No mocking General Rat

 

The Central Military Tribunal sanctioned the head of the AUGC in Alicante for jokes he made about the name and surname of General Rueda Ratón, which were considered a serious (minor) offense and imposed a sanction on him. According to the judgment of the first section of the Central Military Tribunal the jokes were made in a video on Twitter about the General's names, Rueda meaning "wheel" and Ratón meaning "rat." The Central Military Tribunal reminded that the General "was superior to the Guardia Civil," and that jokes about his name constitute an unjustifiable attack against his essence as a human being, and given that it involves a superior officer it undermines his moral prestige and authority. The disciplinary sanction imposed was five days loss of wages along with suspension of functions for a serious minor offense. The judgment is being appealed by the AUGC before the Military Chamber of the Supreme Court.

The members of the "Unified Association of the Civil Guard" (Asociación Unificada de Guardias Civiles) in Spain sought the removal of General Rueda Ratón, Division General, Head of the Traffic Unit of the Guardia Civil, for some time due to his arrogance and belittlement of the members of the Guardia Civil. The AUGC, the trade union of the Guardia Civil, has existed since the European Court of Human Rights decisions in two French cases (Matelly v. France and ADEFDROMIL v. France) that declared unanimously that the prohibition on unions in the military violated the European Convention on Human Rights. In June 2021, General Rueda Ratón ceased being the Head of the Traffic Unit and went into the reserves after seven years in the post.