| 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 |
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| Born | April 30, 1932 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 visible figure in the attempted coup d'état – also known as the 'Tejerazo' – against the Spanish democracy on 23 February 1981.
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. At 1978 he, along 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 Galaxy, 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.
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]
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 present hostage for some 22 hours. The following day they surrendered to the police.[2] Previously, Tejero had been involved in several coup attempts and acts of disobedience, including Operation Galaxia, which led to a short prison sentence in 1980.[3]
Tejero was the last of the coup leaders to be released from jail on 2 December 1996, having 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 new measures 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]