US EditionAntonio Tejero, Former Spanish Lieutenant Colonel Who Led Failed Military Coup, Dies at 93
Antonio Tejero, who led the 1981 armed coup holding lawmakers hostage for 18 hours, died aged 93 as Spain released key declassified documents on the event.
- On February 25, the family and their law firm said Antonio Tejero Molina, the former Guardia Civil lieutenant colonel, died peacefully in Alzira at age 93.
- On Feb. 23, 1981, Tejero led about 200 armed civil guards into the Congreso de los Diputados to interrupt the session to swear in Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, driven by officers nostalgic for Franco-era privileges.
- Television cameras showed Tejero waving a pistol and wearing the Guardia Civil tricorn hat as officers fired and lawmakers took cover during nearly 18 hours of live broadcasts of the siege.
- Courts sentenced him to 30 years for military rebellion, and he served roughly 15 years before conditional liberty and expulsion from the Civil Guard.
- Tejero's death coincided with the Spanish government declassifying documents on the 23-F coup, which historians say underscored the fragility of democracy, while Javier Cercas's book 'Anatomy of an Instant' details the event that turned into 'the founding myth of Spanish democracy'.
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116 Articles
The Spanish Government has so far published secret documents on the attempted overthrow in 1981.
Spain's government has so far published secret documents on the attempted overthrow of 23 February 1981.
Man behind Spain’s 1981 coup attempt dies as 23-F files are reopened
Antonio Tejero Molina, the former lieutenant colonel of the Guardia Civil whose armed seizure of the Spanish Parliament on 23 February 1981 became one of the most consequential episodes in modern Spanish history, has died at the age of 93. The family announced his death on February 25, a day that also saw the Spanish government make public previously classified documents on the failed coup attempt. Source
Antonio Tejero Dies, Live: Declassified Documents of the Coup D'état, Last Hour of 23f and Reactions
Antonio Tejero, who was lieutenant colonel of the Civil Guard and one of the most recognizable faces of the 23-F of 1981, has died at age 93.The last time Tejero could be seen publicly was on October 24, 2019, when the remains of Francisco Franco del Valle de los Caídos were exhumed and the veteran head of the Benemerita approached the surroundings of the camposanto de Mingorrubio, where he was conmined by the Security Forces to retire to a disc…
Six years after Franco's death, the fledgling Spanish democracy was nearly nipped in the bud. Antonio Tejero Molina became the face of the "founding myth of Spanish democracy."
Antonio Tejero Molina, the Spanish Civil Service officer who conducted a failed coup attempt in 1981, died at the age of 93, according to a family lawyer's announcement,...
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