"If we condemn them all, we will be left without an army": how those involved in 23-F ended up pardoned or with reduced sentences

After the coup d'état of February 23, those involved in the revolt received total or partial pardons, or obtained sentence reductions and early release in the following years. Despite the seriousness of the events, the Spanish government and part of the establishment argued that, after consolidating democracy, it was necessary to lower the tension with the army.

"The sentences were relatively low for what had been done, but it was already agreed in the surrender pact, the so-called pact of the head, in which Tejero demanded that the assailants with ranks lower than lieutenant should not even be tried and it was accepted," says journalist Andreu Farràs, co-author of the book El 23-F a Catalunya. The screenwriter of El 23-F des de dins" (Ondas Award 2001) recalls the words of the then Minister of Defense, Alberto Oliart: "We will be left without an army if we condemn them all."

Next, we review what the sentences imposed on the coup plotters were and what they finally served. Sentences that were initially even lower, but which the Supreme Court, through the father of the current president of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, appealed and managed to extend because the three main instigators of the coup, Alfonso Armada, Antonio Tejero and Jaime Milans del Bosch, had been sentenced to between three and six years in prison by the military court.

Antonio Tejero, the lieutenant colonel of the Civil Guard who stormed Congress, was sentenced to 30 years in prison as the main promoter of the coup d'état. He was not fully pardoned, but he did receive prison benefits and was released on parole in 1996, long before completing his full sentence. In total, he spent 13 years incarcerated, as he entered prison in 1983. In 1993, the council of ministers had denied him a pardon, but granted him third-degree prison status and open regime.

Jaime Milans del Bosch, the captain general who brought tanks to the streets of Valencia, was also sentenced to 30 years. He was not fully pardoned either; however, he received sentence reductions and was released in 1991 for health reasons, after spending only 9 years and 121 days in prison and without renouncing the coup d'état.

Alfonso Armada, the general who intended to lead a government of concentration, who was also sentenced to the same years in prison, was partially pardoned in 1988 and was released from prison shortly after – he had entered in 1983. The pardon was granted by Felipe González's government for health reasons and because he accepted the Constitution.

Several lower-ranking officers (colonels, commanders, and captains) also received partial pardons or sentence reductions during the 1980s.

Ricardo Pardo Zancada, infantry commander, sentenced to 6 years in prison, extended to 12 by the Supreme Court, benefited from parole in 1987. A year later, Luis Torres Rojas, division general and military governor of La Coruña, who had been sentenced with the same extended sentence as Pardo, was also released.

The colonel Miguel Manchado García, sentenced to 6 years, extended to 8 by the Supreme Court, was released on parole in 1985. Diego Ibáñez Inglés, engineer colonel and deputy chief of staff of the third Military Region, sentenced to 5 years, extended to 10 by the Supreme Court, died in 1987 and was therefore the only convicted person to die in prison.

José Ignacio San Martín López, artillery colonel and chief of staff of the Armored Division Brunete, was sentenced to 6 years, extended to 10 by the Supreme Court, and was released on parole in 1986.

Pedro Mas Oliver, lieutenant colonel of Infantry, right-hand man of Milans del Bosch, was sentenced to 6 years and was released after serving three-quarters of his sentence. The captains Jesús Nines Aguilar and José Luis Abad Gutiérrez, sentenced to 5 years, were also released under the same condition as Mas.

Captain and CESID agent, Vicente Gómez Iglesias, sentenced to 6 years in prison, was the only coup plotter pardoned, along with Alfonso Armada. In his case, the pardon arrived in 1984 after an express declaration of acceptance of the Constitution and laws, being the first convicted of the 1981 coup d'état to obtain this benefit.

Members of the armed forces and the Civil Guard, involved in the coup d'état, did not go to prison and were only suspended from duty. This was the case of infantry captains Carlos Alvárez-Arenas Pardinas, José Pascual Gálvez, and Francisco Dusmet García-Figueras, or the intendancy captain, José Cid Fortea, suspended from duty for between two and three years. Civil Guard captains were also suspended from duty for one to three years, in a case where the majority of members of this corps involved in the uprising – about 200 uniformed personnel participated – were not even tried.

As a result of the agreement between Tejero and the Spanish government to prevent lieutenants from having to go to prison, six of those who played a more active role, such as César Álvarez Fernández, Vicente Ramos Rueda, or Manuel Boza Carranco, were only sentenced to 1 year in prison and avoided entering prison. The only civilian involved in the coup also avoided it: Juan García Carrés, former leader of the Francoist Vertical Syndicates, who was sentenced to 2 years and died at his home in 1986.

Three members of the Armed Forces were acquitted during the trial. They were José Luis Cortina Prieto, infantry commander and Head of the Operational Group for Special Missions of CESID; Juan Batista González, artillery captain; and Civil Guard captain, Francisco Ignacio Román. "The latter two because they withdrew from the rebellion in time, and Cortina because there was no irrefutable evidence, according to the sentence, even though CESID agents, who would later be purged, accused him of being in the conspiracy," points out Farràs.