"I think they never wanted to fix anything. They wanted to take the plant." This is how the representative of Club Lanzarote, Joaquín Cañada, responded when testifying as a witness in the trial for the seizure of the Montaña Roja desalination plant.
Club Lanzarote, as the owner of the plant, was the one who filed the lawsuit that started this case. And although it finally withdrew as a private prosecution, Cañada has made it clear in his statement the damage that this measure caused them, which they already warned at the time was illegal.
"Did you feel pressured during the seizure?" the lawyer for the popular prosecution asked him. "Yes. That day I felt bad, very bad," he replied, recalling that they ended up forcing the entrance lock to the facilities.
Afterwards, in response to questions from the prosecutor, he confirmed that the seizure - which was later annulled by the courts - caused them economic damage. "Of course," he replied, confirming that the plant "made profits." "It's clear," he added.
Precisely because of those economic benefits, the then manager of Canal Gestión, who was the one who kept the seized plants, had been asked the day before. "Right now I couldn't answer that question rigorously," said Gerardo Díaz, when asked about the benefits for his company of keeping the Club Lanzarote plants.
For his part, the representative of Club has made it clear that it did give benefits and has specified that, in his case, as those responsible for the partial plan, they allocated them to the maintenance of the urbanization, which had not been handed over to the administration.
Precisely for that reason, in his statement he has reiterated on several occasions that they had the "obligation" to supply water within that plan, which the public network did not reach. "We had the right and the duty," he insisted.
In fact, just one month before the seizure, he himself signed an agreement with the Cabildo, signed by Pedro San Ginés, to incorporate it into the General Plan of Yaiza, which established that there were works to be completed in the partial plan and that when they were completed, the plants would also be handed over.
"They never answered us"
The harshest answers in Cañada's statement have come to questions precisely from San Ginés' lawyer, who maintains that his client made that decision due to the requirements he had from the Deputy of the Common and the Government of the Canary Islands to resolve that situation, given that there had been complaints from some residents.
According to Cañada, in the previous meetings he held with the lawyer Ignacio Calatayud and with another of the accused, the former manager of the Insular Water Council, José Juan Hernández Duchemín, what they conveyed to him was not formulas to regularize the situation. "He had to give in, he had to give it to him," he replied to San Ginés' lawyer.
In this regard, he stressed that Club Lanzarote had requested an authorization of the prices, which is one of the things they blamed them for. "They never answered us," he lamented. And the Council also did not respond to the request to extend the authorization they had for the operation of that desalination plant.
"They asked me to hand over the plant," Cañada reiterated. In addition, he has ratified the statement he made during the investigation, in which he stated that they only told him about the seizure two days before. It was Pedro San Ginés who called him by phone to inform him that they were going to adopt that measure, and his response was to warn him that they did not have the power to do so. In addition, he has stated that he told the same to the people who came on his behalf on the day of the seizure, which was carried out without judicial authorization and without any legal report that supported that measure.
According to San Ginés, he only had the "verbal" advice of the external lawyer Ignacio Calatayud and the secretary of the Cabildo, Francisco Perdomo, who this Tuesday refused to testify and referred to his previous testimonies, in which he denied having issued any report supporting the seizure.
During his statement, and in response to questions from San Ginés' lawyer, Cañada has confirmed that they had received requirements since 2005, almost a decade before the seizure. However, he has also stressed that they had never had a sanction from the Insular Water Council, nor from the Consortium, nor from the Government of the Canary Islands.
It was shortly after the arrival of Canal Gestión to the island when the Council opened a sanctioning file to Club Lanzarote, for three possible minor offenses and one less serious, which could be sanctioned with a fine of 7,200 euros. And in the same resolution initiating the file, San Ginés ordered the seizure as a precautionary measure.
"We couldn't say if what was being done was in accordance with the law"
During the second day of the trial, up to four agents of the Local Police of Yaiza and two of the Civil Guard, who witnessed the seizure, have also testified. Regarding the municipal agents, they have indicated that it was the then mayor, Gladys Acuña, who asked them to go to Montaña Roja, after a request she had received from the Insular Water Council. But the four have specified that they went only for a matter of "public order", because they had been warned that there could be "disturbances".
