NINETY-EIGHT DAYS
OF OPERATION BALMIS
The Armed Forces operation, with 20,000 interventions in 2,300 locations, has
helped to fight against the pandemic.
THE Armed Forces have ended their
largest peacetime deployment in
Spain: Operation Balmis, through
which they have responded to
the most serious and complex
national crisis since the Spanish Civil War.
For 98 days, since it was activated on 15
March, following the declaration of the
state of alarm, until 20 June, when the sixth
and final extension thereof ended, 20,002
interventions were carried out to counter the
coronavirus in 2,302 towns and cities.
Balmis —named after the military
doctor who brought the smallpox vaccine
to the territories of the Spanish empire
in the Americas and the Philippines at
the beginning of the 19th century— thus
evolved in parallel to this emergency
period, maintaining a level of reaction
commensurate to the needs at any given
time. In the worst days of the crisis, on
average, about 8,000 soldiers intervened
and, later on, as the situation improved,
the participation of the Armed Forces was
progressively reduced.
In the fight against COVID-19, the
military supported the authorities and
institutions and also the citizens in their
towns and cities, helping them to face
the disease and mitigate its effects. They
disinfected critical infrastructures and
essential services, in particular, nursing
homes; strengthened civilian medical
capabilities by mobilizing the military
healthcare and pharmacy; helped set up
field hospitals and medicalized hotels;
transported equipment and supplies by
air and land and helped distribute them;
transferred patients between hospitals
and the deceased to temporary morgues;
cared for the homeless; collaborated with
the State Security Forces in the control
and surveillance of public spaces, etc.
DEFENCE, IN THE THICK OF THE CRISIS
The Royal Decree of 14 March, which
declared the state of alarm throughout
the national territory, determined that
the competent authority for this purpose
was the Government and established,
under the leadership of the Prime Minister,
four delegated competent authorities in
their respective areas of responsibility,
namely: the Minister of Defence, Margarita
Robles; the Minister of the Interior,
Fernando Grande-Marlaska; the Minister
of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda,
José Luis Ábalos; and the Minister of
Health, Salvador Illa. It specified that the
delegated competent authorities could
request the intervention of the Armed
Forces, and thus the servicemen and
women participating in tasks within the
framework of the coronavirus crisis were
granted the status of enforcement agents.
The following day, on 15 March,
Margarita Robles presided over a
coordination meeting at the Defence
Ministry that activated Operation Balmis,
as well as its unified command, which
was assigned to Air Force General Miguel
Villarroya, Chief of Defence (CHOD), who
led this operation through the Operations
Command (MOPS in Spanish). In this
meeting, Minister Robles gathered all
the participants —from the Army, Navy,
Air Force, the Inspectorate-General for
Defence Health (IGESANDEF) and the
Military Emergencies Unit (UME)— under
the operational control of the MOPS
commander, Lieutenant General Fernando
López del Pozo, putting the support of the
rest of the Ministry at his disposal.
The Joint Operations Centre of the
MOPS, at the Retamares military base in
Madrid, was the nerve centre of Operation
Balmis and coordinated the deployment of
military personnel across the autonomous
communities, in response to the requests
for support made by the various
authorities and entities. These requests
were channelled through Government
Delegations or Sub-delegations and were
Military personnel
stood side by side
with the people,
helping to mitigate
the effects of the
disease
August 2020 Revista Española de Defensa 9