The Haría City Council does not know if it will be able to definitively approve its budgets, since it is facing a claim of more than one million euros from the owners of a land, who have a sentence in their favor. This has now been revealed by the minority government group of the PMH, which blames its former partner, Coalición Canaria, for having reached this situation. He even speaks of "corruption".
According to José Torres Stinga, that land was declared a green zone in 1995 and five years later, under his Mayoralty, the owners requested the expropriation. "They were asking for one and a half million euros, but we won the case. We appeared and managed to keep it at 46,000 euros," he explained on Radio Lanzarote – Onda Cero.
However, after his departure from CC and the arrival of the new party candidate, Marci Acuña, to the Mayoralty, the owners undertook a new attempt. Torres states that he had not heard from it until recently, and that he has been "enormously surprised".
“During the period 2015-2019, a letter is presented to the City Council from the same people as always, requesting the expropriation of that green area, presenting a lawsuit and taking it to the Justiprecio Court,” explains Torres Stinga, pointing out that the City Council did not even appear. “They communicate it once, they communicate it twice, they communicate it three times, and they are not capable of appearing or appointing a lawyer. They are not capable of anything,” he denounced.
“CC has to explain why it did not appear”
“What CC has to explain is why it has not appeared in these cases, because logically it has economic repercussions,” said the former mayor and current PMH councilor, who affirms that his party, which currently governs in minority, is going to try to avoid that millionaire payment.
“We are not going to tolerate it. I suppose they will come back against me, nothing happens. If God gives me health, we will continue. The Haría City Council, while the PMH is here, is not going to allow any type of corruption”, he assured.
According to Torres Stinga, it was the secretary who informed him of the existence of that fair price sentence, when she informed him that allegations had been received to the budget, for not having included the payment of that sum. “And I say: How, but if those licenses are annulled, are they null?”, he pointed out, pointing out that there is even a criminal sentence, which condemned the former mayor Juan Ramírez for having granted construction permits on that land.
Afterwards, he affirms that he learned that the City Council “had not even appeared”, losing the possibility of appealing or going to a contentious process. Furthermore, he assures that the owners benefited from that sentence “are the same ones who supported CC in Haría”, when the break with him occurred and Marci Acuña became mayor.
“Logically this has been done with a very specific purpose. They are already putting pressure at all levels, and I request the support of all the people of Haría to prevent the economic powers that plundered the municipality of Haría and that turned the City Council into a real estate company from returning again. We must prevent them from regaining power again,” Torres defended, also referring to former mayor Juan Ramírez, who has accumulated several convictions for his management in the Consistory.
“We are going to try to prevent by all means that the same people, the Juanes Ramírez, once again become owners of the situation and once again commit the atrocities of the green areas and the like. That is, to do business,” he insisted.
“Basic information has been hidden”
For the moment, he affirms that they are working “from the legal point of view to try to present an ex officio review, because basic information has been hidden from him due to non-presentation, due to the absence of the City Council in this process”. And he considers that “if the City Council had appeared, explaining that the licenses were null, it was done”, but it did not act.
“It hurts us a lot when CC and the former mayor say that it is a mere formality. If she understands that this is a mere formality, we already know in whose hands we have been,” she says about those who have been her partners until a few weeks ago.
“We are not going to allow it and if for any circumstance this has patrimonial responsibility, it must be claimed from whoever, knowing, notifying him, was not capable of defending the municipal interests. We are not going to allow the Haría City Council to pay for it. The individuals who allowed this type of situation will have to pay for it,” he concluded.
