se les pide why se?

Question

Hey guys, I'm really sorry to have to ask another question about se, but I can't get my head around this sentence. Whenever there is a se le/les followed by a verb I get totally confused. Is the se reflexive in this sentence? I understand the se acercan perfectly, but the se les pide has totally confused me. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

a las aeronaves civiles que se acercan a su territorio se les pide que se identifiquen mucho antes de lo que requieren

Answer 1

Mark, te iba a intentar explicar la voz pasiva refleja, pero mejor ir a la fuente de referencia: la RAE.

Lee atentamente este artículo: http://lema.rae.es/dpd/srv/search?id=bsHtgs373D6sirfnKs

Editado:

La misma frase sin usar "se": a las aeronaves civiles que se acercan a su territorio los controladores les piden que se identifiquen mucho antes de lo que requieren

Thanks tiquismiquis, that's really been useful to me! - mark1118, Mar 17, 2014

Answer 2

Hi tiquismiquis. I think I understand...."se" has been used because the article doesn't specify who is requesting that the approaching planes identify themselves early, so if for example it said that the air-traffic controllers are asking that all planes identify themselves early, then se would not have been used? Thanks very much for your help.

Exacto. He editado mi respuesta anterior para que lo veas. - tiquismiquis, Mar 17, 2014