The Regional Government grants the 2025 Medals of Merit for Citizen Protection

The Regional Government of Castilla y León has awarded the Medal of Merit for Citizen Protection of Castilla y León for the year 2025, consisting of eight gold medals, four silver medals, and twelve honorary mentions. The resolution, signed on September 15, 2026, by the second vice president, Isabel Blanco Llamas, is published in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León no. 183, dated September 21, 2026, with reference BOCYL-D-21092026-183-24. The awardees are civil protection volunteers, rescue associations, civil guards, and citizens who intervened in robberies, fires, rescues, and health emergencies.

The distinction was created by Decree 23/2010, of June 3, to publicly recognize individuals and institutions distinguished by their professional trajectory or by exceptional actions in citizen protection and assistance. Its development corresponds to Order IYJ/1098/2010, of July 27, and the proposal is submitted by the Valuation Commission constituted for this purpose.

The resolution concludes the administrative process. An administrative appeal may be filed against it before the Administrative Chamber of Valladolid of the High Court of Justice of Castilla y León within two months from the day following its publication and, previously and optionally, a motion for reconsideration before the Second Vice President of the Regional Government of Castilla y León within one month.

Gold Medal: Decades of Trajectories and Acts of Valor

• Tomás Perea Ruiz, for more than 38 years as a civil protection volunteer and president of the Civil Protection Volunteers Group of the City Council of Ávila.
• Rescue and Salvage Association of Castilla y León, for more than 40 years of collaboration with the Civil Protection System.
• Civil Protection Volunteers Group of Benavente, for more than 35 years of service.
• Civil Protection Volunteers Group of the City Council of Toro, for more than 38 years of activity.
• Javier Ramos Lázaro, for preventing, while off duty, a robbery in Burgos committed by an assailant armed with a machete, by placing himself between the attacker and the victim.
• Luis Morales Ramos and Luis Javier Milano Fernández, ex aequo, for the aid and evacuation of people trapped in a home in Valladolid.
• Daniel Balzán López del Vallado, corporal, for rescuing two people trapped in the fire of Molezuelas de Carballeda (Zamora).
• Motonieve Urbión Association, for more than 35 years in search, rescue, and salvage operations in the natural environment.

Silver Medal: Resuscitations and First Aid

• Cristina Cabezón San Segundo, nurse, and Luis María Merino Morán, nursing auxiliary technician, ex aequo, for cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers on a person in cardiorespiratory arrest in Villaviciosa (Ávila).
• María Isabel Martín Rodríguez, for performing the Heimlich maneuver in Guijuelo (Salamanca) on a person with severe choking, preventing their death on December 20, 2024.
• Alberto Dueñas de la Fuente, Civil Guard in Medina de Rioseco (Valladolid), for locating a missing couple on September 7, 2025, in Ampudia (Palencia), one of whom suffered from Alzheimer’s.
• Laura Barriga Montejo, Civil Guard, for providing first aid on June 9, 2025, to a person with a traumatic amputation at km 121 of the A-62, heading towards Palencia.

Honorary Mentions: fires, searches and rescues

• Juan José Cañas Sanz, retired physician, for reversing a choking incident in Navas de Riofrío (Segovia).
• Fernando Moreno Cobo, environmental agent, and Eduardo Fernández Lomana, PEGASUS worker, ex aequo, for rescuing isolated livestock farmers aboard the Bravo 1 helicopter during the Barniedo de la Reina fire on August 13, 2025.
• José Antonio Pato Díaz, retired Civil Guard, for immobilizing a person committing acts of vandalism in Guijuelo.
• Civil Protection Volunteer Group of Miranda de Ebro, for fifteen years of activity.
• Civil Protection Volunteer Group of the Mancomunidad de Rutas de Alba, for their intervention following the drowning of a minor in the Tormes river on June 22, 2025.
• Civil Protection Volunteer Group of Frómista, for the search for a missing resident in Perales (Palencia) on September 7, 2025.
• Francisco Salazar and Ana Suso, from the Arija Group, for the evacuation of two youth camps following the overflowing of the Nela river on July 7, 2025.
• Carlos Iglesias Bueno, sergeant, for the emergency drainage during the Herradón de Pinares fire which prevented the contamination of Ávila’s drinking water.
• José Luis Pérez Fernández, Civil Guard canine guide, and the dog FOX, for locating a missing person on July 31, 2025, in Villar del Puerto (León).
• Special Underwater Activities Group (GEAS) of the Civil Guard, for search and rescue operations.
• Óscar Ceballos García, first corporal, for removing materials with a risk of explosion during a house fire in Cubo de Benavente.
• The essential and complementary services of the Civil Protection System of Castilla y León, for the fire campaign.

The recognition has a marked local character: Ávila, Benavente, Toro, Burgos, Valladolid, Zamora, Salamanca, Palencia, Segovia, and León are among the distinctions, which reward both trajectories of more than four decades of volunteering as well as specific interventions by citizens and off-duty agents. The publication in the BOCYL provides official publicity to the facts and opens the deadlines for any eventual challenge.

Source: Official Gazette of Castilla y León, no. 183, of September 21, 2026, I. Community of Castilla y León – D. Other provisions, pág. 190-192 (official reference: BOCYL-D-21092026-183-24).