Directorate-General of the Civil Guard

The need to create a rural agency that gave security to the fields and roads of Spain was evident in the first half of the 19th century. The confiscation processes of the mentioned century, the fractionation of rural property, the dissolution of the National Militia and the political vicissitudes and continuous changes of government were some of the causes that led to the birth of the Civil Guard by Royal Decree of March 28, 1844.

The Duke of Ahumada, first director-general.

Francisco Javier Girón, 2nd Duke of Ahumada was appointed to organize the agency. He made a report explaining how the agency and the remuneration system to the agents should be regulated, a report that considerably reduced the budget, and that caused the approval of a new Royal Decree on May 13 that repealed that of April —which did not come into force— and that is the true date of creation of the agency.

The aforementioned decree of May 13, 1844 created an Inspectorate-General as the central administrative organ in all the matters relating the agency's organization, personnel, discipline and material, and related to both the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior.[1] The creation of the Inspectorate became effective with the appointment of its first holder, Francisco Javier Girón, who was rewarded for his work in creating the agency with that position on September 1, 1844.[2]

Another decree of October 15 gave the inspector-general as functions those of "direction and inspection of the agency, and from its authority all branches of the service (...) depend, as well as the internal regime, administration and discipline. He will direct his organization dedicating himself with special and exquisite care to establish and perfect the privileged and interesting service to which said agency is dedicated, proposing to the Royal approval the improvements or variations that time and experience prove necessary to its perfection. And finally, he will watch over the strict observance of these regulations, as well as that of his special service and other subsequent resolutions that will be communicated to him".[3] The royal decree also established that, in order to fulfill its functions, the inspector had to be dependent of the Ministry of the Interior and of War.[3]

On December 29, 1857, a Royal Decree stipulates that the Urban Guard of Madrid would depend on the Inspector-General of the Civil Guard and on March 24, 1858, another new Decree provided that the Urban Guard would depend on the Ministry of the War in terms of organization, personnel, armament and discipline and that of the Interior in relation to services, payment of salaries, quartering and material. For this reason, on April 6, 1859, it changes its name to Veteran Civil Guard (Guardia Civil Veterana) and the Inspection-General was renamed as the Directorate-General for the Civil and Veteran Guard.

With this agency practically integrated into the Civil Guard, on October 12, 1864, the organ was renamed as the Directorate-General of the Civil Guard.[4]

After a failed coup d'état on August 10, 1932, the government of the Second Republic reformed the law enforcement agencies and, as a result, by decree of August 16, 1932, the DGGC is abolished and the Inspection-General is recovered, with full and unique dependence from the Interior Department.[5] The Inspectorate was structured in September of that year, being integrated by the inspector-general, the military secretariat and three offices.[6]

After the Civil War and the rebellious victory, the great part of the Carabineros remained loyal to the republic, and although a large part of the Civil Guard also, the first was punished with its dissolution and integration in the second mainly by the great prestige that, already at the time, had this last. This was done through the Law of 15 March 1940, which also integrated the Civil Guard into the Armed Forces, although it maintained the Interior Ministry and Civil Governors (provincial leaders) dependence, in all matters relating to services, barracks, wages and material. This law also recovered the Directorate-General.[7]

The Spanish transition to democracy was a time of great changes in the field of public safety, although they do not affected excessively the Directorate-General. In 1994 a new phenomenon occurs, such as the integration of two important departments, that of Justice and that of the Interior. Through this integration a super-ministry was created with powers in judicial and security affairs. The DGGC is renamed as General Secretariat-Directorate-General of the Civil Guard (since 1986 it had the rank of general secretariat)[8] until 1996, when both departments separated.

Between September 2006 and December 2011, the Directorates-General of the Police and of the Civil Guard were merged by Prime Minister Zapatero with the purpose of «carry out the tasks of both police forces in a more integral, homogeneous and coordinated way».[9] In 2008, it was known that the Interior Minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, was not comfortable with this union of command and wanted to split them again, but that was not the opinion of the Prime Minister and remained together.[10] In 2009 it was created the University Center of the Civil Guard, integrated in the directorate-general.[11] During this time both agencies maintained their differentiated structure and legal regime, with a different Coordination Office for each body. In addition, the positions of deputy directors of Operations  (Director Adjunto Operativo, DAO) were created as a technical assistance organ to the director-general. There was one DAO for each law enforcement agency.[9]

With the arrival of Prime Minister Rajoy to the government and the appointment of Juan Ignacio Zoido as Interior Miniter, they decided to split the command again considering that the coordination task was a duty of the Secretary of State for Security and that every agency needed to have their own command.[12] In July 2017, Minister Zoido abolished the positions of deputy directors of Operations,[13] a decision that was reversed by Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska in July of the following year.[14]