Gloria Moreno and the democratic abnormality

December 8 2019 (16:50 WET)

More than 8 files. Six completed without any type of responsibility. Filed or allowed to expire. Two pending resolutions. Two criminal court proceedings. One filed for false accusation against Sergeant Gloria Moreno by the veterinarian of Arrecife and the other pending judgment.

Add an accusation of document forgery for having warned superiors of the possible leak that was being carried out by a guard of the Seprona unit on the island so that the shearwater poachers on the island of Alegranza would not be identified.

This is the summary of the mistreatment, persecution, harassment and cruelty to which the sergeant of the Seprona of Lanzarote Gloria Moreno has been subjected.

 

What is behind this attitude? Why do political leaders look the other way? Why haven't the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands, the General Directorate of the Civil Guard or the Ministry of the Interior itself moved a finger to investigate the causes of the opening of 8 disciplinary proceedings, none of which culminated in a sanction, against the sergeant?

 

The answer is that there is still submission of politics to the lack of democratization of the state security forces, the remnants of fascism, the power of the macho hierarchy and collaboration with impunity, corruption and local mafias.

 

It cannot be tolerated that in the 21st century the basic functions of the democratic institutions of the State continue to be abandoned and that is why the Parliament of the Canary Islands has supported, at the proposal of the Sí Podemos Canarias Parliamentary Group, asking the Ministry of the Interior to "open an investigation in order to clarify the reasons for the opening of 8 disciplinary proceedings" against Sergeant Gloria Moreno, "and determine whether they respond to the legitimate obligation of the commanders to sanction reprehensible conduct of their subordinates or, on the contrary, constitutes an exercise of arbitrariness".

 

In Sí Podemos Canarias we understand that there cannot be a legitimate political system that does not address serious situations within some of the basic institutions of the State, there cannot be a democratic society if it tries to hide the suffering and there can be no truth if the facts that are known are covered with a blanket of silence.

It is necessary to keep in mind the jurisprudence and the different declarations aimed at protecting the right to life and the integrity of persons, such as the fight against impunity included in the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the 2012 directives of the European Parliament and Council of Europe and the doctrine of the European Court of Human Rights itself.

Based on all these resolutions, the right to the truth obliges us to unravel what has really happened with the eight files opened to Sergeant Moreno.

There cannot be democratic institutions if they are not capable of protecting the victim, in this case Sergeant Gloría Moreno, from the power of the Civil Guard commanders who have been mistreating, harassing, persecuting and mistreating her for carrying out her work following the constitutional mandate to prosecute crimes and irregularities.

In order for institutions to be considered democratic, those responsible at the head of them must attend to the victims and investigate the facts, causes, conditions and circumstances for the victimization process. These institutions have the obligation to identify those who generate mistreatment, harassment, persecution and cruelty.

The only way to avoid the impunity that occurs within the institutions of the State is by addressing complaints and investigating those responsible and proposing punishments.

Only the State that demands accountability and repairs the damage caused to the victim is democratic.

Therefore, the institutions of the democratic State have the obligation to reveal, repair, socialize the truth. What they have been asking for from civil society, an in-depth investigation and that the results of that investigation be made public, explaining the causes of the opening of the disciplinary proceedings and that those responsible are known and that the sanctions to those responsible for their actions against the sergeant are explained.

That, and no other, is the only way to change the perverse logics that nest in the institutions in which the events against the sergeant have occurred. It is the only way to isolate fascism, machismo and authoritarianism loaded with misogyny against a woman for carrying out her work following the constitutional mandate.

It is the obligation of the democratic public authorities to give a voice to the sergeant, so that public opinion knows her personal shock and avoids collective amnesia and confusion.

The most important thing is that the individual horror lived is a collective experience so that its knowledge serves as a social, critical and democratic instrument and that the truth and the painful experiences of the victim make intolerable the possibility of new cases similar to those of the sergeant.

For the moment, the Government Delegation of Spain in the Canary Islands, the General Directorate of the Civil Guard and the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlasca, have refused their obligation to act ex officio.

Clearly, that is not democratic normality.

Manuel Marrero Morales

Spokesperson for the Sí Podemos Canarias Parliamentary Group

Most read