What began as a small, family-driven movement after the deaths of two Guardia Civil officers at the Barbate dock in Cadiz has grown across Spain. Women, mothers, and husbands of Guardia Civil personnel are joining the platform Our Heart for the Flag, born in the Campo de Gibraltar region just a week ago. According to information obtained by CASO ABIERTO, it already counts more than 8,000 signatories consisting of families of Guardia Civil and National Police officers.
The surge was sparked by the women connected to the GEAS divers unit of the Guardia Civil. One of them is the widow of Miguel Ángel Gómez, one of the two officers killed by a narco-boat pilot at Barbate on February 9. Francisca, Gómez’s mother, is also part of the platform. They insist that the officers’ deaths were unjust and preventable (Source: CASO ABIERTO).
Isandra, the platform’s president and wife of a GEAS officer stationed in Campo de Gibraltar, describes Barbate as heartbreaking. After formal training, she notes that the response has been overwhelming across the country, with a sense of solidarity spreading like wildfire (Source: CASO ABIERTO).
Thousands of people—women, spouses, partners, mothers, fathers, and children of Guardia Civil and police officers—have reached out through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. They have also organized via WhatsApp, creating 30 groups in different provinces. The movement is now structuring itself with local spokespersons and regional chapters (Source: CASO ABIERTO).
Sense of Fear
“We are tired of the fear that comes with going to work because officers lack the necessary resources,” explains Isandra. Delegations of the platform have already formed in nearly every autonomous community, from Galicia and Asturias to Catalonia, including the Canary and Balearic Islands (Source: CASO ABIERTO).
In their manifesto, the consortium calls for Campo de Gibraltar to be designated as a zone of special singularity and for resources to be provided to Guardia Civil officers nationwide so they can carry out their duties safely (Source: CASO ABIERTO).
They claim that officers frequently face dangerous conditions, operating with fewer resources than the criminals they pursue. The platform stresses that the aim is not to oppose the Guardia Civil; quite the opposite—several members carry Guardia Civil blood in their veins, literally, expressed as a family tradition of service (Source: CASO ABIERTO).
The platform has begun legal steps to become a formal association, promising to voice the concerns of officers and agents. “They cannot speak up without risk of sanction, but we can,” remarks Inmaculada, a Guardia Civil wife and mother who serves as the regional spokesperson for the Valencian Community. The group has announced plans to participate in a demonstration on March 16 in Madrid to demand better working conditions for police and Guardia Civil officers (Source: CASO ABIERTO).
They also advocate for recognizing the profession as one with elevated risk, on par with other high-risk roles like the Mossos d’Esquadra or municipal police. They lament that officers have faced assaults and killings for decades, and this recognition would reflect the danger inherent in the job. Inmaculada recalls a prior incident in which her own son, then a lieutenant with the Guardia Civil stationed in Alsasua, Navarra, was attacked in 2016 while he and his partner were in a local bar (Source: CASO ABIERTO).