The other side of the Army in Spain: the expulsion of the military who were disabled in acts of service

[Jultxxxyes]

According to official data, 8,400 military personnel have been removed from the country's Armed Forces due to a disability. Many of those cases end in lawsuits against the Ministry of Defense.

 

In the first installment of a series of reports that explore the chiaroscuro of one of the most relevant institutions of the Spanish State, its Armed Forces, one of its most bleak aspects is explored: the fate of the military who are separated from the ranks of the Army for suffering a disability.

The voices of some of these people, victims of specific circumstances that prevented them from continuing to serve the Armed Forces, reveal severe problems of a medical, labor and legal nature with a common background: the apparent indifference of the military institution over its personal situations

There is also a particularly disturbing aspect in some of the testimonies collected: some of these disability cases could have their origin in an act of service to the Army itself.

"They take you away, they silence you"
That is precisely what Ivan Ramos, a legionary who saved the life of a miracle in an accident in Afghanistan, in 2011. He broke 17 bones, lost the spleen and a kidney. Today he has more than 80% disability and strongly states that his life "is pain."

"They took away my military status," says Ivan, who denounces that when something like this happens to you, "they take you away, they silence you." "There you stay. As if you were a cigarette butt. You're nobody," he laments.

Currently, his main fight is the one he maintains against the Ministry of Defense. The Military Medical Court granted him only 24% disability, leaving him only one point of being entitled to a pension. In Social Security, however, he was diagnosed with 65% damage. After several years of litigation, which has led to considerable personal attrition, he has managed to return his status as a soldier and fully recognize his disability. However, they consider that they have not been paid what really corresponds to them.

 

According to the figures of the Ministry of Defense corresponding to 2017, the cases of military under 65 expelled from the Army for different disabilities amount to 8,400.

Among them is also the Encarna, which has gone through the operating room 22 times, after an accident occurred during military maneuvers. Now she is another ex-soldier judicially confronted with the Ministry of Defense.

Encarna explains that, despite the serious physical damage she suffered, her captain did not want to evacuate her to the military headquarters in the first 72 hours. Now he has degenerative lesions in both his neck and legs, and they also opened a psychophysical file for which he would be expelled from the armed forces. "When I entered the Army, it was everything; now it is, for me, a mafia, a fraud," explains Encarna.

Unequal criteria
The criterion on the degree of severity of an injury can be very different depending on whether it is assessed from the civil administration or from the military. Sometimes, the percentage of disability granted by Social Security becomes up to three times greater than that granted by the army.

The benefits received by a member of the Armed Forces are governed mainly by that degree of disability, which in their case will be determined by military health. Therefore, it is common for an accident or an attack suffered by a military man to end up in a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defense.

The Spanish defense minister, Margarita Robles, in Paris (France) on July 14, 2019

 

In 2016, this executive department created a Disability Assistance Office within the Armed Forces.
The RT team requested an interview with the ministry itself and the Spanish Association of Military and Civil Guard with Disabilities, but both were denied.

In one of the last committees in Congress, the acting minister, the socialist Margarita Robles, sent a message to the families: "We have always tried to give them maximum personal help. If we have not done it on time or it has not been enough I apologize for that. "

"A terrible facility to abandon you"
Jonathan constantly has the feeling of stepping on crystals. His sciatic nerve was severely damaged after falling down stairs during maneuvers.

Later, when he was working on his rehabilitation, he was expelled from the Army for suffering from an alleged depressive condition. After seven operations, this retired Navy sergeant struggles for the Military Court to recognize that his accident occurred during an act of service.

"The institution to which we give our lives, our youth, has a terrible facility to abandon you when you no longer serve," Jonathan explains.

The stories of these affected former military members agree that the Army was practically all his life. However, when an accident truncated their military future, they were forced to discover the other side of the armed forces.