23-F
Antonio Tejero Molina (born 1932, Málaga) was a Spanish Lieutenant-Colonel, and the leader of an attempted coup d'etat of the Spanish Congress in 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 was known. His life is filled with pro-coup episodes, and he played an important role of the coups during the transición in San Sebastian, Málaga and Madrid. He was the captain-general of the third military region, until the event of 23-F took place.
23-F: The attempted coup, February 23, 1981
On February 23, 1981, at 6.21pm, Antonio Tejero together with a group of 200 Guardia Civil armed officers stormed into the Spanish Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Cortes. When they entered, the Congress was about to elect the new Prime Minister (Presidente del Gobierno) Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, who would take the place of Adolfo Suárez.
At the same time, many military leaders close to Tejero, led by General Miláns del Bosch, declared a state of emergency and ordered tanks out on the street in Valencia. After several hours, the King Juan Carlos held a televised speech at 01:14AM, voicing his condemnation of the coup and that Spain?s democratic process should continue peacefully. The occupants of the Congress surrendered the morning after without harming anyone, having held hostage Spain's parliament and Cabinet for 18 hours.
Aftermath
Tejero was arrested outside the Congress building, and both he and Miláns del Bosch were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Armada was arrested February 28, 1981, and sentenced to 6 years in prison. He was released December 24, 1988, insisting that he had been a victim of a conspiracy set up by Tejero. In all 30 of the 33 suspected set on trial for the attempted coup were convicted.
Alfonso Armada was released July 1, 1990, claiming he never did anything illegal. Tejero, being the last one left of the coup leaders in jail, was set free after 15 years from the military prison in Alcalá de Henares on December 2, 1996. He now lives in Alahurín de la Torre close to Malaga.
Later it has been known that the coup plans originated from Bosch. According to these plans, General
