The sentence of Pérez de los Cobos compromises the position of the head of the Civil Guard in Valencia
The ruling of the Supreme Court on Diego Pérez de los Cobos, which has upheld the resources of the colonel of the Civil Guard against the decision of the Ministry of the Interior to veto his promotion to general, indirectly leaves the current chief in a compromised situation. of the Armed Institute in the Valencian Community, Arturo Prieto Bozec from Elche. The judicial resolution, of which at the moment only the ruling is known, annuls his promotion to general in October 2021, which would place him as colonel again.. The problem is that this rank is not sufficient to occupy command in said community..
As established by the royal decree on the peripheral organization of the Civil Guard, command of the sixth zone, which corresponds to the Valencian Community, must be exercised “by a general officer of the Civil Guard in active service”. Within this category fall the ranks of lieutenant general, division general and brigadier general, which is to which Prieto was promoted on October 19, 2021. Just nine days later, on October 28, the Interior assigned him as the main command to said autonomous community, but after the annulment of his promotion by the Supreme Court, he would no longer meet the requirements demanded by this position..
When asked by El Confidencial, sources from the Civil Guard have declined to make any type of consideration about what they describe as “a technical-legal issue” and refer to the Ministry of the Interior.. The department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska highlights that, despite the annulment of the appointment having already been known, the Supreme Court has not yet provided the ruling: “We will have to wait for the full resolution to analyze it and see its scope,” they warn.. “At the moment, General Prieto continues to lead the Civil Guard in his community without problem”.
Other sources indicate that, once the sentence is notified, the Interior could promote him again, although they doubt the deadlines.. The Supreme Court has ordered “the retroaction of the procedures so that the report of the general director of the Civil Guard (…) that regulates the evaluations is issued”, so in principle it would be possible to correct this irregularity, promote him again and leave the annulment in wet paper. Until then, the position of Prieto, who arrived from the Almería command after having received several decorations and had various assignments in Murcia, in the Anti-Terrorist Group and in the Information Service of the Civil Guard in Vizcaya, remains in an indefinite position..
Two other controls affected
The Supreme Court ruling also annuls the promotions to brigadier generals of Antonio José Rodríguez-Medel and Francisco Javier Sánchez Gil, who were in turn promoted to the command of the Teaching Headquarters and the Technical Services Headquarters, respectively.. As with the position of the Valencian Community, the regulations of the Civil Guard reserve these commands to a “general officer of the Civil Guard on active duty”, so when they are demoted to the rank of colonels, their appointments they would be compromised once again.
In the appeals he filed before the Supreme Court, Pérez de los Cobos warned about “anomalous events” contrary to law. As he remembered, he himself had been ranked number one after the corresponding evaluation for promotion to general, but the Interior chose to ignore this fact.. “It is clear that the non-existence of the mandatory report that the general director of the Civil Guard must submit to the Minister of Defense assessing the results of the evaluations carried out and the suitability of those who are going to be promoted (…) turns the assumption into an accredited one. reality as proof of the misuse of power,” he denounced.
After reviewing the procedure, the Supreme Court ended up agreeing with him this week by concluding that he was “relegated in promotions”. Last March, this same court also dealt another setback to the Interior by annulling the dismissal of Pérez de los Cobos as colonel at the head of the Madrid command.. His dismissal occurred in 2020 for refusing to inform his political superiors of a judicial investigation that affected the Government of Pedro Sánchez, as El Confidencial revealed.. Specifically, some investigations focused on the actions of the Government Delegation during the start of the pandemic for authorizing demonstrations such as International Women's Day.