"The lessons of February 23rd protect us from the mistakes of the past": Moncloa publishes the declassification order in the Official State Gazette

BarcelonaThis week marks the 45th anniversary of the attempted coup of February 23rd and the Spanish government has decided that it was time to declassify the documentation which has been kept under lock and key for years. The order to lift the secrecy order was published early this morning. This Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE)The document justifies the need to make public the "matters, documents, information, data, and objects" related to the military uprising led by Antonio Tejero, Alfonso Armada, and Jaime Milans del Bosch. These are 153 "documentary units" which, according to the Spanish government's forecast, will be available for consultation this afternoon through the Moncloa website.

"Understanding the lessons of February 23rd contributes to protecting our society from repeating past mistakes and strengthens the quality of our democratic system," argues the Sánchez government in the declassification order published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). The decision is based on the rights to freedom of information, communication, and receiving truthful information, as well as the public's right of access to administrative archives and records. The document also emphasizes that the fact that almost half a century has passed since February 23rd eliminates any "risk" that the declassification might pose to the security and defense of the State. The executive also points out that other countries in the region, such as Italy and Greece, have recently declassified "sensitive files" to "promote a more complete understanding of their history," and that in 2012 Germany released the transcript of a private meeting between its ambassador and Juan Carlos I precisely about the 23-F coup attempt. "Knowledge of our collective history cannot depend on information revealed by other states: citizens have the right to access their past through their own institutions," asserts the Spanish government, which also justifies the measure by citing repeated requests from the academic and journalistic communities and numerous parliamentary parties. The role of Juan Carlos I

Many questions remain unanswered to understand how that military operation 45 years ago was planned, who knew about it, and why it failed. Well, there's one question that has lingered over the State for years and, to this day, remains unresolved: What role did King Juan Carlos I play?

One of the defining images of that day was the monarch's address: in the early hours of the morning, dressed as Captain General, Juan Carlos appeared before the cameras to call for "calm" and, to dispel any "confusion," to make it clear that he had ordered the civil and military authorities to preserve "constitutional order." Before that, however, he had spent the day making calls, following weeks marked by the resignation of Alfonso Suárez as Prime Minister of Spain and the first failed investiture session of Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. Some of the calls are known, such as the one he had with the then-President of the Generalitat, Jordi Pujol, to whom he uttered the phrase—"Relax, Jordi, relax"—which would become famous. Others have remained completely shrouded in secrecy. Of all those calls, one is key. While Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero stormed the Congress and Lieutenant General Jaime Milans launched a military offensive on Valencia, General Alfonso Armada, the third pillar of the coup operation, picked up the phone and dialed the Zarzuela Palace. Armada was no ordinary military officer: he had been the King's instructor and Secretary General of the Royal Household until 1977. Various journalistic and historical accounts portray him as a military man with political ambitions, who had wanted to lead a coalition government that excluded the nationalist parties.

What did the King and Armada discuss on February 23rd? The most official account available so far is the one that emerged during the trial of the thirty people convicted for the coup attempt, with sentences of up to 30 years in prison for Tejero, Milans, and Armada. During the investigation, Sabino Fernández, who was the Secretary General of the Royal Household on February 23rd, testified that there had been a conversation between the King and Armada and that, afterward, Juan Carlos I handed him the phone. Armada allegedly told him that he was willing to "sacrifice himself" and assume the presidency of the Spanish government to avoid a "bloody end." Fernández simply told him that, if he did so, he could not claim the action in the King's name. But he also wanted to make it clear in his testimony that the idea of ​​the general going to Congress did not originate with him. "I had no decision-making power whatsoever, and on all occasions I acted on the orders and in the name of His Majesty," he stated.

Who gave the order?

Was it, then, the king who did it? Sabino Fernández couldn't clarify this because he wasn't called as a witness at the trial. The official version that appears in the sentence is that this authorization came from General José Gabeiras, Chief of Staff. Well, what Juan Carlos I recounts about this episode in his memoirs also doesn't coincide with what Fernández said. According to the emeritus king's account, what he conveyed to Armada was the following: "I'm not giving you any permission, and don't go there [to Congress] in my name." There's also no record of the meetings that Armada—pardoned after five years in prison—may have had with the monarch around that time.

There's still more information that suggests the events didn't go as smoothly as Juan Carlos described them in his book,Reconciliation"These are audio recordings from the 90s where he can be heard discussing the play with his lover Bárbara Rey." published by OKDiario"I laugh, dear, by Alfonso Armada. Seven years in prison, he has gone to his parents' house in Galicia and the uncle He has never said a word."

The version of those convicted for the 23-F coup attempt leaves even less room for interpretation. During the 23-F trial, Milans testified that Armada, Tejero, and he—and others he declined to name—had prepared the coup out of "patriotism" and that Armada had promised them the king was aware of it. Over the years, Tejero became more explicit about the king's alleged role in the coup, corroborating Milans's account and going even further: "I screwed King Juan Carlos over. He and General Alfonso Armada had a government prepared to his liking. But they needed a military officer to carry out the coup. That was me," he said. in a telephone interview given to El Español. Tejero, who was 91 years old at the time of this interview, argued that he refused because of his desire to include left-wing parties in that government as well.