This week no relevant secrets about the 23-F coup d'état have been revealed, but it has left us with the hilarious phone conversations of Antonio Tejero's wife and a new strategic blunder by Alberto Núñez Feijóo for history. Carmen Díaz Pereira, Tejero's wife, discovered on the night of February 23rd what it feels like to be on the losing side. While half of Spain waits with bated breath to see if they will be rounded up like in 1936, this woman, sensing that the coup was failing, moved heaven and earth to try to get her husband out of the mess he had gotten into for being “a fool” and “an idiot”. “If they've left him like a cigarette butt. For God's sake. It's undignified”, she complains to General Fajardo. It's clear that she considers her husband an idealistic dreamer who has been tricked by some cowardly generals. “So good and so honest. Always with the homeland up, down [...] and all he wants is to end terrorism so that people live comfortably and in peace”, she tells a friend. “Have you seen what a disgusting army?”, she tells another. The friends she speaks to, presumably also military wives, try to encourage her by telling her that her husband is a “hero”, but she is suspicious. She knows, long before her husband does, how it will all end and that he will be a scapegoat. “A wretch” who has been “deceived”. Seen through these conversations, February 23rd becomes a sad Valle-Inclanesque farce. Of course, a farce that could have cost many lives.

After the 23-F coup attempt, only about thirty people involved in the uprising were tried, many of whom received full or partial pardons, or obtained reduced sentences and early release in the following years. Despite the gravity of the events, the Spanish government and part of the establishment argued that, after consolidating democracy, it was necessary to reduce tensions with the army.

In a twist of fate, Antonio Tejero, the former Civil Guard lieutenant colonel who led the 23-F coup attempt, died just hours after the Moncloa Palace declassified confidential documents related to that fateful day. He was 93 years old and never recanted or renounced his Francoist ideology. The analysis of the documents declassified on February 25, 45 years after the coup, does not fundamentally alter the account of events we already knew and confirms the key role of King Juan Carlos that night in persuading the main conspirators, especially General Jaime Milans del Bosch, who had deployed tanks to Valencia, to back down.

All the coup plotters claimed to be speaking on behalf of the king. This was the case with General Alfonso Armada, Lieutenant General Jaime Milans del Bosch, and Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero. But no one has ever been able to prove that they had Juan Carlos I's approval to attempt the coup d'état of February 23, 1981. The 153 documents declassified by the Spanish government this Wednesday, in fact, support the official narrative that the king was one of the saviors of democracy, the official title he was given from that day forward. The king spoke with Milans del Bosch and Armada to demand that they stand down, and his personal secretary, Sabino Fernández Campo, spoke with Tejero. who, in one of those coincidences that seem worthy of conspiracy theories, died this Wednesday at the age of 93

Three months before February 23rd, there were already rumors of sabers in Spain. Alfonso Suárez's government was weakened and, within the Civil Guard, ideas and plans were already circulating about how to sabotage the constitutional regime. Some of them are detailed in an unsigned document, dated November 1980, which is among those declassified this Wednesday —and that some books on February 23rd had already been hinting at—. According to this report, consulted by the ARA, the coup plotters had planned several roadmaps to get rid of Suárez and replace his government with one more in line with their interests, without going through the ballot boxes under any circumstances. And, within the various factions of the military, there was a group linked to Operation Galaxia —another coup d'état plan from 1978 which also featured Antonio Tejero as the protagonist— which planned to kill King Juan Carlos I if he did not align himself with the new regime on the day of the coup d'état.

Three months before February 23rd, there were already rumors of a coup attempt in Spain. Alfonso Suárez's government was weakened, and within the Civil Guard, ideas and plans were circulating about how to sabotage the constitutional regime. Some of these are detailed in an unsigned document, dated November 1980, which is among the documents declassified this Wednesday—and which some books about February 23rd had already hinted at. According to this report, consulted by ARA, the coup plotters had devised various roadmaps to get rid of Suárez and replace his government with a more sympathetic one, without going through the ballot box under any circumstances. And, within the various military factions, there was a group linked to Operation Galaxia—another coup attempt from 1978 that also featured Antonio Tejero—that planned to assassinate King Juan Carlos I if he did not align himself with the new regime.

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

This 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 wraps 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" that have already been made public. They can be viewed here.

On February 23, 1981, General Alfonso Armada entered Congress with a vision of a "national salvation government" and left under arrest after the coup attempt failed, due in part to infighting among the coup plotters. According to accounts published since then, that government would have included Armada himself as Prime Minister, along with the socialists Felipe González (Economic Vice President), Gregorio Peces-Barba (Justice), Javier Solana (Transport), and Enrique Múgica (Health); the communist deputies Jordi Solé Tura (Labor) and Ramón Tamames (Economy); from the UCD (Union of the Democratic Centre) Pío Cabanillas (Finance), José Luis Álvarez (Public Works), Miguel Herrero Rodríguez de Miñón (Education and Science), and Agustín Rodríguez (Industry); and from the Popular Alliance, Manuel Fraga (Defense) and Manuel Saavedra (Interior). Among those present were other military officers such as José Antonio Sáenz de Santamaría (Minister of Autonomy and Regions) and representatives of civil society, including the former Francoist minister José María López de Letona (Deputy Minister for Economic Affairs), Carlos Ferrer Salat (Minister of Commerce), Antonio Garrigues Walker (Minister of Culture), and Luis María Anson (Minister of Information).

In just a few days, we have received news of three people who almost 45 years ago were protagonists of the attempted coup d'état of February 23, 1981: Juan Carlos I, then head of state, who has published his memoirs with a French publisher, and Anna Balletbò, who on that February 23rd was a socialist deputy for Barcelona and died last October 24th at the age of 81.