The Second Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has warned the Yaiza City Council that it may be sanctioned with up to 1,500 euros in fine and has threatened the council with "demanding the criminal responsibility that may correspond" if it does not identify the "authority, agent or official in charge" of complying with the execution of the sentence of the Papagayo Arena Hotel, currently known as Sandos Papagayo.
In a diligence of ordination to which La Voz has had access, dated November 4, the lawyer of the Administration of Justice gives the southern council a period of ten days to designate the person in charge of complying with the sentence that annulled the illegal license of the hotel. If it does not do so, the Court warns that it will "adopt the necessary measures" to comply with the judicial ruling.
The Chamber thus asks that compliance be given to the provision of July 30, 2024 and that it explain "the reasons why" it has not yet done so. In addition, it warns that it may impose "coercive fines" against the authorities, officials or agents "who fail to comply with the requirements" and that it may deduct the testimony of individuals against them to demand said criminal responsibility.
The Cabildo of Lanzarote granted a controversial authorization
The Governing Council of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, led by Coalición Canaria and the Partido Popular, held last August initiated the file to authorize the provisional tourist classification of the illegal Sandos Papagayo hotel (formerly Papagayo Arena) in Playa Blanca.
Its registration as a "five-star hotel establishment" in the General Tourist Registry was debated on the agenda, despite the fact that its sentence was declared null by the Justice in 2007 for serious urban infractions and declared criminal in 2016, in the sentence that condemned the then mayor of Yaiza José Francisco Reyes to six years in prison and disqualification and decreed the seizure of all his assets.
In statements to the press, the Councilor for Territorial Policy of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Jesús Machín Tavío, defended then that "who has the urban competence to decide whether or not the Papagayo Arena is legalizable is the Yaiza City Council only". Meanwhile, "the Cabildo only examines whether it complies with the tourist law and that is what it has done". Machín has defended that the Court has warned them that "if we do not do it, we would incur in a prevarication by omission".