Journalist criticises secrecy over coup

TOP Spanish journalist Jose Oneto complained yesterday that it was “lamentable that we still do not have access to documents about the coup d'etat.” He was in Palma to sign copies of his book, February 23 The Untold History: The Tejero Case, 25 Years On.” He was the first Spanish journalist to publish a book about the coup d'etat entitled The Night Of Tejero, and his latest book reviews the events 25 years on in an attempt to put them into context. Oneto tries to explain the role of the Centre for Defence Information (CESID) in the attempted coup “manipulating the different interests of those who were implicated in the coup d'etat”. He said he lamented being denied access to “classified” information about the attempted coup. “Spain must be one of the few countries where, years after a historic event, access to documents explaining that event is denied”. The intrigue between the different participants, “that of Tejero, the colonels, the CESID, the role of King Juan Carlos and even the possible implication of the CIA”, are aspects of the analysis by Oneto. He opens his book with a quote from Winston Churchill, “Never have so many owed so much to so few.” Speaking about the recent declarations of General Mena, who warned of a possible military intervention to maintain the unity of Spain in the face of the Catalan Statute, he said he considered that Spanish society had changed substantially and the conditions no longer existed for a coup d'etat. “I think that the Anglo Saxon press have exaggerated the subject” he said.