JUPOL demands legal rigor and institutional respect in the face of the death of two civil guards in the line of duty in Huelva. The majority union of the National Police demands legal rigor and institutional respect towards those who give their lives fighting drug trafficking.
From JUPOL we want to show our utmost respect, support, and solidarity with the families, colleagues, and loved ones of the two Civil Guard agents who died this weekend in Huelva during a pursuit of a drug-smuggling boat. Their death was not the result of a casual accident or a work misfortune: it was a direct consequence of fulfilling their duty against extremely violent criminal organizations.
Therefore, from JUPOL we frontally reject any attempt to qualify these events as a simple "work accident". This terminology is not only legally incorrect, but profoundly unfair to those who risk and lose their lives defending the security of all Spaniards. The concept of "work accident" belongs to the scope of the General Regime of Social Security, regulated in article 156 of the General Law of Social Security, and is conceived for commercial and civil traffic, where the risk is accidental and must be eliminated through preventive measures.
"The act of service"
However, in the case of the State Security Forces and Corps, we are talking about a completely different reality: the “act of service” belongs to the realm of Special Administrative Law and the Passive Classes regime, where risk is an inherent part of the professional duty itself. From a legal, administrative, and criminal point of view, what happened in Huelva, as also happened in Barbate, cannot be considered a work accident for several fundamental reasons. Firstly, there is a clear malicious intervention by third parties. In a conventional work accident, the damage usually arises from a failure in prevention or a fortuitous error.
In this case, the agents were rammed by a drug-trafficking boat whose occupants acted with absolute disregard for human life, with even evident animus necandi. We are facing a criminal attack against agents of authority, not a simple work accident. Secondly, the risk assumed by the agents is specific and inherent to the police function. Civil guards do not "have accidents" fortuitously; they are sent by the State to intervene in extremely dangerous scenarios to protect society.
The jurisprudence of the Supreme Court has reiterated that injuries or deaths directly derived from this functional singularity must be considered acts of service. And, thirdly, the possible patrimonial responsibility of the Administration cannot be ignored when agents are deployed with means clearly inferior to those used by criminal organizations. If the State sends public servants to combat narco-boats in manifestly insufficient vessels, we are not dealing with a work accident, but with a very serious lack of adequate means in a high-risk operation.
Family Rights
From JUPOL we also warn of the dangerous legal and social consequences that normalizing this type of death under the label of "work accident" would have. Accepting this terminology opens the door to weakening the rights of the families of deceased agents, especially regarding extraordinary pensions derived from acts of service, which have specific protection within the Passive Classes regime. Reducing these events to simple accidents would set an inadmissible precedent that would allow questioning the consolidated rights of those who give their lives for Spain.
Likewise, that classification could affect the honorary and professional recognition of the deceased agents, since numerous official decorations expressly require that the events occur in the line of duty. Equating these deaths to an ordinary work accident means trivializing the extreme sacrifice of those who fight drug trafficking and organized crime. Likewise, using generic labor language contributes to diluting the character of a high-risk profession of the State Security Forces and Corps, reinforcing the discourse of those who refuse to legally recognize this evident reality. A civil guard or a national police officer does not perform conventional administrative work: they face real threats against their physical integrity and their lives daily.