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SABINO FERNANDEZ CAMPO:SABINO FERNÁNDEZ Campo, the count of Latores, who has died aged 91, was a Spanish army general who, following a successful military career, served in the government of the Spanish dictator Gen Francisco Franco.

But following Franco's death in 1975, he became a faithful servant of King Juan Carlos, Franco's successor as Spanish head of state. In 1981, Campo played a key role helping the king see off an attempted coup by disgruntled Franco loyalists who wished to strangle democracy and return to, as they saw them, the good old days of dictatorship.