• Direct. Last minute about the coronavirus
  • Defense.'Operación Balmis': this was the largest military deployment in Spain of democracy

Lieutenant General Miguel Angel Villarroya , chief of the Defense General Staff, receives us in his office. Up to eight telephones surround its two work tables. Personalized the image of the Ministry of Defense in the Balmis operation during the fight against the coronavirus.

Has the Armed Forces been requested to help with the latest outbreaks of coronavirus? There is no request for support. As you know, the Balmis operation has been terminated. However, requests for support from civil authorities to the Armed Forces remain open. We are ready for whatever it takes. If you ask for support we will be there, whether or not there is Balmis.The largest military movement in the Spanish democratic history, in national territory ... In some of the plans with which the military always work, was there one that would approach the situation we are living in? We must have plans for everything. We did have plans for pandemics, but the plans are a starting point. It is on that basis that it allows you to adjust to the situation. There are always plans for everything. It has to be combined, adapted, adjusted to reality. Was the decision to take the Armed Forces out onto the street a risky one? I am not the one to judge the government's actions. The Armed Forces are always at the disposal of society, we are an essential instrument for the resolution of any type of crisis. The 'operation Balmis' was a precise and quick action. How are your men? I am totally proud of our people. She has been fully committed in the day to day of the Balmis operation . The spirit of all the soldiers and sailors and airmen who have been participating in the operation has been extraordinary. There have been very tough times when people have needed a little help. Their most media 'fronts' were nursing homes and the transfer of corpses to makeshift morgues. It was you who gave the alert voice in the residences. What were they found? They were very hard moments and, indeed, perhaps the most painful of all. When we are in that situation, where everyone is overwhelmed, the actions of the Armed Forces brought serenity and tranquility to all levels of society. Indeed, there were in some specific cases where the situation had overwhelmed the staff of the residences. But an alert was transferred that the elderly were being left to die in the residences. I honestly do not believe I am capable of judging the individual performance in the residences . In any case, they were very specific cases. Almost 1,500 corpses transferred to the Ice Palace ... The toughest mission? The military always prepares for very difficult situations. Normally we do not operate in parties or parties, because the Armed Forces act when the situation is very critical. And the staff is ready. But obviously the military man is not a machine, he is a person in a uniform. And, yes, these performances leave sequels. The Armed Forces accompany all the deceased with all the respect and care to honor their memory and honor them as one of many soldiers who could have fallen on the battlefield. You came at the request of the municipal and regional authorities. What balance can you make of relations with the rest of the state administrations? In general, the balance of relations with the different administrations has been good. One of the successes of the operation was the support request system. Everything that the Balmis plan has , which we have reflected in the new Balmis 2 plan, is that the request mechanism of the civil authorities, the prioritized one, to do it through the government delegations, and from them, directly to the operations center where the mission was assigned directly to the units, has been a success because achieved an agile and fast system. Requests were answered very immediately. Is a request structure maintained in a rereading of the plan? If it were necessary to restart a similar operation, we would apply the same coordination and petition system, which has been proven effective. Discrepancies have been noted in the Basque Country and Catalonia. We have been treating all requests equally for everyone, without any discrimination. What we have been asked there we have been. I have not noticed anything, I imagine you have already checked how the 'operation Balmis' was carried out. Is there much to improve? There are always lessons learned. They are at a very tactical level. In the global, I can say that it has been an experience worth repeating. What has allowed us to act like this? What has given us that agile ability? Treating it as a military operation, establishing a short and direct military command and control structure. That has been the key that has allowed us to respond and adapt quickly to the situation. And being able to face the changes in the situation. For example, the Military Emergency Unit (UME). It was the spearhead because it has a series of characteristics and conditions that are permanently trained in emergency care. But it is finite, it has a number of troops that throughout the days of operation must be reinforced, because people are exhausted, they are not made of stone. But the rest of the Armed Forces quickly got behind the EMU to work in those fields that the EMU led. The UME started training the rest. There was also the Valencian RNBQ regiment that has contributed these capabilities, and has taught and trained other military units to be able to continue reinforcing and replacing those that needed a break to continue operating.In their new plans, in the face of possible powerful outbreaks, Do you contemplate greater participation in citizen security work? The issue of citizen security is a matter for the State Security Forces and the Ministry of the Interior. We support them in whatever is necessary. In the Civil Guard they contemplate, in the worst scenarios, situations of high social crisis and with a serious impact on citizen security. Do your analyzes also point in that line? Right now I do not think that we have to intervene in these circumstances on a matter of citizen security, of public order. It is not from the Armed Forces. We are here to help FSE and society. I do mean that if we are in a situation of serious social crisis, we are helping and we have helped to cope with this situation of