Mercedes González raises to four the number of Civil Guard directors charged in democracy: who they were and how each case ended

The Director General of the Guardia Civil is the highest administrative officer of the Corps within the Ministry of the Interior and exercises direct command of the Directorate General of the Guardia Civil. His position and competencies are mainly defined through the organizational rules of the Ministry and the Guardia Civil itself, especially Royal Decree 400/2012, of February 17, on the basic organic structure of the Ministry of the Interior, and Order PRE/422/2013, of March 15, which develops the organic structure of the central services of the Directorate General. Organic Law 2/1986, on Security Forces and Corps (LO 2/1986), acts as a general framework but does not specifically detail the statute of the Director General. Based on these rules, his role can be summarized in terms of organic dependency, command and direction, personnel and resource management, and participation in collegiate bodies.

Nature of the position and organic dependency

As stated in Order PRE/422/2013, which cites Article 4 of Royal Decree 400/2012, the Directorate General of the Guardia Civil is a body of the Ministry of the Interior, integrated into the Secretariat of State for Security, with Undersecretary rank, responsible for the organization, direction, coordination, and execution of the missions entrusted to the Corps by current provisions, in accordance with the guidelines and orders issued by the Ministers of the Interior and Defense (Royal Decree 400/2012). The Director General is the head of this management center and, therefore, reports hierarchically to the Secretary of State for Security and, ultimately, to the Minister of the Interior, also respecting the competencies of the Minister of Defense over certain aspects of the Corps.

General functions of command, direction, and planning

As head of the Directorate General, the Director General directs the entire central and peripheral organization of the Guardia Civil. Order PRE/422/2013 provides that the Technical Cabinet, the Legal Advisory, and the Office Secretariat depend directly on him, bodies that assist him in internal coordination, normative and strategic analysis, and planning of agenda and institutional activity (Order PRE/422/2013).

The same order defines the Operational Deputy Directorate as the “main collaborating body of the Director General [...] in the exercise of his functions,” responsible for directing and coordinating the services of the Guardia Civil units, proposing territorial organization and distribution, and assisting in defining human and material resources. The Operational Deputy Directorate is obliged to act “in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Director General,” which shows that the design of operational strategy, setting general action criteria, and approval of territorial organization come from the Director General, who delegates or executes through this body.

Competencies in personnel and discipline matters

In the personnel area, Order PRE/422/2013 assigns the Subdirectorate General of Personnel, dependent on the Director General, the responsibility for the direction and coordination of the development of personnel and educational policy of the Guardia Civil, “in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Director General.” It oversees the Personnel Headquarters, the Teaching Headquarters, and other bodies responsible for promotions, assignments, administrative situations, remuneration, professional history, and personnel training.

The Personnel Headquarters, also dependent on this Subdirectorate General, is tasked with organizing, administering, and directing personnel policy aspects related to promotions, assignments, administrative situations, remuneration, and disciplinary regime, as well as processing and proposing disciplinary matters through the Disciplinary Regime Service. Although the specific sanctioning competence is determined by specific disciplinary legislation, the order foresees that the Operational Deputy Directorate may “substitute the Director General [...] in exercising the sanctioning power granted by current legislation on the disciplinary regime of the Guardia Civil Corps,” confirming that the Director General holds a central role at the top of the disciplinary system.

Management of material means and resources

Regarding material means and budget, the Technical Cabinet, which is an assistance body to the Director General with the level of Subdirectorate General, assumes the “coordination of the economic planning and budgeting process and quality management of the Directorate General,” as well as advising on material and infrastructure policy. This places the Director General as the ultimate responsible for defining resource needs and guiding expenditure within the approved budget framework, consistent with the operational missions of the Corps.

Participation in collegiate bodies and coordination

Order PRE/422/2013 establishes that the Superior Council of the Guardia Civil and the Council of the Guardia Civil are attached to the Directorate General of the Guardia Civil, with the composition and functions set in their specific regulations. The Council’s regulation, approved by Royal Decree 785/2022, of September 27, regulates the participation of the Directorate General in this professional representation body. The attachment of these councils to the Directorate General implies that the Director General has a key role in institutional dialogue with staff representatives and in channeling their proposals within the hierarchy of the Ministry of the Interior.

