The Civil Guard (; ) was the main preventive police force of Peru until its dissolution in 1988. As a national gendarmerie force, it was responsible for civil policing under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, while investigative work was carried out by the Peruvian Investigative Police. It was also supported at times by the Republican Guard. During its dissolution process, it became known as the General Police () until its formal integration into the National Police of Peru in 1991. The corps is colloquially known as the (reputable).
It was modelled after the Spanish Civil Guard, which assisted in its formation.
History
Origin The origins of the Civil Guard date back to 1873, when President Manuel Pardo approved and signed two Supreme Decrees on December 31 of 1873 (published in El Peruano, the Peruvian Government's official newspaper, on January 28, 1874) and March 23, 1874, respectively, providing for its creation.Revista de la Guardia Civil del Perú, Year L, Nº 400, November–December 1982, brochure: La Guardia Civil del Perú, p. 3
It also refers to "urban and rural stations and of the Regular Police Force divided into Gendarmerie and the Civil Guards, respectively", thus the decrees formally marked the birth of the service. That same year, Congress reported that Civil Guards units would commence their duties in every part of the nation.Article 14 of Chapter IV of the Supreme Decree issued on December 31, 1873 states: “The regular police force is divided into two claees: the Civil Guard and Gendarmerie." On November 9, 1874, President Manuel Pardo opened the Civil Guard Instruction School, whose first cadets made up a 50-men company within the Lima Infantry Gendarmerie Battalion.
Reorganization
The Civil Guard was reorganized several times, with its first time being in 1919, under Augusto B. Leguía's administration.Legislative Decree No. 1163 issued on August 7, 1919 The purpose of the reorganization was to reinvent its public image and to modernize the unit, modelling it after its Spanish counterpart. A Spanish mission approved by King Alfonso XIII was sent to Lima with the purpose of providing full assistance in the modernization and reorganization of the police forces, working with veterans of the old Civil Guard and the remainder of what was then the National Gendarmerie. The Spanish mission was chaired by then Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Pueyo of the Spanish Civil Guard, accompanied by C.G. Captain Bernardo Sanchez Visaires and C.G. Lieutenant Adolfo Parreño Carretero, who due to illness had to return to Spain, being replaced by Lieutenant Fernando Gomez Ayau and SFC Mr José Gómez Hernández.
After arriving and having been received by the President, the mission started organizing the reform of the police forces, delivering within a month of their arrival, the documentation on January 21, 1922, having presented to President Leguía and the Minister for Police 14 bills that comprised the complete plan of reorganization of the state security forces were by then a topic of discussion in the National Congress. This study was approved no less than the President himself, who considered the plan proposed in the 14 projects mentioned, in order for the development of the national economy and to improve the security situation. As a result:
The Civil Guard Charter for Peru was framed, similar to that used by the Spanish Civil Guard, with its 1st article stating Honor is the principal emblem of the Civil Guard, a distinction that must never be hurt, for when it is done it will never be repaired, and formalizing the proposals of the Spanish military mission to make it a uniformed, independent service away from the Armed Forces and the War Ministry and as part of the Police Ministry, but will keep its military form and traditions. The wartime role would be to reinforce the Armed Forces in the defense of the nation, also as stated in the Charter. The peacetime role would be for public security in rural communities, customs and port security, highway patrol, and border security and defense among others, also as stated in the Charter. The "GC" abbreviation, the same one used in Spain, will be formally adopted by the new service.
A Civil Guard instruction school was opened in 1922, also organized under the tutelage of the Spanish mission. During its inauguration ceremony, the Peruvian cry of "Viva el Perú" () was replaced by "Viva el Perú y la madre España" ().
After the creation of the School following the Supreme Decree of July 3, 1922, there was careful recruitment of qualified personnel for the installation of the campus, getting the nomination "very honorable" and "excellent military history" for the Captains, Lieutenants and Ensigns who were to be commissioned. Class sections for security and investigation were met with great care to conduct background and education and to that extent that every cadet's qualifications were met.
The location chosen for the State Police Academy was the former Hospice of Mercy Hospital, 796 Sebastian Lorente Ibáñez Avenue (Avenue of the Incas before) in the traditional district of Cercado, which was renovated days after the decree took effect. The academy officially opened its doors on November 1 the very same year. The opening was presided over by President Leguía, together with government officials, the diplomatic corps, and military officials and attaches attending. The Spanish community of Lima also graced the event and the Spanish mission chief, LTCOL Pedro Pueyo y España, SCG, entrusted the State War Color to the academy as its director after it was blessed officially by military chaplains and handed over to the President. It was followed by the oath-taking of the first cadets of the academy. A plaque was unveiled by the presiding officers to commemorate the occasion of its formal opening, and the first Corps of Cadets performed its first march past.
