Spain: Guardia Civil officers press for demilitarisation
01 March 2006
On 22 April 2006, thousands of officers of the Guardia Civil (GC), Spain's paramilitary police force, marched in Madrid in a demonstration organised by the Asociación Unificada de Guardias Civiles (AUGC) to demand the demilitarisation of the force and for the recognition of rights including the right of association. The claims voiced by the organisers (the AUGC represents 25,000 officers, a third of the total, who stated that over 10,000 took part in the demonstration), include the placing of the GC under the exclusive control of the interior ministry rather than the defence ministry, a review of its military nature, exclusion from the military sanctions regime and that rights of association and expression should be applicable to them. The demonstration was part of an ongoing campaign which included the presentation of a "Manifesto for the rights of Guardia Civil officers" in January 2004 (see Statewatch Vol. 14 no 1), prior to the election which brought the Socialist party (PSOE) to power. In spite of support from the PSOE prior to the election, the AUGC has been critical of the government's failure to implement its electoral promises, particularly the appointment of a general, Gómez Arruche, as director of the GC. The AUGC voiced its concern over Gómez Arruche's hostility to officers associations, describing the resistance by Guardia Civil's General Council to government plans for the development of a new disciplinary regime and the recognition and regulation of the right of professional association within the GC, as "insubordination".
Following a government re-shuffle in which José Antonio Alonso (previously interior minister) took over from José Bono as defence minister and Javier Pérez Rubalcaba (formerly the government spokesman) became interior minister, Gómez Arruche was replaced by the Guardia Civil's first-ever civilian director, Joan Mesquida Ferrando, on 28 April. Nonetheless, on 4 May, Rubalcaba and Alonso ruled out altering the miliary nature of the GC although, a fortnight later, Rubalcaba stated that draft legislation would be presented to regulate officers' right of association and to modify the GC's disciplinary regime.
On 28 April, the head of the Army High Command José Antonio García González was also replaced, reportedly due to his luke-warm response to statements by Lieutenant General José Mena Aguado, who suggested in a public speech in January 2006 that the army may be forced to intervene if the new Catalan statute for regional autonomy, whose approval is underway, went beyond the framework of the Constitution. Claiming to be talking of the "concerns and worries" afflicting members of the armed forces for the "unity of the Spanish nation", Mena warned that the so-called Estatut would have serious implications for the nature of the Spanish nation, the administration of justice, and that its aspirations for the Catalan language were "disproportionate". He added that:
Fortunately, the Constitution sets out a set of unsurmountable limits for any Statute of Autonomy... However, if these limits were to be passed, which fortunately appears inconceivable at this time, article 8 of the Constitution would be applicable: "The Armed Forces, comprising the Army, Navy and Air Force, have as their mission to guarantee the sovereignty and independence of Spain, to defend its integrity and its constitutional order
The new head of the Army High Command is General Carlos Villar Turrau.
El País, 23-24, 28, 30.4, 5.5.06;For further information, see the AUGC website: http://www.augc.info Letter from the head of the AUGC to the prime minister, 27.12.05; Como la Guardia Civil elude los controles del estado de Derecho, April 2006, both available in the website's "Documentos de interés" section; Speech by lieutenant general Mena Aguado at the Military Easter act, on 6 January 2006; full-text available at:
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