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Spain The Civil Guard
Patterned after the French rural gendarmerie when it
was
formed in 1844, the Civil Guard has long maintained its
own
traditions and style of operation. Until the first
civilian
director general of the Civil Guard was installed in 1986,
its
head had been an army lieutenant general. The total
complement of
the Civil Guard as of 1986 was 65,000; in addition, about
9,000
auxiliary guardsmen performed their military service
obligation
in the Civil Guard.
The Civil Guard was grouped into six zones, matching
the six
army regions, each commanded by an army brigadier general.
These
were divided, in turn, into commands coinciding with
provincial
boundaries and further subdivided into about 300
companies, 800
lines (lineas) corresponding to platoons, and about
3,200
posts. A post typically consisted of six to ten guardsmen,
headed
by a corporal or a sergeant. Posts were responsible for
organizing two-member patrols to police their areas,
generally by
automobile. To deploy forces more flexibly, this
traditional
system had been augmented by radio-controlled mobile
patrols of
three or more members. A separate traffic group patrolled
the
main roads to assist in cases of breakdown or accident. A
Rural
Antiterrorist Group of four companies, stationed in the
Basque
Country (Spanish, Pais Vasco; Basque, Euskadi) and Navarre
(Spanish, Navarra), concentrated its efforts against
Basque
extremists. This force could be supplemented by a
helicopter unit
and by a Special Intervention Unit as needed. Mountain
Units
guarded the Pyrenees frontier against terrorists and
smugglers,
in addition to providing general police and rescue
services.
The Civil Guard generally enjoyed greater popularity
than
other police elements, in part because of its reputation
for
courtesy and helpfulness to motorists. Nevertheless, it
had not
completely shed its earlier reputation as the primary
instrument
of the Franco regime's efforts to root out and crush any
evidence
of opposition. Numerous cases of torture and ill treatment
were
attributed to members of the Civil Guard, especially in
the
handling of suspected Basque dissidents
(see Criminal Justice and the Penal System
, this ch.). The persistence of
reactionary
tendencies was underscored by the participation of a
senior
officer of the Civil Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Antonio
Tejero
Molina, in the dramatic coup attempt of 1981, backed by
nearly
300 guardsmen who made prisoners of cabinet ministers and
deputies of the Cortes
(see The Military in Political Life
, this
ch.).
Most members of the Civil Guard were housed with their
families on compounds that formed part of the stations
from which
they operated. A high proportion of recruits were the sons
of
guardsmen. Entrance was at the age of sixteen years or
seventeen
years, when recruits began a two-year course at one of two
"colleges" or, alternatively, at ages nineteen to
twenty-four at
the other college where the course was of eleven months
duration.
Promotion to officer rank was possible after fourteen
years of
service. A minority of officers gained direct commissions
by
attending the General Military Academy at Zaragoza for two
years,
where they followed the regular military cadet curriculum.
After
an additional three years at the Special Academy of the
Civil
Guard at Aranjuez, these cadets entered the service as
lieutenants.
Under the 1986 organic law, the Ministry of Interior
was
assigned responsibility for operational matters, pay,
assignments, accommodations, and equipment. The Ministry
of
Defense was responsible for promotions, military missions,
and
wartime mobilization. Recruitment, training, weapons,
deployment,
and conduct of the system whereby compulsory service could
be
performed in the Civil Guard were matters of joint
responsibility. The regulations introduced in early 1988
enabling
women to serve in certain categories of the armed forces
also
cleared the way for eventual recruitment of women into the
Civil
Guard.
The 1986 law set out a new functional division of
responsibilities between the Civil Guard and the National
Police
Corps. In addition to its rural police functions, the
Civil Guard
was to be responsible for firearms and explosives control;
traffic policing on interurban roads; protection of
communication
routes, coasts, frontiers, ports, and airports;
enforcement of
environmental and conservation laws, including those
governing
hunting and fishing; and interurban transport of
prisoners.
Data as of December 1988
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