Civil Guard (Spain)
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| Guardia Civil | |
| Country | Spain |
|---|---|
| Type | Gendarmerie |
| Formed | 1844 |
| Motto | El Honor es mi Divisa (Honour is my Emblem) |
| HQ | Madrid |
| Director General | Joan Mesquida Ferrando |
| Website | http://www.guardiacivil.org |
The Civil Guard (Spanish: Guardia Civil) is the Spanish gendarmerie. It has both military and civilian functions. It was created in different stages from 1835 to 1844, and was finally established as an operational force in 1855. The policing done by the Civil Guard starting in 1835 was carried out earlier by the Holy Hermandad. As a police force, the Civil Guard is comparable to the French Gendarmerie and the Italian Carabinieri.
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[edit] History
The Civil Guard was founded in 1844 during the monarchy of Queen Isabel II of Spain by the Basque Navarrese aristocrat Francisco Javier Girón y Ezpeleta, second Duke of Ahumada. The first academy of "guardias civiles" was established in the town of Valdemoro (Madrid. Spain) in 1855. The Guardia Civil's first job was to restore and maintain security in the Spanish countryside. The end of the First Carlist War had left the Spanish landscape scarred by the destruction of civil war, and the government moved fast to prevent the increasing danger of banditry in the rural areas. Based on the model of light infantry used by Napoleon in his European campaigns, the Guardia Civil was born as a police force with high mobility that could be deployed irrespective of inhospitable conditions and that was able to patrol large areas of the countryside.
Its members, called 'Guardias Civiles', maintain to this date the basic patrol unit of two agents, usually called a "pareja" (a pair), in which one of the 'Guardias' will initiate the intervention while the second 'Guardia' serves as saveguard of the first one. The Civil Guard uses as its leading emblem the motto "El honor es mi divisa" (Honor is my emblem). At the foundation of the Civil Guards the Duke of Ahumada stressed the esprit de corps pointing out the importance of honor: "Honor is the measure of the civil guards action. Once honor is lost, it cannot be regained". Their precincts called "casa cuartel" as other military garrisons in Spain appear under the motto "Todo por la patria" (All in the service of the Mother/Fatherland).
[edit] Political Involvement
In the nineteenth century the Spanish army got involved in politics regularly. The Guardia Civil was no exception, and historically, they were seen as a reactionary force. In 1874, General Pavia stormed congress and ended the Spanish First Republic with a company of thirty guardias civiles.
The first three decades of the 20th Century in Spain was a time of political turmoil. During this period the Guardia Civil served frequently in the restoration of order remaining mostly loyal to established regimes. Thus, it supported the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1930), but it also supported the Spanish Second Republic (1931-1939). During the Spanish Civil War, the Guardia Civil forces split almost evenly between those who remained loyal to the Republic -53% of the members[1]- which changed their name to "Guardia Nacional Republicana" - National Republic Guard)[2] and the rebel forces[3]. After the war, under the authoritarian government of General Francisco Franco (1939-1975), the Guardia Civil was reinforced with the members of the "Real Cuerpo de Carabineros de Costas y Fronteras" - Royal Corps of Coast and Frontier Carabiners[4].
The involvement of Civil Guard figures in politics continued well to the end of the twentieth century: on February 23, 1981, Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero Molina, a member of the Guardia Civil, participated with other military forces in a failed coup d'etat. Along with 200 members of the Civil Guard Lt. Col. Tejero took hold of the lower house of the Cortes. But the perception of the Guardia Civil as a specially reactionary force is considered inaccurate by some,[citation needed] It can be said that the Civil Guard has supported established power regardless of the legitimacy of its origins.
A different issue is the heavy-handedness use by the 'guardias'. For a long time the Guardias were feared because of their excesses, great power and authority in rural areas, and for their lack of accountability. The fact that they covered mostly rural and isolated parts of the country allowed for this lack of accountability. The 'guardias' had a mythical (negative) reputation in literature and in popular history. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Guardia Civil conducted a campaign against Andalusian anarchists (Spain), accusing them of being members of the secret society The Black Hand. Some of the poems of Federico García Lorca, especially the world-famous Gypsy Ballads, portray the guardias civiles as the natural enemies of gypsies and other marginal figures, and describe the Guardia Civil initial campaign against anarchists in southern Spain. These poems have contributed to the Guardia Civil's traditional reputation as a heavy-handed police force.
