 7 March, starting a brief civil war inside the Republic. Barceló appointed himself as commander of the Army of the Centre, and his troops closed all the entrances to Madrid, occupied most of the city centre and detained and shot three of Casado's colonels. Casado's supporters held only some government buildings and the south-east of the city. Nevertheless, Mera's IV corps counterattacked and occupied Torrejón and Alcalá de Henares as the Nationalists started an offensive towards the Manzanares. By 10 March, Barceló's troops had been surrounded, and a ceasefire was arranged. On 11 March, after days of bloody combat, Casado, backed by the IV corps of Cipriano Mera, defeated Barceló's troops. Barceló and his commissar, José Conesa, were arrested and executed. There were hundreds of dead (Thomas: 230,