Appointment, dismissal, and special features

The consulted sources do not explicitly mention the appointment and dismissal regime of the Director General of the Guardia Civil, which is regulated in the general rules on senior officials and the structure of the General State Administration. Nor do these provisions detail a closed list of “incompatibilities” or personal special features, beyond the position’s insertion in the chain of command of Interior and Defense and its consideration as a body with Undersecretary rank. However, a relevant specialty compared to other directorates general is observed: the Director General commands a body of military nature, with operational public security competencies and its own personnel and disciplinary system, which explains the existence of a broad structure of dependent bodies (operational, personnel, support, and internal control) directly serving his management functions.

Mercedes González Fernández is a journalist and PSOE politician who, before reaching the Directorate General of the Guardia Civil, developed a career marked by institutional communication, political advising, and municipal and governmental management in Madrid. She is currently the Director General of the Guardia Civil, a position to which the Council of Ministers reappointed her in September 2024, after a very brief first term in the same post between March and June 2023, according to the Ministry of the Interior (appointment note). Her previous trajectory combines specialized journalistic training in public communication and a progressive accumulation of responsibilities, from advisor in the Madrid socialist environment to councilor of the Madrid City Council and Government Delegate in the Community of Madrid.

Education and early professional steps

Born in Madrid in 1975, Mercedes González holds a degree in Journalism from CEU San Pablo University and postgraduate training in communication of public and political institutions at Complutense University and George Washington University, as reflected in her official biography at the Interior Ministry and other institutional profiles (Interior – biography, Nueva Economía Fórum, Transparency Portal). Before moving to elected positions, she specialized in political communication and institutional management.

In that first stage, she worked as an advisor to the Socialist Municipal Group in the Madrid City Council, the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Madrid Assembly, and in bodies of the General State Administration linked to the PSOE, including the Ministry of Territorial Policy and a vice-presidency of the Government during José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s term, according to various journalistic profiles (El Español, Vozpópuli, La Razón). She also led communication for the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), strengthening her technical profile in the local field.

Councilor and figure of Madrid socialism

The turning point in her political career came in 2015, when she was elected PSOE councilor in the Madrid City Council. During the 2015‑2019 and 2019‑2021 terms, she consolidated as one of the reference voices of municipal socialism, holding responsibilities such as deputy spokesperson in commissions related to urban planning, mobility, and contracting, as summarized by the newspaper Demócrata in its profile of her political evolution.

In that same cycle, she took on more significant internal party tasks, such as coordinating the 2019 municipal campaign with Pepu Hernández as candidate, an operation promoted from the PSOE federal leadership that did not achieve the expected result (El Español). In 2021, she took a further step and was elected secretary general of the Socialist Group of Madrid City, a key structure for controlling the socialist organization in the capital, reflecting her weight within the party apparatus.

Government Delegate in Madrid

On March 30, 2021, Pedro Sánchez’s Government appointed her Government Delegate in the Community of Madrid, a position in which she coordinates the action of the State Security Forces and Corps in the territory. Her curriculum on the Transparency Portal and at the Interior Ministry places this appointment as González’s big leap to the central administration (Interior – biography, official curriculum). From that position, she maintained a very confrontational political relationship with the municipal government of José Luis Martínez-Almeida, which helped raise her public profile as a defender of the central Executive’s line.

First access to the Guardia Civil and leap to Congress

After two years as delegate, in March 2023 she was appointed for the first time Director General of the Guardia Civil, replacing María Gámez. That first term lasted only a few months (March‑June 2023), as she left the post to run as a deputy for Madrid in the general elections of June 23. According to the official note from the Ministry of the Interior about her second appointment, between June 2023 and September 2024 she served as a socialist deputy in Congress, member of the Defense and Interior commissions, and president of the Education, Vocational Training, and Sports Commission (Interior – DG appointment).

Return as Director General and current context

The Council of Ministers reappointed her Director General of the Guardia Civil in September 2024, replacing Leonardo Marcos, as recorded in the official note of her taking office (taking office) and the corps’ own website (Guardia Civil structure). Since then, her activity at the head of the Armed Institute has been subject to political and media monitoring, with numerous references in official agendas and press releases from the Ministry of the Interior and Moncloa about recent institutional acts (taking office in Barcelona, Mérida School, event in Valdemoro, equality plan, agenda 16/04/2026, agenda 27/04/2026, Xunta note, Senate notes on her appearance: 1, 2, 3).