[edit] The Modern Force
Today the Guardia Civil is a police force in a developed democratic society subject to the checks and supervision expected in a democratic society. The guardias' proven effectiveness throughout history in controlling banditry and in addressing the subsequent challenges and tasks given them, meant that additional tasks have been added regularly to their job description. Today, they are primarily responsible for policing and/or safety regarding the following (but not limited to) areas and/or safety related issues (given in no special order): highway patrol, drugs and anti-smuggling operations, customs and ports of entry control, safety of prisons and safeguarding of prisoners, weapons licenses and arms control, security of border areas, bomb squad and explosives, security in rural areas and in locations with less than 10,000 inhabitants, anti-terrorism; coast guard, police deployments abroad (embassies); intelligence and counter-intelligence gathering, cyber- and internet crime. On July 23, 2007, Roberto Flórez García, a retired guardia civil ascribed to Centro Nacional de Inteligencia was charged with spying for a foreign power (allegedly Russia)[5].
[edit] Peacekeepers
The Civil Guard has won international respect for their work as peacekeepers in United Nations sponsored operations, including operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Angola, Congo, Nicaragua, Haiti, East Timor and El Salvador. They served with the Spanish contingent in the war in Iraq, mainly in intelligence gathering, and they lost seven 'números'. The Guardia Civil is also known as el instituto armado ("the armed institution") and la benemérita ("the good-deserving"). They served with great distinction in the Spanish colonies, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Morocco.
The Guardia Civil has a sister force in Costa Rica also called the Guardia Civil. The Costa Rican 'guardias' often train at the same academy as regular Spanish officers.
[edit] Characteristics
They typically patrol in pairs. Their traditional hat is the tricornio, originally a tricorne. Its use now is reserved to parades or ceremonies, being now substituted by a cap, a beret or the characteristic "gorra teresiana" [6].
Members of the Guardia Civil often live in garrisons (casa-cuartel) with their families. Family members of guardia civiles have fallen victim to attacks initially addressed against the police force. On December 11, 1987 the Basque terrorist organization ETA exploded a truck next to the "casa-cuartel" in Zaragoza killing eleven people, including four "guardias", two guardias' wives (Maria del Carmen Fernandez and Pilar Franco; both pregnant at the time of their death), and the girls Miriam Barrera (4 yrs old) and her twin sister Esther, Silvia Ballarin and Silvia Pino (both 7 yrs old), and Rocio Capilla (13 yrs old).
Since the Guardia Civil must accommodate the families of its "guardias", it was the first police force in Europe that accommodated a same-sex partner in a military installation.
The symbol of the Guardia Civil consists of the Royal Crown of Spain, a sword and a fasces. The different units have variations of this symbol.
[edit] Specialities
The corps has been organized into different specialities divided into operative and support specialities[7] [cite]:
- GEAS (Grupo Especial Actividades Subacuáticas) - Divers.
- GRS (Grupo Rural de Seguridad) Anti-riot unit.
- Guardia Civil del Mar - Seashore surveillance and security of ports and harbours
- SEPRONA (Servicio de Protección de la Naturaleza) - Nature Protection Service, for environmental protection.
- Servicio Aéreo - Aerial monitoring (normally from helicopters)
- Servicio Cinecológico Unit K-9 Drug detection and explosives and people.
- Servicio de Montaña - Mountain and Speleology Rescue.
- SIGC (Servicio de Informacion de la Guardia Civil) - Intelligence Service focused on counter-terrorism.
- TEDAX (Técnicos Especialistas en Desactivación de Artefactos Explosivos) - Explosive Artifacts Defuser Specialised Technicians (EOD)
- Tráfico - Control of freeways and highways.
- UAR (Unidad de Acción rural (ex. Grupo Antiterrorista Rural)) - Antiterrorist Unit.
- UCO (Unidad Central Operativa) - Central Operative Unit, a branch of the Policía Judicial focused on organized crime.
- UEI (Unidad Especial de Intervención) - Special Intervention Unit, a Special Forces unit.
[edit] Missions
While they share some missions with other spanish security forces, the Guardia Civil has specific missions assigned to its corps:
- law enforcement on weapons and explosives
- tax evasion, smuggling
- traffic and transport control between cities
- control of land communication ways, coast, frontier, ports & airports as well as sensitive centers and facilities
- moving of convicted between cities
- environmental law enforcement: hunting, fishing, forests and natural parks control
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Muñoz-Bolaños, Roberto, “Fuerzas y cuerpos de seguridad en España (1900-1945)”, Serga 2
- ^ Decreto de 30 de agosto de 1936, 8/30/1936
- ^ The International Bridgades - Colodny, Robert G. Accessed 2008-05-12.
- ^ “Ley 15 de Marzo de 1940”, Boletín Oficial del Estado, 3/15/1940
- ^ “La fiscalía acusa de un delito de traición al ex espía doble destapado por el CNI”, El País, 7/24/2007, <http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/fiscalia/acusa/delito/traicion/ex/espia/doble/destapado/CNI/elpepuesp/20070724elpepunac_4/Tes>
- ^ “Orden General número 1”, Boletín Oficial de la Guardia Civil 3, 12/29/1998
- ^ “Orden General 16”, Boletín Oficial de la Guardia Civil 30, 10/21/1999
[edit] External links
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