Jaime Milans del Bosch

Jaime Milans del Bosch y Ussía (born June 8, 1915 in Madrid , † July 26, 1997 there ) was a Spanish lieutenant general .

Life

Born into a family with a long military tradition, Jaime Milans del Bosch y Ussía fought in the Spanish Civil War as an officer on the side of the insurgent army against the democratically elected republican government.

He became known internationally for his involvement in an attempted military coup in Spain on February 23, 1981 ( 23-F ). At that time, Lieutenant Colonel of the Guardia Civil Antonio Tejero stormed the Spanish Parliament in Madrid during the vote on the election of Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo . Shortly afterwards, Milans del Bosch declared a state of emergency in Valencia and launched tanks in the streets. He was the only general to take part in the coup. King Juan Carlos I , who had secured the support of the rest of the military and made this known in a televised address, ordered Milans del Bosch by telephone to withdraw his troops into the barracks. As a result, Milans del Bosch had to give up on the morning of February 24th.

On March 8, 1981, the trial began against him in a military court , which ended with the verdict on June 3, 1982. Milans del Bosch claimed in vain to have acted out of a “patriotic sense of responsibility”. He was sentenced to 26 years and eight months in prison, but was released after only nine years. He died in 1997 of a brain tumor.

literature

• Walther L. Bernecker : Spain's history since the civil war (= Beck'sche series. 284). 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-4064-2684-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ La celebración del recurso del 23-F . In: Ya , March 26, 1983, p. 10.
2. ↑ Jaime Milans del Bosch died . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1997, pp. 170 ( online ).