Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción has issued a press release this Monday morning to celebrate "the day of struggle" against the tourism model that took place this past Sunday, October 20. At the same time, it has denounced "the police abuse" during the protests in Gran Canaria.
The ecologists have highlighted that "October 20 was marked on the calendar as the day we would return to the streets, as in April, but this time in tourist areas to demand there where development, uncontrolled urbanization, the destruction of our coasts and overcrowding are more than evident and reflect the unsustainability of the islands' tourism model".
The mobilizations, which started at 12:00 in the morning and at 13:00 outside the islands, took place in Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, Tenerife, El Hierro and also in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada and Berlin, have demonstrated, according to Ecologistas en Acción, "the social and environmental collapse we have reached, with indiscriminate destruction of the territory throughout the archipelago, the lowest salaries in the State and the most expensive shopping basket, with almost 800,000 people at risk of poverty and social exclusion, being the community with the highest number of vacation homes and where the price of rent has increased the most". The environmentalists have highlighted that it is "a problem that only gets worse and that has a common origin: an unsustainable development model that destroys everything in its path".
Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción has highlighted that, "for their part", public representatives "systematically deny these problems, refusing to apply any of the measures demanded by citizens, with a completely negligent attitude, which is causing an unprecedented social and environmental crisis".
Thus, he continued pointing out that the political class "far from controlling and limiting the predatory tourism industry that is expelling us from our territory, dedicate public funds and resources to continue promoting a private activity and increase the number of visitors, who break arrival records month after month, with forecasts to end the year with more than 18 million". In addition, he has accused them of "distorting information and accusing the people who demonstrate of being against tourism, of 'biting the hand that feeds us' and of damaging the image of the tourist destination".
The environmental group has added "once again" that the protests "are not against tourism or the people who visit us, they are against an economic and unsustainable development model that is drowning us, that consumes our territory and our lives in exchange for precarious jobs, for poverty wages, that overcrowds and deteriorates our natural spaces, that touristifies our towns and neighborhoods and expels us from them, that leaves us without housing, without water and without quality of life while a few get rich at our expense".
Police altercation in Gran Canaria
From Ben Magec - Ecologistas en Acción, as a convening group of the mobilizations and member of the Coordinator Canarias Tiene un Límite" of Gran Canaria, have publicly denounced the alleged police abuse, among them, "the brutal aggressions by the National Police and the unfair detention of a demonstrator during the protests in Maspalomas".
The association has denied "categorically that he was arrested, as is being pointed out in digital media, for berating a tourist". Ben Magec has stated that "what happened, according to the testimony of numerous people present, was that a woman leaned against a wall of the RIU Gran Canaria hotel, on Calle Mar de Noruega, at which point an agent of the National Police grabbed her and threw her to the ground. Several people, including the detainee, went to help her, which ended in an indiscriminate aggression, as can be seen in the numerous videos that are circulating on social networks".
The Coordinator of Gran Canaria has at its disposal several injury reports of women who were allegedly attacked by the police who were there, in which it can be read that they suffered numerous contusions in different parts of the body.
Canarias tiene un límite and "this cry for survival also includes the limit to the violence and abuse suffered by people who demand a change for our home, Canarias".
