MADRID (AP) — Antonio Tejero, a former Spanish lieutenant colonel who led a failed military coup in Spain in 1981, has died. He was 93 years old.
He died Wednesday evening in the eastern Spanish town of Alzira, a law firm representing Tejero's family said in a statement.
On Feb. 23, 1981, Tejero stormed Spain’s parliament alongside about 200 armed civil guards in what was considered the last and most serious attempt to revert Spain’s transition to democracy after dictator Gen. Francisco Franco’s death in 1975.
To the surprise of many, Tejero died on the same day that Spain's government published a trove of declassified documents related to the 1981 coup attempt.
That effort was foiled after former Spanish King Juan Carlos I denounced it on television and called on the armed forces not to support the coup and to respect Spain’s fledgling constitution.
But images of the dramatic 18 hours in which Tejero and the other guardsmen held members of Parliament and ministers hostage were seared into Spain’s collective memory — in no small part because Spaniards were able to watch the events partially captured by television cameras.
The images included officers firing guns in Parliament and lawmakers taking cover under their desks.
Tejero shouted out “Everyone, freeze!” while waving a pistol as he seized Parliament, wearing the patent leather tricorn hat of Spain’s civil guard gendarmerie police force. The attackers interrupted the chamber’s vote to swear in Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo as Spain’s prime minister.
Tejero had been involved in a separate attempted putsch in 1978. For his role in the botched 1981 coup, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, and served about half that time.
After his release, Tejero divided his time between his native Málaga in southern Spain and Madrid, Spain's El País newspaper reported.
The Madrid-based law firm A. Cañizares Abogados said Wednesday that Tejero died “peacefully, surrounded by his entire family and after receiving the holy sacraments.”
Retired Spanish Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero arrives at the Mingorrubio cemetery on the outskirts of Madrid, where former dictator Francisco Franco now lies after being exhumed from his original resting place in the Valley of the Fallen, a monumental Spanish memorial site, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. (Alejandro Jiménez/ Europa Press via AP)
Spanish Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero holds a firearm during an attempted coup in the Spanish Parliament in Madrid, Feb. 23, 1981. (Europa Press via AP)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins will have to start their playoff push without Sidney Crosby.
The club placed its longtime captain on injured reserve on Wednesday. The move comes after Crosby sustained a lower-body injury during the Olympic hockey tournament at the Milan Cortina Games.
The 38-year-old three-time Stanley Cup winner went down in the second period of Canada's quarterfinal win over Czechia. The Canadians held out hope Crosby would be able to return, but he sat out a semifinal win over Finland and a loss to the United States in the gold medal game.
Crosby, who is expected to miss at least four weeks, does not regret his decision to play in Milan.
“It’s the Olympics and it’s an amazing experience just as an athlete, not just as a hockey player,” he said, later adding, “obviously injuries are part of the game.”
Crosby did not have an issue with the hit he absorbed from Czechia defenseman Radko Gudas.
“He was trying to be physical and play hard as any defenseman would and it just went the wrong way as far as on my end of it,” he said.
Crosby credited the medical staff in Italy with helping him have a shot at playing in the gold medal game. He believes he came “a lot closer” than he thought he would to suiting up for Team Canada in the final.
Asked if he considered playing in a limited capacity, such as being relegated to strictly the power play, Crosby shook his head.
"If you can’t go out there and do a job and be relied upon ... then you can’t force it and that’s really what it came down to,” he said.
The injury comes with the surprising Penguins in second place in the Metropolitan Division. Pittsburgh is looking to return to the postseason for the first time since 2022.
Crosby has been his usually productive self this season. He leads the Penguins in goals (27), assists (32) and points (59) and is on pace to extend his NHL record of averaging at least a point a game to 21 years and counting.
“Obviously, I want to be back out there as soon as possible,” he said. "Just have to figure out what that looks like and how that’s going to be and be at my best when I come back.”
Pittsburgh opens the post-Olympic break at home against New Jersey on Thursday. The matchup with the Devils is the first of 13 games in a 24-day stretch for the Penguins.
“All year we’ve had injuries (and) guys have stepped up,” he said. “To get to where we’re at at this point, it’s because of our team play.”
This story has been corrected to say Canada played Finland in the Olympic hockey semifinals.
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Canada's Sidney Crosby (87) is attended to after being injured during the second period of a men's ice hockey quarterfinal game between Canada and Czechia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Canada's Sidney Crosby (87) reacts after Canada lost to the United States in a men's ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
