In annual surveys, it generally ranks as the national institution most valued by Spaniards, closely followed by other law enforcement agencies and the armed forces.

[5] It has both a regular national role and undertakes specific foreign peacekeeping missions and is part of the European Gendarmerie Force.

[2] As part of its daily duties, the Civil Guard patrols and investigates crimes in rural areas, including highways and ports, whilst the National Police deals with safety in urban situations.

Corruption was pervasive in the Brotherhood, where officials were constantly subject to local political influence, and the system was largely ineffective outside the major towns and cities.

[citation needed] The Guardia was initially charged with putting an end to brigandage on the nation's highways, particularly in Andalusia, which had become notorious for numerous robberies and holdups of businessmen, peddlers, travelers, and even foreign tourists.

The favorite and original method of the Malagueño highwayman is to creep up quietly behind his victim, muffle his head and arms in a cloak, and then relieve him of his valuables.

Should he resist, he is instantly disembowelled with the dexterous thrust of a knife...[The Spanish highwayman] wears a profusion of amulets and charms...all of undoubted efficacy against the dagger of an adversary or the rifle of a Civil Guard.

[10]The Guardia Civil was also given the political task of restoring and maintaining land ownership and servitude among the peasantry of Spain by the King, who desired to stop the spread of anti-monarchist movements inspired by the French Revolution.

The end of the First Carlist War combined with the unequal distribution of land that resulted from prime minister Juan Álvarez Mendizábal's first Desamortización (1836–1837) had left the Spanish landscape scarred by the destruction of civil war and social unrest, and the government was forced to take drastic action to suppress spontaneous revolts by a restive peasantry.

Based on the model of light infantry used by Napoléon in his European campaigns, the Guardia Civil was transformed into a military force of high mobility that could be deployed irrespective of inhospitable conditions, able to patrol and pacify large areas of the countryside.

[18] Critics of the Guardia Civil have alleged numerous instances of police brutality because of the organisation's association with Franco's regime.

The fact that the Guardia largely operated in mostly rural and isolated parts of the country increased the risk of police violations of individual civil rights through lack of supervision and accountability.

[citation needed] García Lorca's poems have contributed to the Guardia Civil's reputation as, at least at the time, a heavy-handed police force.

They also served with the Spanish armed forces contingent in the war in Iraq, mainly as military police but also in intelligence gathering, where seven of its members were killed.

[citation needed] In the Afghan war effort the rapid reaction branch of the Guardia Civil; the Grupo de Acción Rápida (GAR) were deployed to the Kabul area in 2002 shortly after the invasion and served as the protective team for the High Representative of the European Union.

In the 1920s, Lieutenant Colonel José Osuna Pineda was assigned to the center as Head of Studies and arranged the original text and melody.

[26] These templates remained that way for over two decades when they were increased to adapt them to those of Army Music, forming two bands: one with 75 musicians attached to the General Directorate of the Corps and with 50 instrumentalists belonging to the Jefatura de Enseñanza.

[27] A small mounted band is in service with the Security Group's Civil Guard Cavalry Squadron, with its barracks and stables in Valdemoro, administratively under the supervision of the Young Guardsmen's College.