Ever since 200 of its officers sought to scuttle Spain’s transition to democracy through a coup d’état in 1981, the Guardia Civil has shed its longtime reputation for subversiveness and emerged instead as a bulwark of constitutional order. So when the gendarmerie corps’ highest-ranking officer pledged to “minimise criticism” of the government’s handling of COVID at a press briefing early this week, his words sent shockwaves through the nation.

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