Against the captain in command of the exercise in which two soldiers died while carrying out military maneuvers at the base of the Guzmán el Bueno colonel and a general. The parents of the Sevillian soldier who died on December 21, Carlos León, present today a complaint against all those who consider that they may have some responsibility in the death of their son, who drowned next to a Cordoban corporal in the Guadanuño reservoir, in the camp facilities.
This was announced by the Sevillian lawyer Luis Romero, in charge of representing the parents of the 24-year-old victim, who has reported that the complaint will be filed in the Investigative Court number 4 of Córdoba, where it has already been presented as private accusation. Furthermore, as the lawyer has detailed, the complaint includes both the captain, who was quickly removed from his position by the Army, and his three superiors, and there is a request for them to be called as investigated to the Judicial procedement.
It had not yet dawned when the group of soldiers from the La Reina 2 Infantry Regiment carried out basic training exercises on December 21. One of them consisted, despite the low temperatures that were recorded during the early morning at this point in Sierra Morena, the passage of water courses with full equipment. At four degrees and still at night, the military soon began to sound the alarm that something was not right. Two of them had to be treated with hypothermia and transferred to the Reina Sofía hospital in the capital of Córdoba; Two others, the Sevillian soldier and the Córdoba corporal Miguel Ángel Jiménez Andújar, were reported missing shortly before 9:00 a.m. in the morning. It was throughout that day when their bodies were found in the water. The autopsy revealed that they had died from drowning and, according to some witnesses, the corporal had died while trying to help the soldiers.
Now, it is a question of determining whether the death of both was the result of recklessness. To this end, the case has been taken over by the Investigating Judge of Córdoba, José Luis Rodríguez, who must determine whether he is facing two crimes of reckless homicide. On the other hand, a military judge is investigating the circumstances of the event.
At the moment, the only measures that have been adopted are to remove the captain responsible for this exercise from his position of responsibility.
According to the Spanish Troop and Marine Association (ATME), the exercise on the lake "involved, among others, the new soldiers who had joined the Training Center a few months ago, who, at the end of the exercise, would receive the traditional beret of the unit," according to ATME. The association has requested "information on the number of hours, included in the Instruction Plan, carried out by the newly recruited personnel participating in the exercise, in order to learn the procedures that should be put into practice to know how to react in the environmental situations in which the exercise was carried out within the reservoir".
The professional military association also wants to know "if the watercourse crossing exercise was included in the maneuvers' programming and what safety and health measures were taken," such as the "presence of an ambulance, a doctor, sanitary, etc.
It is about knowing under what conditions the fatal event occurred, an exercise that, apparently, is a common practice, and if, as some witnesses point out, there were no health personnel ready to face any crisis that could occur.
