Civil Guard ( Spain ) The Civil Guard ( ; ) is the Spanish gendarmerie . It has foreign peace - keeping missions and maintains military status and is the equivalent of a federal military - status police force . As a police force , the Guardia Civil is comparable today to the French Gendarmerie , the Italian Carabinieri , the Portuguese National Republican Guard and the Dutch Royal Marechaussee as it is part of the European Gendarmerie . The Guardia Civil uses as its leading emblem the words " El honor es mi divisa " ( Honour is my emblem ) , a motto emphasizing the unit ' s esprit de corps . Guardia precincts are called " casas cuartel " ( garrison posts ) . History . The Guardia Civil was founded as a national police force in 1844 during the reign of Queen Isabel II of Spain by the Basque Navarrese aristocrat Francisco Javier Girón y Ezpeleta , 2nd Duque de Ahumada and 5th Marqués de las Amarillas , an 11th generation descendant of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II . Formerly , law enforcement had been the responsibility of the Holy Hermandad , an organization of municipal leagues . Corruption was pervasive in the Hermandad , where officials were constantly subject to local political influence , and the system was largely ineffective outside the major towns and cities . Criminals could often escape justice by simply moving from one district to another . The first Guardia police academy was established in the town of Valdemoro , south of Madrid , in 1855 . Graduates were given the Guardia ' s now famous " tricorne " or " Cavaliers " hat as part of their duty dress uniform . The Guardia was initially charged with putting an end to brigandage on the nation ' s highways , particularly in the province of Andalucia , which had become notorious for numerous robberies and holdups of businessmen , peddlers , travelers , and even foreign tourists . Banditry in this region was so endemic that the Guardia found it difficult to completely eradicate . As late as 1884 , one traveler of the day reported that it still existed in and around the city of Málaga : The favorite and original method of the Malagueño highwayman is to creep up quietly behind his victim , muffle his head and arms in a cloak , and then relieve him of his valuables . Should he resist , he is instantly disembowelled with the dexterous thrust of a knife . . . [ The Spanish highwayman ] wears a profusion of amulets and charms . . . all of undoubted efficacy against the dagger of an adversary or the rifle of a Civil Guard . The Guardia Civil was also given the political task of restoring and maintain land ownership and servitude among the peasantry of Spain by the king , who desired to stop the spread of anti - monarchist movements inspired by the French revolution . The end of the First Carlist War had left the Spanish landscape scarred by the destruction of civil war , and the government was forced to take drastic action to suppress spontaneous revolts by a restive peasantry . Based on the model of light infantry used by Napoleon in his European campaigns , the Guardia Civil was transformed into a paramilitary force of high mobility that could be deployed irrespective of inhospitable conditions , able to patrol and pacify large areas of the countryside . Its members , called ' guardias ' , maintain to this day a basic patrol unit formed by two agents , usually called a " pareja " ( a pair ) , in which one of the ' guardias ' will initiate the intervention while the second ' guardia ' serves as a backup to the first . The modern force . Today the Guardia Civil is a police force subject to the checks and supervision expected in a democratic society . Moreover , the guardias ' proven effectiveness throughout history , whether in controlling banditry or in addressing the subsequent challenges and tasks given them , meant that additional tasks have been added regularly to their job description . Today , they are primarily responsible for policing and / or safety regarding the following ( but not limited to ) areas and / or safety related issues ( given in no special order ) : Peacekeepers . The Guardia Civil has been involved in operations as peacekeepers in United Nations sponsored operations , including operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina , Angola , Congo , Mozambique , Nicaragua , Haiti , East Timor and El Salvador . They also served with the Spanish contingent in the war in Iraq , mainly in intelligence gathering , where seven of its members were killed . In addition to " el instituto armado " ( " the armed institution " ) , the Guardia Civil is known as " la benemérita " ( " the well - remembered " ) . They served in the Spanish colonies , including Cuba , Puerto Rico , the Philippines , Spanish Guinea and Spanish Morocco . The Guardia