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The Civil Guard, in Spanish Guardia Civil, is the Spanish gendarmery. 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.

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 'numeros' (numbers), maintain to this date the basic patrol unit of two agents, usually called a "pareja" (a pair), in which one of the 'números' will initiate the intervention while the second 'número' serves as logistic support. The inner motto the Civil Guard use as their leading emblem is "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).

Political Involvement

Historically the leaders of the Civil Guard had a tendency to get involved in politics, and it has been seen for many years as a reactionary force. In 1873, General Pavia stormed congress and ended the Spanish First Republic with a company of thirty guardias civiles. Years later, under the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) and, later, under the authoritarian government of General Francisco Franco (1939-1975) the Civil Guard was a force of support behind the conservative and even totalitarian governments. It can be said that the Civil Guard has supported established power regardless of the legitimacy of its origins. For a long time their números were feared because of their excesses, great power and authority in rural areas; the fact that they covered mostly rural and isolated parts of the country allowed this lack of accountability. 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 a few other 'números' of the Civil Guard, most of whom where conscripts doing their military service or undertaking traffic enforcement courses that were told they were going to repell a terrorist attack, he took hold of the lower house of the Cortes taking all the present representatives as hostages during the vote of investiture on Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo as Prime Minister of Spain.

The 'guardias' had a mythical reputation in literature and in popular history. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Guardia Civil conducted a campaign against Andalusian anarchists, accusing them of being members of the secret society The Black Hand. Some of the poems by Federico García Lorca, specially in the world-famous Gypsy Ballads, in which the guardias civiles are seen as the natural enemies of gypsies and other marginal figures, are elaborations of 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. Nonetheless, the 'guardias civiles' participated also in the shooting of Garcia Lorca than in the rebellions of Barcelona in 1937 during the Spanish civil war.

The Modern Force

Today the Spanish Civil Guard has changed much. Many visitors to Spain consider them the most trusted police force in the country. Likewise, native Spaniards acknowledge that “nobody wants to see to them but, at the first sign of trouble, they are the first in calling”. The Guardia Civil's 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 traffic, drugs and contraband, customs and airports, 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 populations with less than 10,000 inhabitants, terrorism; coast guard, police deployments abroad (embassies); intelligence and counter-intelligence gathering. 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).

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

Characteristics

They typically patrol in pairs. Their traditional hat is the tricornio, originally a tricorne.

Since it is considered a military force, its members are not permitted to join trade unions, unlike the parallel National Police and Municipal Police.Members of the Guardia Civil often live in garrisons (casa-cuartel) with their families.

The symbol of the Guardia Civil consists of the Royal Crown of Spain, a sword and a fasces.

Special units

Different special units have been added to the corps:

• UEI (Unidad Especial de Intervención) - Special Intervention Unit,a Special Forces unit.
• TEDAX (Técnicos Especialistas en Desactivación de Artefactos Explosivos) - Explosive Artifacts Defuser Specialised Technicians (EOD)
• GAR (Grupo de Acción Rápida (ex. Grupo Antiterrorista Rural)) Antiterrorist Unit.
• Guardia Civil del Mar - Seashore surveillance and security of ports and harbours
• SEPRONA (Servicio de Protección de la Naturaleza) - Nature Protection Sevice, for environmental protection.
• GEAS (Grupo Especial Actividades Subacuáticas) - Divers.
• Tráfico - Control of freeways and highways.
• Montaña - Mountain Rescue.
• Servicio Aéreo - Aerial monitoring (normally from helicopters)
• Servicio Cinecológico Unit K-9 Drug detection and explosives and people.
• GRS (Grupo Rural de Seguridad) Unit Anti-riot.

See also

• Policía Nacional
• Guardia de Asalto

External links

• Official web page
• The History of the Guardia Civil (year 1.858). (link broken as of 10/28/2007)

• Military of Spain
• Law enforcement in Spain