The Court of First Instance and Investigation 1 of Barbate (Cádiz) is investigating the details of the operation deployed by the Civil Guard on February 9 at the port of this town, in which Civil Guards Miguel Ángel González and David Pérez died and four of their colleagues were injured after their boat was rammed by a narco speedboat. In a court order obtained by EL PAÍS, the judge has requested abundant information from the General Directorate of the Civil Guard to determine if, as indicated by the complaint filed in March by the Unified Association of the Civil Guard (AUGC) that prompted this investigation, the superiors who ordered the agents to enter the water with a zodiac committed a crime against labor rights by not providing them with the necessary means to act that night. In their statements to the judge investigating the murders in a separate case, the four surviving Civil Guards all highlighted the lack of adequate resources they had to confront the criminals that day. “The boat we were on was not prepared for that mission in any way,” one of them stated.
The judge’s resolution includes the interrogation of these four Civil Guards as witnesses, as well as a fifth agent from the Civil Guard, the captain of the Maritime Service in Cádiz. He has also requested that the statements made by the first four on May 10 within the investigation into the murder of their colleagues be included, in which one of them claimed to have heard the sergeant who assigned them the mission telling two superiors that “with the type of small boat” they were going to enter the water with in the port, a narco speedboat “could run over them.” This agent stated that there was “clear insistence” from the superiors for them to act as they did that day. The judge has also asked for information on the chain of command that ultimately gave the order to the Civil Guard agents to enter the water on the patrol boat.
The judge also wants the Ministry of the Interior to provide information on the characteristics of the patrol boat used by the agents, such as its registration date, dimensions, number of engines, power, maximum speed, maximum number of crew members, and the purpose for which the boat was acquired and assigned. One survivor emphasized the size difference between their five-meter boat and the 14-meter narco speedboats. Another stated that the boat they had was not suitable for the situation they faced, although he admitted that nothing would have changed if they had been on a larger boat. The judge has also requested information on the security measures and protective equipment available to the agents on that day.
The judge has requested the highest authorities of the Civil Guard to provide the current general plan for occupational risk prevention applied to the Rapid Action Group (GAR) and the Specialist Group in Underwater Activities (GEAS), the two units to which the six agents belonged. He also asks for a detailed report on the risk assessment of these units in operations like the one they were involved in on February 9, 2024. Additionally, he wants to know if this plan was communicated to the six Civil Guards. He also asks if the Civil Guard has conducted any internal investigation into the circumstances of the operation and, if so, the conclusions and identities of those involved. This case is being processed by the same court investigating the murder of the two agents, for which six people were initially arrested and accused. It has been almost two weeks since the Guardia Civil revised their initial findings and absolved them of the crime after a reconstruction of the events based on video recordings of the incident.
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