Two of the reports that the councilors and technicians of Yaiza appealed to in order to justify the granting of the classified activities license to Stratvs were sent to the City Council by the businessman himself, through a fax from the Rosa Group. In addition, both the former secretary of Yaiza, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, and the technician of the area, Andrés Morales, confirmed that these reports were not "registered" in the Consistory and were not "verified" either.
"The document arrived, we studied it and if something had to be done, it was done," Morales declared during the first day of the trial held this Monday. "And was the authenticity of the fax not verified?" asked prosecutor Ignacio Stampa. "It was not up to me," replied the technician. "I took that fax and if I had to intervene, I intervened," he added when talking about how the only favorable health report - there were several more negative ones in the file - and the conditional authorization for the emission of wastewater from the winery arrived at the Consistory.
For his part, the former secretary admitted that "the most normal thing" would have been for those reports to be sent "by the technician himself to the City Council", although he clarified that "it does not violate the law" the incorporation of these documents "by Rosa or whoever was interested". Faced with this response, the prosecutor asked him if "anyone affected can send whatever they want, whenever they want, to incorporate it into an open file in the Consistory." "The fax was the usual method," replied Bartolomé Fuentes. "Was it done with all the neighbors?" the prosecutor insisted. "If it arrived by fax..." the former secretary replied again.
"It should have been registered"
However, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes admitted that it is also "not normal" that these reports were not officially registered in the City Council. "It should have been registered. Apart from incorporating it into the file, passing it to the Registry," declared the former official in the trial, who at that time should have acted as guarantor of legality in the municipal files. "What does not mean is that the record does not exist," he specified then, defending the validity of one of those reports. And it is that Bartolomé Fuentes alluded to that opinion repeatedly in his statement, to justify his own favorable report and the fact that he did not warn the councilors of the negative reports that also appeared in the file, and that according to the former secretary he did not see or read.
"And why did he see this one?" the prosecutor asked in reference to the one sent from the Rosa Group, to which the former secretary did not give an answer, limiting himself to referring to the classified activities technician. That technician whose name he did not mention, according to his statement, attended the Governing Board and was in charge of "opening" the file folder and explaining the content of the reports, although his presence does not appear in the minutes of the session.
Like the former secretary, the mayor and the councilors who participated in that Governing Board also alluded to the presence of the classified activities technician at the meeting, although none of them identified him. However, in the hearing they pointed out that the only technician in the area at that time was another of the accused sitting on the bench, Andrés Morales.
Analyzing whether it conformed to the PIOT "was not within his competence"
In his statement, when questioned by the prosecutor, Morales explained that he entered the City Council in 2000, after an interview with the then mayor, José Francisco Reyes. And he does not remember Reyes asking him in that interview about his knowledge of classified activities, although later he was entrusted with those tasks.
Regarding his participation in the Stratvs file, he pointed out that he should check if the use that was going to be authorized was foreseen in that type of land, but "only based on municipal planning". According to him, he should not verify if the Island Plan allowed that use, because "it was not within his competence". Even, regarding municipal planning, he pointed out that he considered that "the resolution of the Government of the Canary Islands" - which authorized the construction of a 900-meter warehouse and the rehabilitation of a pre-existing house - "was more relevant than the General Plan of 73".
In addition, when questioned by his lawyer, he specified that he did not visit the winery before making his report, so he assured that he did not know that the complex was already built and that, according to the instruction of this case, it had more than 12,000 square meters. And he also did not know that it included a store and a restaurant that did not have any type of permit or legal coverage.
Regarding the authorization of the Government of the Canary Islands, to which all the accused referred, it should be remembered that its concession will be judged in the other part of the Stratvs case. In it, the technicians and public officials of the regional Executive who intervened in the granting of that permit are also accused, which still does not cover everything that was built in this protected space.