Antonio Tejero

Antonio Tejero Molina (born 30 April 1932) is a Spanish former Lieutenant Colonel of the Guardia Civil, and the most prominent figure in the failed coup d'état against Spanish democracy on 23 February 1981.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Tejero and the second or maternal family name is Molina.
Antonio Tejero
Born (1932-04-30) 30 April 1932
Alhaurín el Grande, Spain
Allegiance Spain
Service/branch Guardia Civil
Years of service1951–1981
RankLieutenant Colonel

Career

Tejero entered the Guardia Civil in 1951, with the rank of Lieutenant and was sent to Catalonia. In 1958 he was promoted to Captain, and was posted to Galicia, Vélez-Málaga and the Canary Islands. In 1963, he was promoted to Major, and served in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Badajoz. In 1974, he became a Lieutenant Colonel, serving as the leader of the Comandancia in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, but had to ask to be transferred to another region when his public declarations against the Basque flag, the Ikurriña, became known.[1][2] For his accomplishments in the Basque country, and in combating the ETA, he was named Chief of the Planning Staff of the Civil Guard in Madrid. But along the way, he had also begun to accumulate a record of incidents of dissent.[3] ETA terrorists used putting Ikurriñas with an attached bomb; when policemen went to remove the flag, bombs exploded, several Guardia Civil died this way. When Ikurriña was 'legalized', he sent a telegram to Madrid, asking if he should pay honors to Ikurriña. In Malaga, he ordered or took main part in a military deployment around all town, close to a seizing.

In 1978, Tejero, Police Captain Ricardo Sáenz de Ynestrillas and an Army General Staff colonel, whose name has not been made public, attempted a coup d'état, known as Operation Galaxia. He was condemned to prison for mutiny after the collapse of the attempted coup. Tejero was in prison seven months and seven days.

Attempted 1981 coup
Main article: 23-F

On 23 February 1981, Tejero entered the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, with 150 Guardia Civil and soldiers and held the congressmen hostage for some 22 hours. King Juan Carlos gave, around midnight, when it was clear that no more army units joined the putsch, a nationally televised address denouncing the coup and urging the maintenance of law and the continuance of the democratically elected government. The following day the coup leaders surrendered to the police.[2] The Tejero statement about was: 'We received a country in perfect condition, we are obliged handing it same to our offspring'

Life after jail sentence

Tejero created the Spanish Solidarity party in order to run in the 1982 general election. With a total of 28,451 votes all over the country, it failed to obtain parliamentary representation.[4] He was the last of the coup participants to be released from jail on 2 December 1996, having then served 15 years in the military prison at Alcalá de Henares. He lives in Torre del Mar in the Province of Málaga. In 2006, he wrote to the newspaper Melilla Hoy, calling for a referendum on the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) proposals for giving a new measure of autonomy to Catalonia.[5] Following the death of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 2006, Tejero attended a Pinochet homage in Madrid.[6] In 2009, Tejero's son, Ramón Tejero Díez, wrote to the conservative newspaper ABC describing his father as a sincere religious man who was trying to do his best for Spain.[7]

As of 2018, Tejero resides in Madrid and Torre del Mar, Málaga, and he works as an artist doing paintings.[8] On 23 February 2018 he attended the funeral of The 1st Duchess of Franco.[9] On 29 May 2018 a rumour about his death was distributed by the Spanish Armed Forces.[10] It was denied by his son.[11]

References
  1. Staff (23 February 1981). "1981: Rebel army seizes control in Spain". BBC News, archived at BBC On This Day. BBC. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  2. Staff (25 February 1981). "Detenidos el teniente coronel Tejero y los jefes y oficiales que secundaron el golpe militar". ELPAÍS.com (in Spanish). Madrid: Edicíones El País. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  3. Staff (24 February 1981). "El teniente coronel Tejero, una biografía repleta de incidentes". ELPAÍS.com (in Spanish). Madrid: Edicíones El País. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  4. Amiguet, Teresa (4 June 2017). "3-F: El juicio. ¿Qué fue de los golpistas?". La Vanguardia.
  5. Staff (23 February 2006). "Tejero, 25 años después". Elmundo.es (in Spanish). Madrid: Mundinteractivos, S.A. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  6. "Viudos de Franco" homenajearon a Pinochet en España Archived 2015-02-05 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Staff (June 2010). "Antonio Tejero: "Hijo, por Dios y por Ella hago lo que tengo que hacer..."". 20minutos.es (in Spanish). Madrid: Multiprensa y Mas, S.L. C.I.F. Retrieved 14 August 2010.
  8. "Así es la vida de Antonio Tejero 37 años después del golpe de Estado del 23F: jubilado y artista". La Sexta Noticias (in Spanish). Madrid: Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, S.A. 22 February 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  9. "Equipo de Investigación localiza al teniente coronel Tejero, el hombre que asaltó el Congreso el 23F". La Sexta Noticias (in Spanish). Madrid: Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, S.A. 23 February 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  10. "El teniente coronel Tejero no ha muerto, según su hijo". El Plural (in Spanish). 29 May 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  11. "El hijo de Antonio Tejero niega que su padre haya muerto". El Confidencial Digital (in Spanish). 29 May 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
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