What about the Spanish army?

A group of Spanish soldiers stationed at Loiola barracks in the Basque city of Donostia caused serious disturbances to nearby people on Sunday night. According to several witnesses, the male servicemen were drunk at the moment of the incidents and started shouting slogans praising former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and also harassed sexually some women who were passing by the neighborhood next to the military establishment by showing them their genitalia. For this reason, one of them was detained by the Basque police under accusations of disobeying and resisting the authority but was lately released until the date of the trial. It is not known how many soldiers were involved in such disturbances nor whether the military or the police are about to take further actions against them. 

By its side, the mayor and the members of the city hall of Donostia expressed their anger over the behavior of the soldiers who have created a sensation of alarm and concern to the inhabitants of the city. Moreover, the city government has claimed that the attitude of the military men shows that the Spanish army is a threat to the end of the conflict in the Basque country.

Although this case can seem an isolated fact, the reality is that the Spanish army is widely known for this kind of misconduct either inside and outside the boundaries of the country. One of the most terrifying examples of that behaviour was the mistreactment that some soldiers inflicted to some Iraqi prisoners at a jail in Diwaniya in 2004. It was recorded at a video which can be watched here. However, the biggest scandal took place in the Peninsula, where a female army captain was issued a disciplinary record after she claimed that she had been sexually harassed by one of her superiors. Although the record was not apparently related to the case, the fact is that her career started worsening after the Colonel she denounced was sentenced to a prison term. The Ministry of Defence itself started the proceeding to punish the female captain.

Another remarkable fact is that lots of elements from the previous regime subsist within the military at the moment. In fact, the army was not purged after dictator Franco died and the institution still praises some of the values of the former dictatorship. As an example, the museum of the military in Toledo still treats Franco like a hero of war in spite of the crimes he and the soldiers he commanded committed. Other forms of praising the figure of the late dictator are very common among the soldiers as well, like those by the soldiers who protagonized the incidents last Sunday in Donostia.

To sum up, the behaviour of the Spanish military is not what you might expect from a security force of a democratic country. One could find dozens of examples of abuses that have been committed by those soldiers and which are not usually punished. The army would need a radical reform in Spain.