Here are some Guardia Civil figurines Marivi and I accumulated, starting in 1973, when we were working in the shipyard in Ferrol. Don't ask me why. Maybe it was their unusual uniforms and because they were so much more professional than the municipal cops back then. (The Guardia made Barney Fife look like Eliot Ness in those days.)

The Guardia Civil is a Spanish police force that has both military and civilian functions. It has foreign peace-keeping missions and is the equivalent of a federal paramilitary police. As a police force, the Guardia Civil is comparable today to the French Gendarmerie and the Italian Carabinieri.

Brief History
The Guardia Civil was founded in 1844 during the reign of Queen Isabel II. The purpose of their creation was to put down any revolutionary sentiment in the rural population, particularly in the Basque provinces. The first academy of "guardias civiles" was established in Valdemoro, south of Madrid, in 1855.

Their first job was to restore and maintain land ownership and servitude among the peasants of Spain. In the countryside the monarchy's primary goal was to stop the spread of anti-monarchy sentiment. Based on the model of light infantry used by Napoleon in his European campaigns, the Guardia Civil was born as a police force with high mobility that could be deployed regardless of inhospitable conditions and that was able to patrol large areas of the countryside.

To this day a basic patrol unit is formed by two agents, usually called a pareja (a pair), in which one will initiate the intervention while the second serves as a backup.

The Guardia Today
Today's Guardia Civil is a police force subject to the checks and supervision expected in a democratic society. And their proven effectiveness throughout history has led to additional tasks being added regularly to their job description. Their responsibilities now include (but are not limited to) the following areas (in no special order):

• security in rural areas with less than 10,000 inhabitants
• highway patrol
• protection of the King and his family
• border security, anti-smuggling and counter-drugs operations
• Prison operations and safety
• weapons licenses, hunting licenses, bomb squad and explosives
• Security of embassies abroad
• Coast Guard
• Anti-terrorism