Civil Guard (Spain)

History

The Guardia Civil was founded as a national police force in 1844 during the reign of Queen Isabel II of Spain by the Navarrese aristocrat Francisco Javier Girón y Ezpeleta, 2nd Duque de Ahumada and 5th Marqués de las Amarillas, an 11th generation descendant of Mexica emperor Moctezuma II. Formerly, law enforcement had been the responsibility of the "Holy Brotherhood", an organization of municipal leagues. Corruption was pervasive in the Brotherhood, where officials were constantly subject to local political influence, and the system was largely ineffective outside the major towns and cities. Criminals could often escape justice by simply moving from one district to another. The first Guardia police academy was established in the town of Valdemoro, south of Madrid, in 1855. Graduates were given the Guardia's now famous tricorne or Cavaliers hat as part of their duty dress uniform.

The Guardia was initially charged with putting an end to brigandage on the nation's highways, particularly in the province of Andalucia, which had become notorious for numerous robberies and holdups of businessmen, peddlers, travelers, and even foreign tourists. Banditry in this region was so endemic that the Guardia found it difficult to completely eradicate. As late as 1884, one traveler of the day reported that it still existed in and around the city of Málaga:

The favorite and original method of the Malagueño highwayman is to creep up quietly behind his victim, muffle his head and arms in a cloak, and then relieve him of his valuables. Should he resist, he is instantly disembowelled with the dexterous thrust of a knife...[The Spanish highwayman] wears a profusion of amulets and charms...all of undoubted efficacy against the dagger of an adversary or the rifle of a Civil Guard.

The Guardia Civil was also given the political task of restoring and maintain land ownership and servitude among the peasantry of Spain by the king, who desired to stop the spread of anti-monarchist movements inspired by the French revolution. The end of the First Carlist War had left the Spanish landscape scarred by the destruction of civil war, and the government was forced to take drastic action to suppress spontaneous revolts by a restive peasantry. Based on the model of light infantry used by Napoleon in his European campaigns, the Guardia Civil was transformed into a paramilitary force of high mobility that could be deployed irrespective of inhospitable conditions, able to patrol and pacify large areas of the countryside. Its members, called 'guardias', maintain to this day a basic patrol unit formed by two agents, usually called a "pareja" (a pair), in which one of the 'guardias' will initiate the intervention while the second 'guardia' serves as a backup to the first.

The Civil War

During the Spanish Civil War, the Guardia Civil forces split almost evenly between those who remained loyal to the Republic, 53% of the members (which changed their name to Guardia Nacional Republicana - "National Republic Guard") and the rebel forces. However, the highest authority of the corps, Inspector General Sebastián Pozas, remained loyal to the republican government.

The proportion of Guardia Civil members that supported the rebel faction at the time of the 1936 coup was relatively high compared to other Spanish police corps such as the Guardias de Asalto and the Carabineros (Real Cuerpo de Carabineros de Costas y Fronteras), where when the Civil War began over 70% of their members stayed loyal to the Spanish Republic.

Loyalist General of the Guardia Civil José Aranguren, commander of the 4th Organic Division and Military Governor of Valencia, was arrested by the victorious Francoist troops when they entered the city of Valencia at the end of March 1939. After being court-martialed General José Aranguren was given the death penalty and was summarily executed on 22 April in the same year.

The Francoist era and the Transition

Following the Civil War, under the authoritarian government of General Francisco Franco (1939–1975), the Guardia Civil was reinforced with the members of the Carabineros, the "Royal Corps of Coast and Frontier Carabiniers", following the disbandment of the carabinier corps.

The sidearm of Guarda Civil from the 1970s to the early 1990s was the Star Model BM chambered in 9mm.

The involvement of Guardia Civil figures in politics continued well to the end of the twentieth century: on 23 February 1981, Lt. Col. Antonio Tejero Molina, a member of the Guardia Civil, participated with other military forces in the failed 23-F coup d'etat. Along with 200 members of the Guardia Civil, he briefly took hold of the lower house of the Cortes before the coup collapsed following a nationally televised address by King Juan Carlos, who denounced the coup.

Modern force

Today, the Guardia Civil is a police force subject to the checks and supervision expected in a democratic society. Moreover, the guardias' proven effectiveness throughout history, whether in controlling banditry or in addressing the subsequent challenges and tasks given them, meant that additional tasks have been added regularly to their job description.

It is the largest police force in Spain, in terms of area served. 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):

Peacekeepers

The Guardia Civil has been involved in operations as peacekeepers in United Nations sponsored operations, including operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Angola, Congo, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Haiti, East Timor and El Salvador. They also served with the Spanish armed forces contingent in the war in Iraq, mainly as military police but also in intelligence gathering, where seven of its members were killed . In addition to el instituto armado ("the armed institution"), the Guardia Civil is known as la benemérita ("the well-remembered"). They served in the Spanish colonies, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Spanish Guinea and Spanish 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.

Characteristics

Members of the Guardia typically patrol in pairs.

Members of the Guardia Civil often live in garrisons (casa-cuartel) with their families.

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.

Uniforms

The traditional headdress of the Guardia is the tricornio hat, originally a tricorne. Its use now is reserved for parades or ceremonies. For other occasions a cap, a beret or the characteristic "gorra teresiana" is worn. A wide range of clothing is worn according to the nature of the duties being performed. The historic blue, white and red uniform of the Guardia is now retained only for the Civil Guard Company of the Royal Guard and the gastadores (parade markers) of the Civil Guard Academy.

A modernised new style of working uniform was announced for the Civil Guard in 2011, for general adoption during 2012. This comprises a green baseball cap, polo shirt and cargo pants. The historic three-cornered hat is to be retained for ceremonial parades and duty outside public buildings, together with the army-style tunic and trousers previously worn. The kepi-like "gorra teresiana" is, however, to be abolished.

Specialities

The Corps has been organised into different specialties divided into operational and support specialties:

Requirements

Spying

On 23 July 2007, Roberto Flórez García, a retired GC officer assigned to the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia was charged with spying for a foreign power (allegedly Russia).

Political involvement

Throughout the nineteenth century the Spanish army regularly became involved in politics; the Guardia Civil was no exception. For this reason, the guardias were seen historically as a reactionary force. On 3 January 1874, General Manuel Pavía y Rodríguez de Alburquerque 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 great 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 Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939).

Unpopularity

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Guardia Civil conducted a campaign against criminal and anarchist elements of the Andalusian population, a campaign in which numbers of otherwise innocent members of the public found themselves accused them of being members of the secret society The Black Hand. For this reason the 'guardias' of that era were portrayed negatively in the literature and popular history, particularly by Spanish expatriate artists and writers. Under the pre-1931 monarchy, relations between gypsies and the Civil Guard were particularly tense.

Critics of the Guardia Civil, particularly Republican sympathizers have alleged numerous instances of police brutality because of the organization's association with Franco's regime. The fact that the Guardia largely operated in mostly rural and isolated parts of the country increased the risk of police violations of individual civil rights through lack of supervision and accountability. García Lorca's poems have contributed to the Guardia Civil's reputation as, at least at the time, a heavy-handed police force.

Aircraft

Helicopters