The Arrecife City Council processed 781 sanctions for non-compliance with anti-covid measures in the capital of Lanzarote during 2020. Specifically, this balance reflects the sanctions initiated between March 15, after the declaration of the state of alarm, and December 31.
The Arrecife City Council's Infractions Unit, launched in this term by the current government group and under the tutelage of Councilor Elisabet Merino Betancort, processes the sanctions after the imposition of the corresponding complaints from the Arrecife Local Police.
In this total count, announced by the mayor Ástrid Pérez, are the complaints filed against citizens, as individuals, and against various establishments, as legal entities, for violation of the aforementioned regulations related to Covid-19, within the classification of the same (very serious, serious, and minor).
Pérez has detailed that initially all infractions were sent, regardless of severity, to the Government Delegation of Las Palmas, as the entity responsible for processing these sanctions. However, once the first period of declaration of a state of alarm ended (June of last year), and as the Government of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands assumed the powers to control the pandemic, the criterion was established that very serious and serious infractions would be processed by the General Directorate of Public Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, while minor infractions would be the responsibility of the City Councils.
In this regard, according to the head of the Arrecife City Council's Infractions Unit, Elisabet Merino, between July and December of last year, 249 minor infractions were filed in Arrecife by the Local Police and another 23 by the National Police. Of the minor economic sanctions processed by the Arrecife City Council in this period, 234 were against individuals and 38 against companies (terraces, businesses, entertainment venues, shops, etc.).
For his part, the Deputy Mayor and Councilor for the Local Police of Arrecife, Alfredo Mendoza, has remarked that "the Local Police area has carried out different informative and sanctioning operations regarding compliance with anti-Covid measures." "In these moments in which collaboration between all the State Security Forces is more than necessary, the Canarian Police and the National Police, together with our agents of the Local Police of Arrecife, are reinforcing surveillance tasks in the capital," he pointed out.
