“The civil guards are very persistent, also when searching for victims. Hope is the last thing to go,” says the highest-ranking officer of the Civil Guard in the Valencian Community, General José Antonio Fernández de Luz. In an interview with the EFE Agency, Fernández de Luz responds this way when asked about the search efforts for two of the 230 fatalities of the DANA, including a guard from the Paiporta post and the wife of another agent. “At least every 15 days we set up a search device to look again where we have already been or in areas that experts in the field may indicate to us,” he adds about the search, almost 19 months after the DANA, for the bodies of Elisabeth and Francisco, two of the flood victims.
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“The civil guards are very persistent, also when searching for victims”
The DANA also left a strong impact on dozens of Civil Guard barracks throughout the province of Valencia. In recent months, the rehabilitation of the seven most damaged has been practically completed: Alfafar, Buñol, Llombai, Benaguasil, Requena, Chiva, and Paiporta, with an investment of more than 6.6 million euros.
This week, the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, visited the latter to review the reconstruction works of the Civil Guard barracks in the town, where the Government has allocated more than 2.4 million euros for rehabilitation work. In the case of Utiel, where reconstruction will not be possible, some old road worker huts will be temporarily enabled until the new facilities are completed “in about five years, I estimate,” Fernández de Luz points out in the interview.
Asked about the biggest concerns in his daily work, Fernández de Luz points to cybercrime and gender-based violence as two of the most important challenges currently facing the force, in addition to the growing activity of international mafias, which have a special presence in the south of the region. Precisely in a Civil Guard barracks, they are investigating the death of a woman after a triple crime that shocked the Alicante town of Dolores yesterday.
The Civil Guard handles 11,000 active cases of gender-based violence in the Valencian Community, a figure that reveals the depth and complexity of the problem. “It is a type of crime that is very difficult to prevent because it usually occurs in the private sphere. The Civil Guard protects the victims but also focuses on the aggressor… there is a certain profile of aggressor that we monitor more closely.”
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In critical situations, the effort is total. “There are days when we have people permanently with the victim. It is necessary… What can never happen is that a victim dies because we were not there. That would be unforgivable for us.” The general describes strict supervision protocols both in person and by phone that, although he admits they can be annoying for the victim, are vital. In extreme cases, he explains, “what we do with the perpetrator is arrest them.”
Organized crime and war weapons
Another concern of the highest-ranking officer of the VI zone of the Civil Guard is organized crime, especially established in Alicante and Valencia. Especially in southern Alicante, the Civil Guard faces a reality of “executions due to settling scores between rival gangs,” in which increasingly more “professionalized” methods and the use of war weapons from Eastern European countries are observed, a fact that the general does not hide his concern about.
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Regarding the territorial deployment of the Civil Guard, the general admits that it is complicated to fill vacancies that arise in certain posts in “emptied Spain,” explains that they are usually filled forcibly, and praises coordination with local police. “It would be good if small municipalities deepened the possibility of pooling Local Police services. When resources are pooled, administrative burden is eliminated, there is greater efficiency and more prevention, more officers on the street,” he adds.
The Civil Guard staff in the Valencian Community is 90% covered and has about 7,000 agents
Currently, the Civil Guard staff in the Valencian Community is 90% covered and has about 7,000 agents, not counting those in Traffic, which are approximately a thousand more. “Generally, the Community is an attractive destination for the Civil Guard; it is not too difficult to fill the positions. Anyway, I give great importance to the good condition of the barracks because they represent an incentive for people to live better and compensate for the high cost of housing,” he concludes.