Civil has a sister force in Costa Rica also called the Guardia Civil . The Costa Rican ' guardias ' often train at the same academy as regular Spanish officers . Characteristics . Members of the Guardia typically patrol in pairs . Members of the Guardia Civil often live in garrisons ( " casa - cuartel " ) with their families . Since the Guardia Civil must accommodate the families of its " guardias " , it was the first police force in Europe that accommodated a same - sex partner in a military installation . The symbol of the Guardia Civil consists of the Royal Crown of Spain , a sword and a fasces . The different units have variations of this symbol . Uniforms . The traditional headdress of the Guardia is the " tricornio " hat , originally a tricorne . Its use now is reserved for parades or ceremonies . For other occasions a cap , a beret or the characteristic " gorra teresiana " is worn . A wide range of clothing is worn according to the nature of the duties being performed . The historic blue , white and red uniform of the Guardia is now retained only for the Civil Guard Company of the Royal Guard and the " gastadores " ( parade markers ) of the Civil Guard Academy . A modernised new style of working uniform was announced for the Civil Guard in 2011 , for general adoption during 2012 . This comprises a green baseball cap , polo shirt and cargo pants . The historic three - cornered hat is to be retained for ceremonial parades and duty outside public buildings , together with the army - style tunic and trousers previously worn . The kepi - like " gorra teresiana " is , however , to be abolished . Specialities . The Corps has been organised into different specialties divided into operational and support specialties : Criticisms . Spying . On 23 July 2007 , Roberto Flórez García , a retired GC officer assigned to the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia was charged with spying for a foreign power ( allegedly Russia ) . Political involvement . Throughout the nineteenth century the Spanish army regularly became involved in politics ; the Guardia Civil was no exception . For this reason , the " guardias " were seen historically as a reactionary force . On 3 January 1874 , General Manuel Pavía y Rodríguez de Alburquerque stormed congress and ended the Spanish First Republic with a company of thirty guardias civiles . The first three decades of the 20th Century in Spain was a time of great political turmoil . During this period the Guardia Civil served frequently in the restoration of order remaining mostly loyal to established regimes . Thus , it supported the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera ( 1923 – 1930 ) , but it also supported the Second Spanish Republic ( 1931 – 1939 ) . During the Spanish Civil War , the Guardia Civil forces split almost evenly between those who remained loyal to the Republic , 53 % of the members ( which changed their name to " Guardia Nacional Republicana " - " National Republic Guard " ) and the rebel forces . After the war , under the authoritarian government of General Francisco Franco ( 1939 – 1975 ) , the Guardia Civil was reinforced with the members of the " Real Cuerpo de Carabineros de Costas y Fronteras " - " Royal Corps of Coast and Frontier Carabiniers " . The involvement of Guardia Civil figures in politics continued well to the end of the twentieth century : on 23 February 1981 , Lt . Col . Antonio Tejero Molina , a member of the Guardia Civil , participated with other military forces in the failed 23 - F coup d ' etat . Along with 200 members of the Guardia Civil , Lt . Col . Tejero briefly took hold of the lower house of the Cortes before the coup collapsed following a nationally - televised address by King Juan Carlos which denounced the coup . Police brutality . At the end of the nineteenth century , the Guardia Civil conducted a campaign against criminal and anarchist elements of the Andalusian population , a campaign in which numbers of otherwise innocent members of the public found themselves accused them of being members of the secret society " The Black Hand " . For this reason the ' guardias ' of that era were portrayed negatively in the literature and popular history , particularly by Spanish expatriate artists and writers . Critics of the " Guardia Civil " , particularly Republican sympathizers have alleged numerous instances of police brutality because of the organization ' s association with Franco ' s regime . The fact that the Guardia largely operated in mostly rural and isolated parts of the country increased the risk of police violations of individual civil rights through lack of supervision and accountability . García Lorca ' s poems have contributed to the Guardia Civil ' s reputation as , at least at the time , a heavy - handed police force .