Virginia Barcones: “The Civil Guard deploys comprehensive security throughout the rural area of the Camino de Santiago”

• The delegate of the Government in Castilla y León presents the troops of the Civil Guard of the Security Plan of the Camino de Santiago of the Secretary of State for Security and the extension of the campaign aimed at the pilgrims who decide to do the Camino alone. • This year, a Pegasus team made up of a dozen drones is added to the surveillance. In addition, the OMAP (Mobile Office of Pilgrim Care) will incorporate more means of first aid such as defibrillators to botiquins.

May 11, 2023.- The Government delegate in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, presented today, in Benavente (Zamora), the security media deployed this year by the Civil Guard on the Camino de Santiago as it passes through the community, to which is added one more year the campaign 'No caminas sola', promoted by the Unit against violence against women of the Government Delegation in Castilla y León.

As Virginia Barcones explained, “the Security Plan is part of the Safe Tourism Plan of the Secretary of State for Security, but is also aligned with the Plan of Action of the Civil Guard on security in the face of the Demographic Challenge.”

There are about 600 Civil Guard troops on the Camino de Santiago. Of these, 500 are agents of Citizen Security and 100 more, of Traffic.

As a novelty, this year a Pegasus team made up of a dozen drones is added to the surveillance. In addition, the OMAP (Mobile Office of Pilgrim Care) will incorporate more means of first aid such as defibrillators to botiquins.

Likewise, in 2023 the campaign ‘Do not walk alone: Camino de Santiago free of male violence’, which arose two years ago at the initiative of the Government Delegation in Castilla y León. This year, the Vía de la Plata and the Camino Sanabrés that links Zamora with Galicia are also incorporated into its area of action.

The human and technical resources of the Civil Guard presented today in Benavente include citizen security patrols, the aforementioned OMAP, a cavalry squadron, patrols of the Traffic and Seprona group and a helicopter.

Along with the delegate of the Government in Castilla y León, and the subdelegate in Zamora, Ángel Blanco, have been those responsible for the teams and units of the Civil Guard that participate in the specific security plan of the Camino de Santiago, as well as the lieutenant colonel head of the Command of Zamora, David Pulido, and at the head of all of them, the general head of the XII Zone of the Civil Guard, Luis del Castillo. The mayor of Benavente Luciano Huerga has also participated.

CIVIL GUARD XACOBEA SECURITY PLAN

The Xacobea Security Plan of the Civil Guard addresses the concept of integral security on the Camino de Santiago and contains several objectives: to strengthen the security of pilgrims and of the Camino itself; to avoid damage to the Camino, both in its artistic, historical and cultural heritage, and in the signaling of the Jacobean route; to guarantee road safety; to prevent and preserve nature and the environment; to ensure safe accommodation; to protect critical infrastructures and to prioritize public security in the most unpopulated areas.

The delegate of the Government has affirmed that “taking into account the features that describe the nature of the Camino and the territorial distribution of competences, the Civil Guard is the institution that provides the fundamental core of protection to pilgrims and pilgrims. Today, here in Benavente, in Zamora, we can see that the broad territorial deployment of the Civil Guard makes it an element of reference and structuring of the presence and response of the State in the rural area, and in a special way, on the Camino de Santiago, facilitating a close and direct relationship with the citizens, with the municipalities, with the municipal services and with the social fabric existing in that environment.”

MOBILE CARE OFFICES

The Civil Guard launched two years ago the specific service of Mobile Offices of Attention to the Pilgrim (OMAP). They are vans that are equipped as a mobile office of attention to the citizen and adapted for their specific use as OMAP by means of signage and banners that allow their rapid location and identification by pilgrims and provide service at different points of the way, which increases the subjective feeling of security and the positive perception of the Body before national and foreign pilgrims. The Civil Guard in Castilla y León has OMAP in the Commandences of León, Palencia, Burgos and Zamora.

The functions they perform are to care for the victims of crime, advising them and supporting them in the procedural and documentary police procedures (cancellation of cards and credit documents, contact with embassies and consulates, communication or location of relatives, etc. ).

The OMAPs assist the pilgrim or pilgrim in the processing of the complaint of the crime or misdemeanour, informing him of his rights and giving him the summons for the holding of the speedy trial, are also responsible for notifying the Court of Guard immediately, and offer an adequate police response to situations of risk and/or conflict through the activation of their own resources and other emergency services.

Likewise, they offer information about the Camino de Santiago in general, as well as public services that may be of interest to those who make the Route (status of nearby roads and routes, hospitals, hostels and lodgings, town halls or health information).