"At 6.23pm, some 250 civil guards burst into the semi-circular chamber of the lower house during the investiture of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo as the new prime minister. For 18 hours the entire parliament was held hostage until a negotiated surrender the following morning; the Communist party leader Santiago Carrillo said he had expected to be shot."
"Pistol in hand, Tejero strode to the rostrum shouting Quieto todo el mundo! (No-one move!). A few minutes later, with shots fired into the ceiling since conserved to commemorate the defeat of the coup he screamed the notorious phrase Se sienten, cono! (Sit down, fuck it!)."
"There were three main conspirators, Tejero, General Jaime Milans del Bosch, the head of the army in Valencia, who brought the tanks out on to the streets of the eastern city, and General Alfonso Armada. That night, Armada went to the congress, ostensibly to negotiate with Tejero and protect the kidnapped members of parliament."
On February 23, 1981, Lt Col Antonio Tejero led an armed assault on Spain's parliament during the investiture of Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. Approximately 250 civil guards burst into the chamber, taking the entire parliament hostage for 18 hours until a negotiated surrender the following morning. The coup attempt involved three main conspirators: Tejero, General Jaime Milans del Bosch who deployed tanks in Valencia, and General Alfonso Armada who attempted to negotiate while falsely suggesting King Juan Carlos supported the insurrection. The coup followed a year of democratic crisis marked by Basque terrorist attacks, economic decline, and calls for military intervention. King Juan Carlos appeared on television at 1:12 am in military uniform to condemn the insurrection, effectively ending the coup attempt.
#spanish-coup-attempt-1981 #military-insurrection #democratic-crisis #king-juan-carlos-intervention #parliamentary-hostage-crisis
Read at www.theguardian.com
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