The Armada's list: the 23F coup document that implicated four PSOE officials

To this day, there are still events related to our recent history that are classified as state secrets. One of them is the February 23rd coup d'état.

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Sánchez still has classified documents from the 23F

A few days ago, PSOE deputy Felipe Sicilia had the nerve to accuse the right of being behind the 23F, comparing the presentation of an appeal before the Constitutional Court with that coup d'état. That infamous statement not only demonstrates the insulting attitude of the PSOE, but also its colossal cynicism, if we take into account that 42 years after those events, the Sánchez government still keeps secret documents relating to that coup. What does it have to hide? It doesn't take much to get an idea.

The proposal of the number 3 of the PSOE on a government headed by a military man

Of course, the PSOE should be the least appropriate party to discuss this coup. Let's remember that the 23F coup was committed against a centrist UCD government, and the PSOE deputies hid in their seats. Only two people present in Congress dared to stand up to the coup plotters: the then Prime Minister, Adolfo Suárez, and First Vice President Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado. Regarding the situation at that time, former Catalan president Jordi Pujol wrote in his memoirs: "The PSOE was genuinely obsessed with bringing down Suárez. Proof of this is the visit that the prominent socialist leader Enrique Múgica made to my house in Premià de Dalt at the end of the summer of 1980 to ask me how we would view the resignation of the Prime Minister and his replacement by a democratically-minded military man."

Enrique Múgica was then the number 3 of the PSOE, denied having made such a proposal. The fact is that thanks to Dr. Carmen Echave, who was in Congress on 23F and witnessed a conversation between Antonio Tejero and General Alfonso Armada, the list of names of a concentration government planned by Armada and headed by himself became known, a list confirmed by a Civil Guard officer present at that conversation.

Four PSOE leaders appeared as ministers on Armada's list

Significantly, four senior PSOE officials appeared on the list: Felipe González (then Secretary General of the PSOE and President of the Government between 1982 and 1996, who appeared on the list as Political Vice President), Gregorio Peces-Barba (then PSOE MP and President of the Congress of Deputies between 1982 and 1986, who appeared on the list as Minister of Justice), Javier Solana (then PSOE MP and close collaborator of Felipe González, in whose governments he held various positions from 1982 to 1995; he appeared on the list as Minister of Transport and Communications) and the aforementioned Enrique Múgica (also a PSOE MP and number 3 in the party and who would be Minister of Justice under Felipe González between 1988 and 1991; he appeared on the list as Minister of Health).

The list included six left-wing politicians and only two right-wing politicians.

Likewise, the list also included two leaders of the Spanish Communist Party: Jordi Solé Tura (then a PCE deputy and who would be Minister of Culture under Felipe González between 1991 and 1993) and Ramón Tamames (then a PCE deputy). As can be seen, Armada's list included six left-wing politicians, four UCD politicians, three military officers, and only two right-wing politicians: the then president of Alianza Popular, Manuel Fraga, and José María de Areilza. Both were then deputies for the Democratic Coalition.

The big question is whether the still-classified documents would confirm the authenticity of that list and the possible involvement of the PSOE in the 23F, a coup that this party now so cynically attributes to the right. Coincidentally, it is a government with members of the PSOE and the PCE that keeps these documents secret, which would allow us to confirm whether those two parties would have benefited from half a dozen positions in a coalition government imposed through an armed rebellion. Once again, I repeat: What does this government have to hide about the 23F?
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Photo: Hernandez de León/Efe. Suárez and Gutiérrez Mellado confronting the coup plotters who had just stormed the Congress of Deputies on February 23, 1981.