Antonio de León Cubillo Ferreira (3 June 1930 – 10 December 2012) was a
Canarian Independentist, politician, lawyer and militant of the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
.
Biography
Cubillo was born on 3 June 1930 in
San Cristóbal de La Laguna
San Cristóbal de La Laguna (commonly known as La Laguna, ) is a city and municipality in the northern part of the island of Tenerife in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on the Canary Islands, Spain. The city is the third-most populous ci ...
. He was married and had three children.
He received a law degree from the
University of La Laguna
The University of La Laguna (ULL; Spanish: ''Universidad de La Laguna'') is a public research university situated in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife, Spain. It is the oldest university in the Canary Islands. The university ...
.
Cubillo founded the
Canary Islands Independence Movement
The Canary Islands Independence Movement (CIIM), also known as the Movement for the Independence and Self-determination of the Canaries Archipelago ( es, Movimiento por la Autodeterminación e Independencia del Archipiélago Canario, MPAIAC), was ...
in 1963.
While exiled in
Algiers
Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
, escaping the Francoist dictatorial regime, he began a campaign to gain Canary Islands independence from Spanish rule in the late 1970s.
[ In 1978, he was crippled in an assassination attempt linked to the security forces of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
After the Canary Islands Independence Movement was disbanded in 1982 following the creation of the Canary Islands Autonomous Community, Cubillo was able to return to Spain and founded the ]National Congress of the Canaries
The National Congress of the Canaries ( es, Congreso Nacional de las Canarias; CNC) is a separatist political party in the Canary Islands, Spain.
Ideology and goals
CNC supports independence for the Canary Islands. The CNC was founded in 1986 by A ...
, a democratic party, in 1985. In 2002, the Supreme Court of Spain recognized that the Government of Spain committed state terrorism
State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism which a state conducts against another state or against its own citizens.Martin, 2006: p. 111.
Definition
There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the proper def ...
against Cubillo in the 1978 assassination attempt and paid him damages
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
as a result, the first time the State officially recognized it engaged in crimes against civilians. In 2011, a documentary called ''Cubillo: The Story of a State Crime'' was shown on national television highlighting the role of the State.
Cubillo's core claims were that the Canary Islands could be better off if it could keep and develop more of its resources and thus maintain greater autonomy from Madrid. He claimed that the resources are considerable in terms of tourism, geo-political locations for maritime traffic development, fishing fields, oil fields and natural energy resources. The movement he founded, however, failed to attract public support among Canarios owing to its violent nature. The organizations that have succeeded Canary Islands Independence Movement, such as the Popular Front of the Canary Islands (FREPIC), have remained largely marginal.
Cubillo died on 10 December 2012 at age 82 at his home in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its admi ...
. He was buried in the Cementerio de Santa Lastenia in the same city.Cubillo fallece en su casa a los 82 años
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cubillo, Antonio
1930 births
2012 deaths
20th-century Spanish lawyers
People imprisoned on charges of terrorism
People from San Cristóbal de La Laguna
Canarian nationalists
Canarian independence activists