Antonio Cubillo facts for kids

Antonio de León Cubillo Ferreira (born 3 June 1930 – died 10 December 2012) was a Spanish lawyer and a politician from the Canary Islands. He was known for leading a movement that wanted the Canary Islands to become independent from Spain.

About Antonio Cubillo

Antonio Cubillo was born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna in the Canary Islands on 3 June 1930. He studied law at the University of La Laguna and later became a lawyer. He was married and had three children.

In 1963, Cubillo started a group called the Canary Islands Independence Movement. He had to leave Spain and lived in Algiers because of the government at the time. From there, he began working to make the Canary Islands independent in the late 1970s.

In 1978, Antonio Cubillo was seriously hurt in an attack. Years later, in 2002, a high court in Spain, the Supreme Court, said that the Spanish government was involved in this attack. They paid him money for the harm caused. This was the first time the Spanish government officially admitted it had done something wrong to a citizen in this way. In 2011, a TV show called Cubillo: The Story of a State Crime was made, showing what happened.

After the Canary Islands became an autonomous region in 1982, Cubillo was able to come back to Spain. In 1985, he started a new political party called the National Congress of the Canaries.

His Ideas for the Canary Islands

Antonio Cubillo believed that the Canary Islands could be much better off if they could control more of their own resources. He thought the islands had many valuable things. These included a lot of tourism, a good location for shipping, rich fishing areas, and possible oil and natural energy sources. He felt that if the islands managed these things themselves, they would be more successful and have more freedom from the main government in Madrid.

However, the movement he started did not get a lot of public support among the people of the Canary Islands. This was because of the methods the group used. Other groups that followed his ideas, like the Popular Front of the Canary Islands (FREPIC), also did not become very popular.

Later Life and Death

Antonio Cubillo passed away on 10 December 2012, at the age of 82. He died at his home in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which is also in the Canary Islands. He was buried in the Cementerio de Santa Lastenia in the same city.

See also

In Spanish: Antonio Cubillo para niños