social crisis. We have supported food banks, we have created shelters for the homeless, we have been helping to disinfect residences ... In short, we have been with the most vulnerable people. In this sense of social emergency, the Armed Forces have been and will be. The Ministry of Defense has already launched strategic material reserves in case it were necessary. Could you break down what that strategic reserve consists of? There are two things when we talk about strategic reserves. On the one hand, the military reserve to attend to an outbreak. It is about having material to protect our forces so that they can act in the work of supporting society. That does contemplate the Balmis 2 plan. We are already establishing a series of elements that are basically protection elements and those hygiene and disinfection chemicals to face the first wave of a regrowth. Then it would be acquired and replenished. But a first wave must be faced. Another thing is that the State is making a strategic reservation at the national level, that is a matter for the Ministry of Health. But it is also true that the Ministry of Health has asked us to study the possibility of storing this strategic reserve in military installations. Because we have dependencies and storage capacity throughout Spain. But that is right now in deals with Health, with the possibility of drawing up an agreement on strategic reserves. We are talking about a strategic reserve of 40,000 cubic meters of occupation. This reserve includes many things, besides epis and masks. We are talking about elements that require refrigeration, tests ... and some type of medication ... very important quantities. But that is Health, they are the ones who are designing it and we are studying the logistics, the possibility of storing it in military installations throughout the country. It would be a matter of distributing it. How long would a new Balmis operation be deployed, that 'Balmis 2' that is already on paper? We would activate Balmis 2 in 24 hours. Faster I think it would be impossible. We in 24 or 48 hours are able to launch the complete operation nationwide. The military deployment in Spain during these months is being studied by partner countries. What are you most interested in knowing? There is interest because all countries have been affected by Covid and have used their Armed Forces. But in no country has it been as here, in a global way, of all phases, focused on the global solution of this problem. In other countries they have been partial solutions. Now they are calling and asking, taking an interest in what we have done. Germany, for example. You have been consulting. Has been watching. United Kingdom too, I was talking to the English Jemad who was interested in how we had done it. With the United States, I was talking to the American Jemad, I wanted to know how we had carried it out. Everyone is very interested. What surprises them most is the answer. Most original of us, the contribution of a full military operation and command and control capabilities. In Italy, for example, they have been working with the usual mechanisms of collaboration with the civilian population. With restricted capacities. Not here. The request mechanism has been immediate, the response has been immediate and also, with great capacity and rapid execution. This ability to command and control, a chain of command so short that it allows decisions to be made that are executed in a short time, is the great tool of Balmis and what they ask. Are you considering making a correction to the number of troops in the units? In other words, a greater empowerment of the CBRN units or the EMU, for example? There is no need to prepare to fight the war of the past. You always have to prepare to combat the future. Strengthening the EMU, reinforcing the CBRN regiment to prepare a Balmis 2 is not the way to focus. What we do have to do is improve military health. And not because it is not well designed. But it is true that in recent times, the coverage of the templates of the military health corps has not been well covered. We need to cover these templates, we need the military health corps to return to the importance it has always had. We are already in it. Work is being done to enhance this capacity, which is really a lack of personnel. How does 'Balmis' disbursement affect Defense accounts for this year? The Balmis operation has cost 42 million euros. That is the cost of the entire operation. That comes out of this year's budget. What must be taken into account is that maintaining an Armed Forces that fulfill its mission requires an investment, and that investment must continue to be made. That is evident. The Armed Forces provide society with security and, ultimately, freedom. What they allow you is that society can develop fully. If there is no security I do not care what type of education is being given, I do not care the type of health ... if I can not enjoy it in freedom ... so the investment in Defense is investment in security, It is investment in development, and it must be maintained. It should not be forgotten that investment in Defense is also a direct economic benefit because it is no longer just providing security to be able to develop, but it also reverts to society in a direct way. Spain is a country that depends on tourism. Tourism goes to places where there is security. If in Spain there is no adequate security, tourism does not come, we have seen it in other areas of the world where there has been instability and that, however touristy it may be, tourism has withdrawn. Our collaboration with security reverts directly to the benefit of tourism. Are you optimistic about the new budgets, taking into account that within the government there are voices that do not sound precisely militaristic? I am always optimistic. The economic situation is what it is. Like everything, priorities will have to be managed. And the priority is to live, to guarantee life, obviously that is the priority. There are alerts that international terrorism can take advantage of the effect of the pandemic in Europe to make itself more present. The pandemic affects everyone, the good and the bad. But there is no doubt that biological capabilities is a weapon that terrorists have always been studying. let's remember the anthrax ... it's a capacity that's there.

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