Antonio Tejero, the former Spanish lieutenant colonel who led a failed attempt to roll back Spain’s transition to democracy in 1981, died at 93, according to a statement from a law firm representing his family. The firm said Tejero died Wednesday evening in Alzira, a town in Spain’s eastern region.
The 1981 coup attempt erupted on Feb. 23, when Tejero stormed Spain’s parliament alongside about 200 armed civil guards, in what was viewed as the last and most serious effort to undo the transition that began after dictator Gen. Francisco Franco died in 1975. The seizure interrupted proceedings as Parliament faced the vote to swear in Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo as Spain’s prime minister.
During the dramatic 18 hours that followed, Tejero and the other guardsmen held members of Parliament and ministers hostage. Images of the episode were widely seen on television in Spain, including officers firing guns in Parliament and lawmakers taking cover under their desks.
Tejero shouted “Everyone, freeze!” while waving a pistol as he seized Parliament, wearing the patent leather tricorn hat of Spain’s civil guard gendarmerie police force, according to the account in the report. The episode became one of the defining moments of that period in Spain’s modern political history.
Tejero also had been involved in a separate attempted putsch in 1978. For the 1981 coup attempt, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and served about half that time, the report said.
After his release, Tejero divided his time between his native Málaga in southern Spain and Madrid, Spain’s El País newspaper reported, according to the account. The law firm said in its statement that Tejero died “peacefully, surrounded by his entire family and after receiving the holy sacraments.”