In addition, they have stressed that they did not intervene and have confirmed that they heard the representatives of Club Lanzarote warn Ignacio Calatayud and the manager of the Water Consortium, Domingo Pérez, that they did not have the power to enter by force and seize the facilities.
"They called us because they said that a conflict was taking place, but we couldn't say if what was being done was in accordance with the law," said one of the Civil Guard agents, also confirming that they only went to ensure that "public order" was maintained.
In response to questions from the prosecution, the six police and Civil Guard officers have replied that they had never before attended a seizure or an entry and search of a private property without judicial authorization.
"I don't have to enter someone else's house without judicial permission"
Regarding the Cabildo's notifier, who went that day to the Club Lanzarote facilities to deliver San Ginés' resolution, he also testified this Wednesday and stressed that he limited himself to delivering the document at the door. "I don't have to enter someone else's house without judicial permission," he added.
In addition, another Club Lanzarote worker, who was the security guard of the facilities and lived in a house that was inside the enclosure that was seized by order of San Ginés, also appeared on this day.
He has confirmed that he had personal belongings in that house, and that he could not access it again after the seizure, until the Justice annulled that measure and ordered the return of the plants and all the facilities to Club Lanzarote.
Three witnesses for San Ginés' defense
For his part, San Ginés' defense has provided three witnesses in this Wednesday's session. One of them has been Pedro Martín Toledo, who was the bankruptcy administrator of Inalsa and made a report at the request of the Court. In his statement, he has confirmed that there were about fifty private desalination plants on the island, and that as Inalsa was having the capacity to supply those areas, they urged the Consortium to act. However, he has not referred specifically to that of Club Lanzarote, which was the only one with which measures were adopted.
At the proposal of San Ginés, the one who was Minister of Water of the Government of the Canary Islands, Narvay Quintero, also testified - in this case by videoconference - to talk about a sanctioning file to Club Lanzarote, which the regional Executive opened in 2016, two years after the seizure.
The resolution of the Canarian Government was finally issued in 2017 and, in addition to an economic sanction, the closure of the plant was ordered "for selling water to third parties without authorization". However, it also clarified that the Consortium should adopt "the appropriate measures" to "guarantee the supply" to the residents and hotels of the Montaña Roja partial plan.
"And how was that done?" San Ginés' lawyer asked him. "The truth is that it's a good question," replied the witness, who did not give an answer. "I am not a water technician", "I am not able to say what measures they had to take". In fact, that closure never occurred, because the plant was necessary for the supply of Montaña Roja.
In response to questions from the prosecution, Quintero has denied being a member of Coalición Canaria, although he has ended up confirming that he was part of the CC Government and that he was appointed by Fernando Clavijo, San Ginés' party colleague.
"I want to prove that the Government of the Canary Islands has collaborated in the defense of Pedro San Ginés," the lawyer pointed out, when the magistrate interrupted some of her questions. In this regard, she stressed that the regional Executive initiated that sanctioning file at the request of the Insular Water Council, after the seizure, the annulment of that measure by the courts and the complaint filed by Club Lanzarote against San Ginés.
"Did you know that at that time the president of the Council had a lawsuit from that company to which he ordered to initiate a file?" the lawyer asked.
In addition, both to this witness and to another cited by San Ginés' defense to talk about that sanctioning file, she has asked the same question. "Is that order final? Has it been executed? Do you know if the 2.3 million euros that Club Lanzarote said it had to pay have been collected?".
"I don't know," Quintero replied. For his part, Ceferino Marrero, who was secretary of the Government Council of the Canary Islands, also did not know how to answer if the resolution was final, nor if it was executed, nor if the money was collected. "The execution is not ours," he replied.
Shortly after, Pedro San Ginés signed an agreement with Club Lanzarote, by which he granted - retroactively - the extension of the authorization - which Club had requested before the seizure without receiving a response - and today it continues to manage the desalination plant and the treatment plant of Montaña Roja, with the payment of a fee. In exchange, he withdrew from all the contentious lawsuits he had open against the Consortium and the Water Council. A few months later, he also withdrew as a private prosecution in this criminal case against San Ginés.