The electoral disaster suffered by Justice Civil Guard (Jucil) in the Council of the armed institute – in which this association, until then the majority, lost half of it – has caused an internal earthquake. The National Executive Committee, made up of 10 people, has been divided into two for weeks with crossed accusations that have led to both sectors calling the nearly 15,000 members separately to extraordinary assemblies.
One of the groups, led by the current secretary general, Ernesto Vilariño, plans to hold it next Friday, December 12, with the aim of removing two of the leaders opposed to him and renewing the leadership of the organization with “a strong, cohesive and fully aligned team,” as announced on Tuesday in a press release. The other sector of leaders wants, on the contrary, for the highest body of the association to meet four days later to analyze “the current situation”, study what “solutions to adopt” and “modify the statutes”, without further specification, according to the circular sent to the members to which EL PAÍS has had access.
Jucil, strongly opposed to the Ministry of the Interior since it emerged under the protection of the Jusapol platform that in 2017 mobilized thousands of agents from both the Civil Guard and the National Police to demand equal pay with the Mossos d’Esquadra, has been experiencing an internal war for a year that, far from subsiding, is getting worse. First it was in court between the current management of the association and that are still being resolved in court. The electoral setback last October – Jucil went from obtaining 14,251 ballots four years ago to having to settle for 6,838 votes, less than half – not only has not closed that wound, but has caused a new one that, in addition, has divided the executive committee itself into two apparently irreconcilable factions.
According to sources familiar with what has happened within this body since the results of the elections were known, Vilariño’s role has been questioned by the sector led by brothers Óscar and David González Sequera, deputy general secretary and national training secretary respectively, who have supposedly rejected in internal meetings all the proposals made by the top leader of the association to redirect Jucil’s situation. “They say no to everything. It’s unsustainable,” says a source close to Vilariño. The confrontation, increasingly bitter, has even resulted in an exchange of messages in the internal chat of the executive committee with mutual reproaches and serious accusations, details sources familiar with its content.
This initially hidden war surfaced at the end of November, when the González Sequera brothers and four other members of the executive committee sent a call to all associates to hold an “extraordinary assembly” in Madrid on December 16. On the agenda, it was noted that, in addition to the “analysis of the current situation of the association”, the files opened to the five critical former leaders who denounced alleged economic irregularities, a “modification” of the statutes and any other “topic proposed by the members” that is communicated at least 72 hours before the start of the assembly will be resolved.
The general secretary’s response came two days later, on December 1, with a communication to the members in which, in addition to denouncing formal irregularities in the call of his critics, he announced an assembly for December 12, four days before. In the letter, to which this newspaper has also had access, Vilariño accused the six members of the Executive Committee of “surprisingly” rejecting the internal elections that he had proposed in the meetings they had held after the setback. Vilariño has included in the agenda of the meeting the dismissal due to loss of confidence of two of the critics, Óscar González Sequera and Sonia Valverde Diego, national secretary of Transparency and Equality, both signatories of the call.
González Sequera, who in addition to being deputy general secretary of the association is responsible for its finances, justifies to this newspaper the initiative of the six members to call an assembly without the approval of the general secretary in the “internal situation” that Jucil is experiencing “after the bad results of the last elections.” “We have to make important decisions,” he says. González Sequera insists on the legality of the assembly called by the critical members of the executive committee, but assures that he will also attend the one that will be held four days before at the request of Vilariño: “I must attend since I am asked to resign.”
