Before the trial for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant, Pedro San Ginés (CC) tried to influence the witnesses and the other two co-defendants. This is reflected in the conversations analyzed by the UCO in the new case being brought against him, in which he is charged along with Ignacio Calatayud. In fact, the conversations were extracted from Calatayud's mobile phone, who actively participated in San Ginés' defense strategy, even though he was also a witness in the desalination plant trial.
One of those conversations took place on June 5, 2020, when San Ginés sent Calatayud a summons that former CC councilor Soraya Brito had received, to testify as a witness in the trial.
“If so, I have to meet with her. That bitch is screwing me over. And prepare some questions,” wrote the former president of the Cabildo. In Brito's case, she was summoned as a witness by the prosecution. The fact is that when the seizure occurred, she was vice president of the Island Water Council and had delegated powers. However, San Ginés withdrew them and assumed them personally just before ordering the seizure.
“I need to know about all those cited, at least mine. They're selling me out. And I didn't know about this one, I'm sold out,” wrote San Ginés. “Ok, I'll tell you everyone who's going,” Calatayud responded, acting as if he were his lawyer in this lawsuit, instead of a witness who was going to testify and who had also been charged in the case.
“Noooo. Don't write. Call. And meet up”
Many other conversations were added to that conversation before the trial, to leave no loose ends. “This... look, you guys have organized to contact I suppose... At least with Pancho... I don't know if with this one... Duche too. With Pancho I'm sure he also offered...”, San Ginés said to Calatayud in a Whatsapp audio on November 10, 2020, referring to the two people who sat with him in the dock: the former secretary of the Cabildo, Francisco Perdomo, and the then manager of the Island Water Council, José Juan Hernández Duchemín.
They also talked about getting in touch with Joaquín Cañada in the conversations they had. “....you should call him. Me, Pancho and others,” Calatayud replied, who then, after San Ginés' response saying “ok, I'm going to write to him,” warned him: “Noooo. Don't write. Call. And meet up.” “I already called Joaquín, I spoke with him, and he told me yes, yes, of course... we have to defend that we did things right with the agreement and so on... that he was going to talk to Soriano and he would tell me something, ok...”
Joaquín Cañada was the representative of Club Lanzarote and Pedro Soriano was his lawyer, and they were the complainants in this case, since the company was the owner of the seized desalination plant. However, they later withdrew as prosecution when negotiating an agreement with San Ginés, while he was still president of the Cabildo.
“Soriano/Cañada are the loose ends,” San Ginés warned days later in another message, showing his fear of what they might declare. In the case of Joaquín Cañada, in the trial he left phrases such as: “They never wanted to fix anything. They wanted to take the plant.”
“Pancho's statement today won't save me at all”
In other messages, just before the first trial that ended up being suspended began, Ignacio Calatayud and San Ginés spoke again about the importance of the former secretary of the Cabildo's statement. “Pancho is very important,” Calatayud wrote on November 16, 2020, just as the hearing was starting.
After that day, the new message that San Ginés sent to his friend was forceful: “Pancho's statement today won't save me at all.” Among other things, the former secretary denied his version, denying that the then president had asked him for a report, either written or verbal, before seizing the desalination plant. "I had not studied the file nor did I know the inner workings," Perdomo maintained.
“Only you are left... (…) you must also name Pancho. Or I hope so,” San Ginés added to Calatayud, who was going to testify as a witness. “We also have your friend Domingo... he knows that Pancho reviewed the resolution, made annotations, gave it the ok. He can be asked... you will have to talk to him again,” Calatayud replied.
“I'm lost,” San Ginés came to say, to which Calatayud responded: “You have to talk to my uncle to see how he sees it.”
The next day, his uncle, the lawyer José María Calero, arrived in the room asking for the trial to be suspended, alleging a supposed lack of competence of the magistrate, and even threatening her with taking legal action if she continued. Later, the Audiencia overturned his arguments and ordered the case to be returned to the same judge, who held the trial between May and June of this year, but on this occasion the former secretary of the Cabildo refused to testify, and did not even answer questions from his own lawyer.
“Good with Domingo. And Narvay already answered me”
Ignacio Calatayud's Whatsapp also reflects conversations with San Ginés to influence other witnesses. “Good with Domingo. And I'll tell you. Narvay already answered me. He'll call me tomorrow. Should I give him your number? Your uncle's?”, San Ginés wrote, also before the first trial. “Mine is fine,” Calatayud replied, again showing his involvement with the defense strategy.
“When do Narvay and Jerónimo testify? Very good with your friend. He even ordered something from me that I'll tell you about later,” San Ginés added days later. The former deputy of the Común, Jerónimo Saavedra, and who was Minister of Water of the Government of the Canary Islands for CC, Narvay Quintero, testified at the trial, who opened a sanctioning file against Club Lanzarote two years after the seizure, when San Ginés was already immersed in this criminal case.
“Gerardo seems fundamental to me”
In addition, they also had other similar ones in the group they also shared with José María Calero and with the dean of the Lanzarote Bar Association, Carlos Viñas.
“Look what Gerardo says, who testifies tomorrow. It seems fundamental to me to interrogate Gerardo tomorrow and Domingo Pérez on the 24th,” San Ginés wrote on the day the first trial started, in possible reference to who was the first manager of Canal Gestión Lanzarote, Gerardo Díaz, to whom he handed over the water management under his Presidency. “Let him say and reiterate what he said. Talk to him,” Calatayud urged him, after which San Ginés later confirmed that he had already done so.
In his statement during the investigation of this case, Pedro San Ginés stated that he did not draft the resolution he signed ordering the seizure, and that he did not know who had prepared it. However, in those messages he was much more talkative. “Domingo Pérez was aware of the seizure because he was present in the preparation of the resolution with Nacho and Pancho making corrections.” In the trial, no one took responsibility for having drafted that resolution.
