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Antonio Tejero | |
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 Antonio Tejero with a gun in his hand, breaking into theSpanish Congress of Deputies on 23 February 1981 attempting acoup. | |
| Born | (1932-04-30)30 April 1932 (age 93) Alhaurín el Grande, Spain |
| Allegiance |  Spain |
| Branch | .svg) Guardia Civil |
| Years of service | 1951–1981 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
Antonio Tejero Molina (born 30 April 1932) is a Spanish formerlieutenant colonel of theGuardia Civil. He was the most prominent figure in the failedcoup d'état against thenewly democraticSpanish government on 23 February 1981 when he stormed theCongress of Deputies with 200 armed Civil Guards. For this reason, he was sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment for the crime of consummatedmilitary rebellion, with the aggravating circumstance of recidivism, but was pardoned by the government of Prime MinisterFelipe González few years later.
He had previously been arrested for his involvement in the failed coup attempt duringOperation Galaxia in 1978.
Tejero was born on 30 April 1932 inAlhaurín el Grande,Province of Málaga,Spain.[1][2] His parents had moved there shortly before Tejero was born, and his father began working at a military outpost.[3] The family spent the early years of theSpanish Civil War there.[2]
He entered theGuardia Civil at theGeneral Military Academy inZaragoza on 23 July 1951.[2] Tejero was promoted to lieutenant in 1955, remaining on compulsory leave inMelilla.[2] In January 1956, he voluntarily took command of theCapellades line inCatalonia.[2] He was promoted to captain in 1958 and posted toProvince of Pontevedra, where he remained until 1960 when he was transferred, at his own request, toProvince of Málaga.[2]
In 1963, he was promoted tomajor, and served inLas Palmas de Gran Canaria andBadajoz.[2]
In 1974, he became a lieutenant colonel, serving as the leader of theComandancia in theBasque province ofGuipúzcoa, but had to ask to be transferred to another region when his public declarations against the Basque flag, theIkurriña, became known.[4][5] For his accomplishments in the Basque Country, and in combatingETA, he was named Chief of the Planning Staff of the Civil Guard inMadrid. But during his career, he had also begun to accumulate a record of dissent.[6] ETA militants would rig bombs to Ikurriñas; when police officers tried to remove the flag, the bombs exploded, killing several Guardia Civil officers. When the Ikurriña was 'legalized', Tejero sent a telegram to Madrid, asking if he should pay honors to the Ikurriña. InMalaga, he ordered or took a major part in a military deployment around the town during the seizure of a flag.
In 1978, Tejero, along with Police CaptainRicardo Sáenz de Ynestrillas Martínez [es] and an Army General Staff colonel, whose name was never made public, attempted a coup, known asOperation Galaxia. Tejero was sentenced to a short prison term for mutiny after the collapse of the attempted coup. He was in prison for seven months and seven days.
On 23 February 1981, Tejero entered theCongress of Deputies, the lower house of theSpanish Parliament, with 150 Guardia Civil members and soldiers and held the congress members hostage for some 22 hours. Around midnight, when it became clear that no further army units had joined the putsch, KingJuan Carlos I gave a nationally televised address denouncing the coup and urging the preservation of law and continuance of the democratically elected government. The following day, coup leaders surrendered and were brutally beaten and arrested by the police.[5]
Held in jail after the coup attempt, Tejero founded theSpanish Solidarity party to run in the1982 general election and obtainparliamentary immunity. With a nationwide total of28,451 votes (0.14% of votes cast), the party failed to obtain parliamentary representation.[7] Tejero was the last of the coup participants to be released from jail on 3 December 1996, having then served 15 years in theAlcalá de Henares military prison. He lived inTorre del Mar in theProvince of Málaga. In 2006, he wrote to the newspaperMelilla Hoy, calling for a referendum onSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) proposals granting a new measure of autonomy toCatalonia.[8] Following the death of Chilean dictatorAugusto Pinochet in 2006, Tejero attended a Pinochet homage in Madrid.[9] In 2009, Tejero's son, Ramón Tejero Díez, wrote to the conservative newspaperABC describing his father as a sincere religious man who was trying to do his best for Spain.[10]
As of 2018, Tejero was residing inMadrid and Torre del Mar, and was working as apainter.[11] On 23 February 2018, he attended the funeral of the1st Duchess of Franco.[12] On 29 May 2018, a rumour of Tejero's death was spread and hailed bySpanish militaryveterans and supporters,[13] but was quickly refuted by his son.[14]
On 24 October 2019, at the age of 87, Tejero took part in a protest against the reburial of the remains ofFrancisco Franco in Madrid.[15]
On 23 October 2025, news spread again that Tejero had died. His son denied Tejero's death while acknowledging that he is hospitalized in a critical condition.[16][17]
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