June 08, 2023.- The Civil Guard Command of Burgos, with an official act carried out in the Cantabrian Avenue Quartering of this capital, has commemorated the 179th. Anniversary of the creation of the Corps, which has been presided over by the Chief Lieutenant Colonel of the Command, Alfonso Martín Fernández, accompanied by the deputy delegate of the Government, Pedro Luis de la Fuente Fernández.
It has also had the presence of numerous civil, judicial and military authorities, including the President of the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León, José Luís Rodríguez Concepción and the Chief General of the San Marcial Division and Institutional Representative of the Spanish Army in the Autonomous Communities of Castilla y León and Cantabria, Juan Carlos González Díez.
Lieutenant Colonel Martin Fernandez has reviewed the formation and after greeting the invited authorities has begun the act with the reading of an extract of the founding decrees of the Corps; the first issued on March 28, 1844 by the Marquis of Peñaflorida and the second given in Palacio on May 13, 1844, by The Minister of War, Ramón María Narváez.
During the ceremony, 13 Civil Guards have been decorated - an Officer, a Non-Commissioned Officer, two 1st Corporal and nine Guards - all in the category of Cross to the Merit of the Civil Guard with white badge.
On this very important date, the Civil Guard has given a diploma to a component of the Corps that has gone into the reserve situation during the last year, in recognition of its dedication to the Institution and its professional trajectory.
On behalf of all the honorees, Commander María Cristina Boo Paradela addressed a few words to those present, followed by the address of the head of the Command, Lieutenant Colonel Martín Fernández.
Next, an emotional act of tribute to the Fallen has been carried out, after which the Hymn of the Body has been sung; as a culmination the present Units have paraded: Squad of Gastadores of the Command, Music Unit of the San Marcial Division, Section of Honors of the Command, guide and canine unit, motorcyclist squad of the Subsector of Traffic and SEPRONA.
Body History
The Civil Guard was created on March 28, 1844, by a Royal Decree, as a special Armed Force Corps of infantry and cavalry with the denomination of Civil Guards.
The responsibility of organizing this Corps was entrusted to Marshal de Campo Francisco Javier Girón y Ezpeleta, II Duque de Ahumada, who on April 20 presented a report on the organization of the Corps that caused the immediate repeal of the first Royal Decree, which did not even come into force, and the publication of a new one on May 13, 1844, this date being the one that is historically commemorated.
Our history has been very long since its foundation; initially it was composed of 14 thirds consisting of 39 infantry companies and 9 cavalry squadrons and its first team, 14 chiefs, 232 officers and 5,769 troops.
On September 1, 1844, the day of the appointment of the Duke of Ahumada as the first Inspector General of the Civil Guard, took place the official presentation of the Corps with a military stop before the authorities where 1,870 guards paraded organized in their companies and squadrons demonstrating marciality and showing a new uniformity in which an original hat of three peaks of French origin was distinguished: ‘the tricorn’, which would eventually become one of the representative symbols of the Civil Guard and our country.
After the approval of the military and service regulations, on December 20, 1845, the Civil Guard Card was approved, defined as the true moral code of the Corps, whose precepts are still in force today.
Standing out in the daily fulfillment of his duty, to help and safeguard the citizen, he was granted on October 4, 1929 the title of Benemérita, treatment perpetuated over the years and which has forged the character of the Institute.
In order to provide a better service to Spanish society, throughout its long history, the Civil Guard has created new specialties to cover in the most effective way the competences assigned to it, always in accordance with the times lived.
The Civil Guard today
The Civil Guard, as the backbone of the State, is present in all the autonomous communities, Ceuta and Melilla; it performs public security functions in more than 80% of the national territory and in the territorial sea. It has more than 2,250 units, of which 2,015 are points of attention to the citizen.
The Civil Guard, an integral police force, in addition to performing functions of citizen security and public order, combating terrorism, organized crime and general delinquency, must ensure the control of weapons and explosives, the State Fiscal Protection, inter-urban traffic - except in those Autonomous Communities that have assumed it -, the custody of communication routes, ports and airports and the protection of nature.
It works by land and inland waters, sea, air and cyberspace and for this it has numerous specialized units for the performance of all the missions that the Body has awarded: Citizen Security, Traffic Grouping, Nature Protection, Air Service, Cynological Service, Equestrian Service, Explosives Deactivation and Nuclear, Radiological, Biological and Chemical Defense (NRBQ), Maritime Service, Underwater Activities, Subsoil, Mountain Service, Fiscal Service, Weapons Intervention, as well as Investigation Units (Information Service and Judicial Police) and Special Intervention Units (UEI, GAR and GRS), among others.
Currently, the Civil Guard is also present abroad, deployed in the different international missions in which it participates, in advisory work and collaboration with police from other countries.