The Association of Spanish Military Officers (AME) published a manifesto yesterday in which a group of fifty retired senior officers demand that active members of the armed forces dismiss the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. A call to carry out a coup d'état – although without expressly mentioning it – to “prevent” “citizens” from the “seriousness of the current situation.”
Military sources explain that the manifesto has been in the works for weeks among its promoters, who yesterday used the AME website to make it public, but without the identities of the signatories. However, La Vanguardia has had access to the list of 56 military commanders who – for now – have adhered to the text. All of them are retired, so the disciplinary regime of the armed forces cannot be applied to them. Of course, they sign the manifesto – with names and surnames – identifying themselves with their military employment.
It is headed by retired major general Yago Fernández de Bobadilla Bufalá. There are two more division generals: Antonio Valderrábano López and Luis Palacios Zuasti. From there, and going down the ranks, there are also: brigadier generals, colonels, lieutenant colonels, commanders and captains. The largest group of signatories is made up of the colonels, with up to twenty. There is no one from the Navy.
Some of the retired soldiers who signed the coup document were part of the “La XIX del Aire” chat, in which it was commented that there was “no choice” but to start “shooting 26 million sons of bitches.” That transcended in 2020 and it was the Ministry of Defense, led by Margarita Robles, who informed the Prosecutor's Office of that chat of retired military personnel. The public ministry ended up archiving the proceedings considering that the content was private. Yesterday, after learning of the coup manifesto, this newspaper contacted the department headed by Robles, obtaining silence in response.
In the text, dated this Thursday, the day in which Sánchez left Congress invested as president, the Francoist military declare themselves “concerned about the future of Spain”, denounce the “harassment of the rule of law by taking over executive power.” the majority of judicial bodies”, which “annuls the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers.” And from there they make their particular diagnosis of the country's situation; from the appointment of the president of the Constitutional Court to Spain's turn in the Sahara issue, passing through the amnesty law and the transfer that he made from the Ministry of Defense of a shooting range in Navarra.
The promoters of the document denounce that the Constitutional Court is now made up of magistrates who have held “relevant political positions” in the government, “which nullifies” the neutrality of the guarantee body. They do not mention that the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) continues to have a conservative court after five years with its mandate expired due to the Popular Party's refusal to renew it. They say that the State Attorney General's Office is “prone to the permanent assumption of the dictates” of the government.
A good part of the manifesto is dedicated to the Catalan question. They criticize the pardons that the government granted to the leaders of the process, whom it calls "criminals of the October 2017 coup d'état." They also have criticism for the suppression of the crime of sedition and the reform of embezzlement, but above all for the future amnesty law, which they say has no place in the Constitution because, in their opinion, it will eliminate equality before the law. “for the sole personal interest” of Sánchez to be invested as president of the government. This, you see, "leaves the rule of law defenseless by annulling the sentences and procedures in force of the criminals who were the protagonists of said coup."
For this reason, they encourage their active military colleagues to remove the president of the Government based on article 8.1 of the Constitution, which states that the armed forces have the mission of “defending the constitutional order”, which they see in “serious danger due to the lack of judicial independence.” They ignore article 97, which states that it is the Government that directs the military administration and the defense of the State.
They defend that after Sánchez's dismissal elections should be held, "which we submit to the consideration of Spanish citizens in order to prevent it."
