AUGC asks Marlaska for more agents after the deadly attack in Algeciras and to declare the Zone of Special Singularity

MADRID, 26 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) has demanded more agents from the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, after the deadly attack in Algeciras that left a sacristan murdered and several crimes for an alleged crime of terrorism, as well as declaring the region of Cadiz as a Special Singularity Zone, which would imply giving incentives to the police and stabilizing the squads.

"The deadly attack perpetrated yesterday in two churches in Algeciras demonstrates the lack of troops and insecurity existing in these areas devastated by migratory pressure, organized crime and drug trafficking. The combination of circumstances requires the application of the Special Singularity Zone in the region and more human resources in all municipalities and cities," AUGC said in a statement.

AUGC maintains that "it has no validity to commission agents there for a few months", referring to the Campo de Gibraltar, referring to the request made to Marlaska this Thursday by the mayor of Algeciras, José Antonio Landaluce, publicly demanding more civil guards and national police to guarantee security in the city.

Faced with these criticisms, sources from the Ministry of the Interior have pointed out this Thursday that the troops of the National Police and Civil Guard in Campo de Gribaltar have grown by 31% with the governments of Pedro Sánchez. Specifically, the region has gone from having 1,956 agents from both bodies in December 2017 to having 2,579 in August 2022. As regards Algeciras specifically, the city has gone from having 1,201 agents to the current 1,363.

The professional association recalls that Spain has been at Level 4 out of 5 of the Anti-Terrorist Alert since June 2015 but that the Government "does not provide the civil guards with sufficient material resources, keeps their staffs depleted and incomprehensibly suppresses the Coordination Body against Drug Trafficking (OCON-South)".

"All this translates into an increase in crime and a lower reaction capacity of the available agents, also unprotected without individual vests or resources that could mean the difference between life and death," they add.

AUGC has urged Marlaska to "take a step forward" for the implementation of the Special Singularity Zone in Cádiz. "It is a commitment that the minister himself assumed on January 14, 2022 during the meeting held with the representatives of the association and that all the agents continue to wait for it to materialize definitively," he concluded.