Antonio Tejero
Spanish Lieutenant-Colonel (1932–2026)
Antonio Tejero Molina (30 April 1932 – 25 February 2026) was a Spanish lieutenant colonel of the Guardia Civil. He was the most prominent figure in the failed coup d'état against the newly democratic Spanish government on 23 February 1981 when he stormed the Congress of Deputies with 200 armed Civil Guards. For this reason, he was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment for the crime of consummated military rebellion, with the aggravating circumstance of recidivism; he had previously been arrested for his involvement in the failed coup attempt during Operation Galaxia in 1978.
Early life
Tejero was born on 30 April 1932 in Alhaurín el Grande, province of Málaga, Spain. His parents had moved there shortly before Tejero was born, and his father began working at a military outpost. The family spent the early years of the Spanish Civil War there.
Military career
Tejero entered the Guardia Civil at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza on 23 July 1951. Tejero was promoted to lieutenant in 1955, remaining on compulsory leave in Melilla. In January 1956, he voluntarily took command of the Capellades line in Catalonia. He was promoted to captain in 1958 and posted to province of Pontevedra, where he remained until 1960 when he was transferred, at his own request, to the province of Málaga.
The public source identifies “Antonio Tejero” as spanish Lieutenant-Colonel (1932–2026). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Antonio, Tejero and Spanish.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q312749. VIAF identifies the subject as 197957448. The Library of Congress control number is no2022093315. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2026, 1981 and 1978.
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This entry incorporates text from “Antonio Tejero” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.