The Civil Guard

At the start of the 19th century, Spain was a very poor country in which crime was growing rapidly. From the end of the war against Napoleon in 1814, the mountains and roads of many regions were full of bandits. The estate of constant insecurity they created led authorities to the conclusion that the country needed an armed police force to fight banditry, but it was only in 1844, and as part of the construction of the centralized liberal state, that this force, the Civil Guard, was created. From the beginning until today, its members have worn the distinctive three-cornered hat they were wearing in this parade in San Sebastian in 1942.

In addition to the fight against banditry in the 19th century and the anti-terrorist struggle against ETA in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the most critical moment for the Civil Guard was when it was charged with the fighting the anti-Francoist guerrilla between 1936 and 1951. 

The Civil War had damaged the force. Half of its 33,500 members remained loyal to the Republic and the rest had to demonstrate their loyalty to the new regime. The spontaneous reaction of the dictator provide an indication of the centrality of the Benemérita – the Meritorious, as the Civil Guard was also called – to the construction of the Francoist state. During a hunt in October 1944, one of his aids mentioned that a large number of guerrillas – some 6,000 in fact - had snuck into Spain through the Valley of Arán, the Caudillo replied: “And what is the Civil Guard doing about it?”.

The growth of the guerrilla in 1944 and 1945 led the Civil Guard to redouble its counter-insurgency efforts. Of the 76 general orders issued by its Director, Camilo Alonso Vega, in 1947, 63 dealt with the anti-partisan struggle. Thus, until the 1950s, the Civil Guard was the most important part of the repressive apparatus the New State needed to carry out acts of violence of various kinds. Six hundred and twenty-seven members of the Civil Guard would die in the anti-guerrilla struggle.

AFP