The Guzmán el Bueno nautical equipment. Specifically, two motorized Zodiac boats, one non-motorized Zodiac, an inflatable boat and diving clothing and equipment (isothermal suits, gloves, backpacks, socks, boots, snorkels, goggles, fins, vests, swimsuits, watches, flashlights and indicator). depression). All this material is stored in the unit’s sapper battalion, but was not used on the day of the tragedy for bureaucratic reasons.
A report sent to the Military Court of Seville, which is investigating the case, by the Headquarters of Brigade the two deceased, does not have it. In that case, he explains, we must request the support of the Diving and Navigation Platoon of the sapper battalion.
This is what was done, among others, by the head of the Reconnaissance Section of the Lepanto Battalion who, in 2019, crossed the reservoir at the same place where the soldiers drowned four years later. He then had the support of the sappers who, previously, carried out a reconnaissance of the lagoon and, during the development of the exercise, deployed boats and divers. The return journey was made by soldiers aboard the boats.
In June 2021, the same officer had to cross the swamp again and asked for the support of the sappers again, but this time they told him that he could not count on it. What the now captain did, as he declared to the instructors in the case, was to change the design of the exercise: his soldiers would no longer cross through the center of the artificial lagoon, more than two meters deep, but through one side, where The water does not exceed chest height.
According to the report from the brigade Headquarters, in 2020 the Army General Staff decided to deactivate the diving platoon, which is why, “although the material [náutico] has not been withdrawn”, in practice it is not used.
On December 21, the captain in command of the company of the two deceased not only decided to cross through the deepest place, where there is no footing, despite not having the support of boats and divers, but he ignored the signals. who warned of the danger of the exercise. In fact, the accident occurred on the second attempt to cross the reservoir. When the members of the first platoon had traveled only a few meters into the water, murky and cold, one of the soldiers began to sink and lost his rifle, so several soldiers began to dive until they recovered it. Once outside, the captain ordered this soldier to walk towards the other shore while the others went back into the lagoon. “You owe me your life for having found your rifle,” the superior told him, hitting him on the head, according to a witness. “Everyone was aware that the exercise was impossible to perform, even they realized it,” he added.
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It was halfway through the journey – the width of the reservoir is 110 meters – when panic broke out: the distressed soldiers began to call for help, while their backpacks, which should have served as life preservers, sank to the bottom. The “lifeline,” a rope to hold on to in an emergency, was submerged by the weight of those holding it and several soldiers have stated that they stood on it. In the midst of the chaos, the captain ordered to release one of the rope hooks, supposedly to drag those who were drowning with it. He “observed how Corporal Jiménez’s backpack turned, he sank for a few seconds and came out again. On two or three occasions he saw her sink and come up trying to stay afloat. Until he didn’t see him anymore,” declared one of the soldiers. No one saw soldier Carlos León drown.
Those who stretched the rope have acknowledged that they lacked training to install a “lifeline” and that theirs was not a true security measure, but only a guide for the military to follow the route to the other shore. Neither were the backpacks, which should be watertight and float like a life preserver, but they sank, some loaded with a 3.5 kilo inert mine, which exacerbated the overweight. Although the Civil Guard report emphasizes that “the practice of having backpacks properly sealed is a basic skill for any soldier,” the soldiers assure that they were given orders to check whether the backpacks were waterproof. When they got into the water, at nine in the morning, the sun had just risen, the temperature was around six degrees, but the heat loss in the water was 25 times faster than in the open air and several soldiers have stated that they They were stiff from the intense cold.
The ambulance, with a driver and a paramedic, was not at the lagoon, but about 15 minutes away, at the shooting range. The tragedy could have been worse. Fortunately, a second lieutenant who was exercising in the area and heard the screams managed to revive a soldier who was in cardiac arrest, while another was pulled from the water semi-conscious. The bodies of the two deceased were recovered hours later from the bottom of the lagoon.
In the documentation sent by the brigade “there are no specific instructions or security measures” for the exercise in which the two soldiers died; Therefore, according to the Civil Guard report, “it was up to the captain’s particular discretion to adopt those that he considered appropriate.” If other commanders decided at the time not to carry out the exercise in the area through which it is not possible to walk without the support of boats, “it was a decision based on their own criteria, not because it was expressly regulated,” he adds.
The military judge plans to relaunch the investigation of the case this week with a visual inspection of the accident area, an expert test of the waterproofness of the backpacks, the interrogation of the Civil Guard team that carried out the report and that of the three commanders. charged with a crime against the efficiency of the service resulting in death, equivalent to reckless homicide: the company chief captain, the section lieutenant and the sergeant of the platoon to which the deceased belonged. The opening of the mysterious “sealed envelope” that the captain gave when he testified as a witness before the Civil Guard and supposedly contains his initial version of the events is still pending. The families’ lawyers have asked to access its content, but the judge, for now, is holding off.
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