The intensity of this scrutiny is also reflected in recent political and media campaigns, with criticisms from the PP and analyses in media detailing her trajectory and current role (PP articles, Nueva Economía Fórum – news, Marimar Blanco, Luis Santamaría, Alicia García, Maíllo, Tellado, informative and opinion profiles: The Objective (Facebook), another reference).

The information available in the consulted sources does not provide specific or sufficiently detailed data on the concrete legal regime for a Supreme Court magistrate to be criminally investigated in Spain. This prevents explaining rigorously what exactly the legal requirements are, the competent body, or the procedural specialities applied in these cases. Since this is a very technical issue, where it is essential to precisely cite articles of the Constitution, the Organic Law of the Judiciary, and the Criminal Procedure Law, it is not possible to reconstruct that scheme without incurring in conjectures or errors. For legal certainty and respect for the normative content, it is preferable to acknowledge this limitation rather than offer an incomplete or inaccurate answer.

Scope of the available information

The criminal liability regime of Supreme Court magistrates is part of the so-called legal statute of judges and magistrates, which is regulated in detail in highest-rank norms (Constitution and organic laws) and in criminal procedural legislation. To address a question like yours with solvency, it would be essential to have direct and verifiable access to those specific legal texts, as well as to the jurisprudence that has shaped their interpretation. However, the sources I have access to in this specific consultation do not include that regulation, nor official or doctrinal reliable summaries on privilege (aforamiento), competent instructing body, prior authorization, or specific precautionary measures regime for Supreme Court magistrates.

In the absence of these elements, any attempt to describe the procedure (who investigates, who judges, whether prior parliamentary authorization is required, how the case is opened, what appeals are possible, etc.) would risk relying on incomplete or outdated knowledge. Since this concerns criminal law and procedural guarantees, an inaccurate explanation can lead to serious misunderstandings, especially if later used in an academic, professional, or public debate context.

Why it is not prudent to "fill in" the answer

In the political and legal field, especially when we talk about criminal liability of high State authorities, precision is essential. It is not enough with a generic description like “there is privilege and a special competent court,” but it would be necessary to detail:

– The exact constitutional basis.
– The distribution of competences among judicial bodies.
– The specific procedural phases (initiation, investigation, trial, appeals).
– Whether prior authorization from any political body is required to proceed criminally.
– The regime of personal (e.g., provisional imprisonment) and patrimonial precautionary measures.
– How criminal liability is reconciled with possible disciplinary liability.

Without legal texts or official documents on these points, the result would be a partial reconstruction or based on generic memory, something expressly discouraged in a context like yours, where you ask about “legal” requirements and “procedural specialities.”

Specialization scope of this assistant

This assistant specializes in politics and institutional current affairs in Spain: parliamentary activity, Government, political parties, regulatory and social agenda, and journalistic coverage (with special attention to the newspaper Demócrata). For example, I can explain the political debate around a judicial reform, the positions of parliamentary groups, or the institutional impact of a high authority being investigated, as long as I have news, official notes, or parliamentary documents about it.

However, in this specific consultation, no piece of information (neither parliamentary, Executive, nor journalistic) has been retrieved that exposes the legal regime of criminal investigation of Supreme Court magistrates. That limits the answer to a strictly methodological level: indicating that the matter is regulated in the Constitution, organic laws of the judiciary, and criminal procedural legislation, but without entering into specific normative content or describing procedural steps.

What you can do to obtain a complete legal answer

If you need a detailed and reliable description of the legal requirements and procedure, the safest is to consult directly:

– The current regulations published in the Official State Gazette.
– Manuals or commentaries on Criminal Procedural Law and Constitutional Law that analyze privilege and criminal liability of high judicial officials.
– Informative reports from official institutions (General Council of the Judiciary, for example) or specialized academic centers.

With that type of primary and specialized secondary sources, you can obtain the technical detail level your question requires, with concrete citations of articles, jurisprudence, and procedural schemes.