Policía Nacional
A dictionary of Spanish history and culture
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Known colloquially as the Nacionales, the Policía Nacional (full title Cuerpo Nacional de Policía) is the Spain-wide urban police force under the authority of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, though they only have limited deployment and competencies in the Basque Country and Catalonia, where the Ertzaintza (Basque autonomous police) and the Mossos d’Esquadra take over.
These days, the uniform of the Policía Nacional is navy blue, however their previous uniform was brown, leading to their nickname la madera/los maderos (”the wood”/”the logs”). Among supporters of the Basque terrorist organization ETA, the Policía Nacional is known as txakurrak (Basque for “the dogs”).
The Grupo Especial de Operaciones (”Special Operations Group”) or just GEO is the force’s special operations brigade, trained against terrorism and security crisis.
- Policía Nacional (Wikipedia)
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