Antonio Tejero

Antonio Tejero
Antonio Tejero with a gun in his hand, breaking into the Spanish Congress of Deputies on February 23, 1981 (23-F), attempting a coup. Below to the right is the defence minister Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado
Born	(1932-04-30) April 30, 1932 (age 80) Alhaurín el Grande, Spain
Allegiance	Spain
Service/branch	Guardia Civil
Years of service	1951–1981
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel

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

He entered the Guardia Civil in 1951 and was the leader of the Comandancia in Guipúzcoa, but had to ask to be transferred to another region when his public declarations against the Ikurriña became known.^[1][2]

Career

In 1955 Lieutenant Tejero was assigned to Catalonia. In 1958 he was promoted to Captain and assigned to Galicia, then to Vélez-Málaga and at 1963 he was promoted to Major, serving in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and in Badajoz. In 1974 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and appointed to head the Comandancias of Álava and Guipuscoa. For his accomplishments in Vascongadas, and in combating the ETA, he was named Chief of the Planning Staff of the Civil Guard in Madrid.

In 1978 he, with Police Captain Ricardo Sánez de Ynestrillas and an Army General Staff Colonel, whose name is unknown, attempted a coup d'état, known as Operation Galaxia, against the Spanish government. He was condemned to prison for mutiny after the collapse of the attempted coup d'état. Tejero was in prison seven months and seven days, and expelled from the Civil Guard.

Attempted coup

On 23 February 1981, he entered the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, with 200 Guardia Civil and soldiers and held the deputies hostage for some 22 hours. King Juan Carlos I gave 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] Tejero had been involved previously in several coup attempts and acts of disobedience.^[3]

Tejero was the last of the coup leaders 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 Mellila Hoy, calling for a referendum on the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) proposals for giving a new measure of autonomy to Catalonia.^[4] 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.^[5]

See also

• 23-F attempted coup d'état

References

External links

• Antonio Tejero at Encyclopædia Britannica