Miracles Toulon presides over the posthumous handing over of the Great Cross of Charles III to Jesus Fuentes Lazarus

ToledoOn Thursday, the Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Milagros Tolón, presided over the act of handing over, on a posthumous basis, the Great Cross of the Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III to the President of Castilla-La Mancha between 1982 and 1983, Jesús Fuentes Lázaro. The tribute took place in the Government Delegation, in Toledo. On May 26, the Council of Ministers granted him this distinction, the highest Spanish civil decoration, after his death on February 7. He is awarded after receiving, on the Day of the Region, the Gold Medal on his land.

“King Charles III created it in 1771 with a motto in Latin, Virtuti et merito, to virtue and merit, and those two words describe Jesus very well,” the minister said after the government delegate, José Pablo Sabrido, read the concession agreement. They have both handed over the Great Cross to his wife, M. Ángeles Gómez Núñez, and his son, Jorge. Before beginning his speech, Milagros Tolón recalled the victims of the Urda railway accident, to whom he sent all his affection and solidarity in these moments of pain.

Fuentes was born in Toledo in 1946, where he always lived. He began his professional career in the world of teaching, practicing as a teacher. “As Education Minister, I want to stop here. Because Jesus was always a teacher: in his articles, in his lectures and in his talks around a cafe. With it we learned, even when we didn’t agree,” recalled Milagros Tolón.

Fuentes chaired the Association of Friends of the Library of Castilla-La Mancha, where he presented many meetings. “He was part of a generation of women and men who built democracy from its foundations. And that they gave this land their own self-government. He was a deputy for Toledo in the first three legislatures of democracy and then a senator. He was also a councillor for this city,” the minister said.

In December 1982 he assumed the presidency of the Board of Communities of Castilla-La Mancha. It was only a few months in which he formed a regional government that was beginning to walk, managed the transfer of competences and prepared the first autonomous elections. Afterwards, he continued to be very present in the political and cultural life of Toledo.

“Jesus was very upset that they called him pre-autonomic president. He preferred to remember that he was the first president with the Statute of Autonomy recently approved by the Cortes Generales. And that is how we remember it today. I knew Toledo as the face of a loved one is known. And he defended his city with passion. He rejected the idea of turning it into a bedroom in Madrid,” said Milagros Tolón after defending Fuentes’s honesty and loyalty to his principles. Also its simplicity, its dedication and its respect for the adversary: “He was always committed to democracy, freedom and work for the common good. It was an example of a public servant.”