The Army has removed command from the captain responsible for the exercise in which a corporal and a soldier drowned on Thursday in a reservoir at the Cerro Muriano maneuvering range (Córdoba), according to military sources. The precautionary measure of removing from command the chief captain of the company that participated in the exercise has been taken as a preventive measure and while the investigation of an event that, according to the first indications, could be the result of serious imprudence progresses. The facts are already being investigated by the judicial authority, which is awaiting the results of the autopsies of the two deceased, which will likely be known this Friday.
The accident occurred early in the morning on Thursday, when the soldiers, who were completing their training period, were carrying out a watercourse crossing exercise in a reservoir in the municipality of Obejo, in the heart of the Sierra Morena, within from the firing and maneuvering range of the Cerro Muriano base. The soldiers entered the reservoir, loaded with all their equipment, in complete darkness (it had not yet dawned), and with a very cold temperature (the Obejo weather station showed a minimum of two degrees).
When the first soldiers were crossing the reservoir, about 200 square meters, whose bottom is muddy and in which there is no standing, several of them began to ask for help and shout that they were drowning, according to eyewitnesses, at which point those who They were waiting to enter the water and they jumped in to rescue them. After a few moments of chaos, the majority managed to get out to dry land, but when the count was carried out it was found that the corporal and the soldier were missing. The bodies of both were not found until late in the afternoon, after an intense search of the swamp by members of the Civil Guard and the Army. At least two of those rescued had to be evacuated with symptoms of hypothermia and receive medical assistance, although both have already been discharged, according to military sources.
The investigation must determine whether it was reckless to carry out the exercise in those conditions, as all the evidence indicates, and whether the safety measures provided for by the regulations were adopted: whether the soldiers were held by a rope, called a “life line”, and this was broken, as some sources point out, or did not even exist, as others maintain; if there was an ambulance in the area, which the first testimonies rule out; and whether a rescue team had been prepared in case of an accident. In principle, the investigation is carried out by a civilian judge, who has authorized the removal of the bodies, although it could ultimately end up in the hands of military jurisdiction.
The deceased are Corporal Miguel Ángel Jiménez Andújar, 34 years old, married, native of Adamuz (Córdoba); and soldier Carlos León Rico, 24 years old, single and native of El Viso del Alcor (Seville). The corporal joined the Army as a soldier in 2011, had participated in missions in Latvia and Lebanon and was in possession of two military merit crosses with a white badge. The soldier joined the Army on May 8. Both were stationed in the La Reina 2 Infantry Regiment, of the Guzmán el Bueno X Brigade. Their deaths, and the circumstances surrounding them, have caused a great shock in the Army.
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