As part of the opening a giant sign was made in the school entrance with the words of the Civil Guard motto, El honor es su divisa como la madre patria (Honor is its emblem with the mother country), made by no less than President Leguía himself who adapted to Peru the Spanish Civil Guard motto. Classes commenced on November 4, 1922, and its first graduation and passing out parade was held on Sept. 3, 1923, for the first of what became 59 graduating classes of officers.
The strength of the first class of graduates from the Police Academy, addressed to the Commissioners for Lima, constituted the State Security Corps and the first Corps of Cadets were made up of:
30 Peruvian Army Officer Cadets 104 Officer and NCO Cadets 19 Technical Cadets of the course of Investigation
History up until the 1970s
Thanks to the Spanish mission to Peru of the Spanish Civil Guard, Peru had professional civil security forces for the first time. The brand new uniforms of the Civil Guard and the Security Corps reflected the effects of that mission: While the new Civil Guard kept the kepis with their dress beige uniforms Security Corps personnel wore peaked caps with their dress and duty blue uniforms. Civil Guards were also distinguished by the very same items Peruvian Army cavalry officers used then in their uniforms while the Security Corps uniforms were modeled on those worn by European police services of the period.
Police organization in the rural and urban areas then were different from each other. Rural organization of the Civil Guard was on posts, lines, sectors, commands and regions while Security Corps' urban organization mirrored military organization save that, instead of companies, commissaries were the basic unit. The new SSC's first commisariat, the Monserrate Commissariat, was formally created.
The cavalry was formed under the name of the Cavalry Squadron of Provincial Security, which was organized on the basis of the Gendarmerie's Cavalry Squadron "Lima Guard" at the "Quinta de Presa" Barracks, one of the new mounted police units to be raised as part of the now reorganized Civil Guard. Two more were later raised, but all were disbanded in 1923 and converted to instruction squadrons in the Police Academy. The 1st Gendarme Cavalry Squadron, at the same time, became the mounted component of the 1st Combined Arms (Cavalry and Infantry) Security Regiment, and the Gendarmerie Provincial Cavalry Squadron became the Provincial Security Cavalry Squadron. On February 22, 1924, President Augusto B. Leguía, via a Supreme Resolution from the Cabinet, formally raised a Machine Gun Battalion to reinforce the ranks of the Security Corps to fulfill its mandate of public order, with Major Teodosio Alejandro Solís as its first battalion commander.
The baptism of fire for the new Security Corps came with the death of two personnel from the service on May 26, 1924, while on a routine mission in Villa de Olaya. The two who died were Guardsman Nazario Tapia and Corporal Miguel Gutarra Herrera, a member of the 1st ever graduating class of 1923.
The August 18, 1924 decree established the 1st Joint Command of the Civil Guard, with an Infantry Battalion, composed of two companies, and a Cavalry Squadron (formed on the basis of the former mounted police). Its duties began the same month, with its first personnel enlisted in 1925, detached from the two Civil Guards infantry companies' headquarters to the San Lazaro Barracks located at Matamoros Street, in the Rimac and the Cavalry Squadron's headquarters would be at Conchucos in the Barrios Altos, Lima, headquarters that the coming years would become the headquarters of the Cavalry Squadron of the Police and Civil Guard Guardsman's School until the end of 1965 when they moved to the Civil Guard Instruction Center (now the National Police Officer's School) Mariano Santos in the district of La Campiña, Chorrillos. The 1st Command would move to new quarters on 1644 28 July Avenue on January 16, 1937.
The Civil Guard Second Command, the customs police arm of the Civil Guard, would be raised on August 1, 1925, by virtue of a Supreme Decree. Its baptism of fire came in 1927 while fighting the forces of local rebel Eleodoro Benel Zuloeta in Cutervo Province and later while fighting warlords in Cajamarca. Due to this and other actions the Civil Guard size was increased and 3 independent companies had to be raised as a result.
A presidential decree of March 28, 1928 established August 30 every year as Police Day. Its first observance was marked by a grand parade in Lima's outskirts by all the participating units. Law No.6183 enacted on April 23, 1928, formally declared the status of the police forces, the Civil Guard included, as paramilitary units under the control and supervision of the Ministry of Government and Police with military traditions but with functions more akin to civil police services.
On January 14, 1929, the Traffic Battalion was created, a merit of Act No. 6468, to control traffic in the Capital of Peru, with Major Edilberto Salazar Castillo as its first chief. The service was started in November of that year.
Leguía reorganized the Corps of Security Forces of the Republic by virtue of Supreme Decree of March 17, 1930, with the autonomy of the role of cavalry in the Police Cavalry Squadron recognized and the Provincial Security and Lima Security Squadrons, thus by merger, became the First Cavalry Security Regt., moving the entire cavalry unit from the "Quinta de Presa" base to the Barracks "El Potao", approving Col. Rufino Manuel Martinez Martinez, CG's appointment as Head of the First Infantry Regiment of Security and appointing Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Pella Cáceda, CG, as First commander of the First Cavalry Regiment based at the Security Headquarters "El Potao."