The Government announces, 45 years after the coup attempt, the declassification of the 23-F documents | Spain

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Monday, 45 years after , that he will declassify the documents related to 23-F “to settle a debt with the citizens.” “Memory cannot be kept under lock and key. Democracies must know their past to build a freer future,” he said in a message from X in which he thanks the writer Javier Cercas, author of the book Anatomy of a momentwhich has opened that path by requesting that declassification of information. On the same social network, the PP has been quick to describe the announcement as a “smokescreen.”

From various political groups, a good part of the delay in the approval of the law on official secrets has been attributed to these documents, a project that has been debated on numerous occasions in the Cortes, especially at the request of the PNV, without so far a rule that repeals the current one, which dates from the Franco dictatorship, has been approved.

On the 40th anniversary of the coup attempt, which includes all the statements and interrogations of those involved: almost 13,000 pages about the 18 hours in which Spain held its breath, in February 1981, waiting for an alleged white elephant The pages of the summary of the case opened by the Supreme Council of Military Justice allowed the protagonists to be heard from within the chamber and to reconstruct 23-F from the preparatory meetings. In the first interrogations, Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero declared: “General [Alfonso] Armada told me that there should be no bloodshed under any circumstances. That once we entered, the cry should be ‘Long live the King! Long live Spain!’ and that at all times I had to let the deputies know that we were at the King’s orders. We were going to be alone for two hours. Then the competent military authority would arrive.” But what was intended to be a “soft” blow was twisted and lengthened. The judicial investigation reveals why.

Tejero has already been sentenced to seven months in prison for conspiracy to rebel for his participation in another coup d’état plan in 1978 (Operation Galaxy), and in one of the interrogations by 23-F he explained that since he left prison, in May 1980, he had tried to “maintain contact with soldiers with a similar concern”, such as Lieutenant General Jaime Milans del Bosch. He, in turn, held similar conversations with General Armada, “and because of them,” as he declared, “he assumed that it was with the knowledge of His Majesty.” of which he had been preceptor, and blamed Adolfo Suárez for his replacement as secretary of the Monarch. The sentence ruled out that the King was involved in any way in the coup attempt, sentenced Milans and Tejero to 30 years in prison for military rebellion and Armada to six for conspiracy to rebel, but accused him of a “double game” and of being “the main beneficiary.” Milans was released from prison in 1990. Tejero, in 1996. The Supreme Court alleged, among others, health reasons. Juan Carlos I signed the proposal for the measure of grace the day before Christmas Eve. Armada died in December 2013, at the age of 93.

The preparations

On January 10, 1981, they had met in Valencia to prepare the coup. “Armada,” Milans said, “said that the King was already fed up with Suárez and that he was looking at the possibility of changing him as president. That they could not find anyone suitable. That the King was leaning towards a government of civilians and the Queen, apparently, towards one of the military. That they also talked about the possibility of there being some violent action, to which the King had said, exactly, that ‘we would have to see a way to redirect it.’ Asked by the prosecutor if in his meeting with Armada the occupation of Congress was discussed, Milans answered yes, but that there were less violent solutions, that is, for Armada to preside over a new Government.

Tejero stated during interrogations that just a few days before the coup he met with Armada in an apartment in Madrid. “He asks me if the whole operation is ready. I tell him yes, that he is ready to take Congress on Monday around 6:15 or 6:30 p.m. He answers that at 6:10 p.m., that in these operations even seconds count. He tells me that the King was fully convinced of the need for this action, but that nevertheless, as he is somewhat fickle, his command post, that of General Armada, would be from the time of the taking of the Congress in La Zarzuela, next to the King [no fue así y cuando pidió ir, se le negó el permiso]. “He hugged me, wishing me luck and stressed to me several times that this was in defense of democracy.”

Milans, for his part, stated before the military justice that, after the resignation of Suárez, when and that of Oliart as Minister of Defense”, it seemed to him “a good solution”, but that Armada told him: “I have not been able to stop Tejero, this is done.”