Josefa Hernández will go to Lanzarote this Monday at noon to enter prison, hoping that on the way she and her family will be told "turn around and go home." This was explained by her daughter, Minerva Zerpa, who pointed out that this Monday first thing in the morning her lawyer presented in court the medical reports that justify that this woman, 63 years old, diabetic and hypertensive, has not been able to enter Tahíche because of her health. Meanwhile, the already known as the 'grandmother of Fuerteventura' continues to gather support. In Lanzarote, the Socialist Party and Somos Lanzarote have been the latest to join the request for pardon. On the island of Majorera, the Cabildo has convened a Meeting of Spokespersons with the case of Josefa as the only item on the agenda.
Josefa's health has deteriorated in recent days. After fainting in the port of Corralejo on Friday when she was heading to Lanzarote, the lady spent the afternoon in the hospital, due to a rise in blood pressure and an anxiety attack. As La Voz already published, she had to return there again on Saturday; and she also did so this Sunday. "They gave her a pill to relax and sleep at home," Minerva explained on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero. Her daughter also stressed that "being hypertensive and diabetic, being on a hunger strike has taken its toll."
Thus, Josefa had to leave the hunger strike on Saturday, "at the insistence of the family," she indicated. The 'grandmother of Fuerteventura' began her protest last Wednesday, fasting and sleeping in front of the Insular Directorate of the Government in Fuerteventura to draw attention to her request for pardon. "It is unfair that she, at 63 years old, leaving her skin on the road to raise her 7 children and now her grandchildren, for her own house, which is nobody's house, has to throw it away and on top of that go to prison," Minerva defended for her part.
The family plans to take a boat to Lanzarote this Monday at noon, although they hope that a last-minute turn of events will prevent Josefa from having to enter prison. According to Minerva, her mother's lawyer has presented in court this Monday the reports that justify that Josefa "suffers from claustrophobia" and also all the medical reports from this weekend. With this, they will justify that Josefa "it is not that she did not want to go to prison, but that due to her state of health she has not been able to."
These reports are thus added to the appeal and the request for suspension of the entry order into prison that the lawyer, José de León, presented last Friday. With all this, the family hopes that Josefa's entry into prison can, if not be suspended, at least be delayed.
"I didn't expect people to support you, to help you"
Minerva has declared herself surprised by the support her mother has received in the last week. Political formations from Fuerteventura and the archipelago, social groups such as the PAH and even the citizens, with nearly 35,000 signatures in their petition for pardon on Change.org, have joined this wave of solidarity with Josefa. "It's something that neither I nor my family expected. Even the president of the Cabildo, Marcial Morales, called us at 11.30 at night to find out how my mother was, Marcelino (Cerdeña, mayor of Betancuria) was with us at home all afternoon. I didn't expect people to support you, to help you, it's such a great injustice that they send a person to prison for not paying attention...", Minerva pointed out.
Josefa's case has jumped in recent days to national news, radios and newspapers and even the program La Sexta Noche dedicated a part of its debate this Saturday. "I heard people from the PP saying that my mother cannot be pardoned," her daughter said in reference to that television program. "Is it necessary to have money to do justice or is justice for everyone? I don't understand it. Justice for all or for no one," she claimed.
Pronouncement of the Cabildo and proposal of Podemos in Parliament
Support for Josefa continues to add up in the same line. After the Minister of Justice of the Government of the Canary Islands himself urged the State to pronounce on the pardon this weekend, the Cabildo of Fuerteventura will also pronounce this Monday "on the order of entry into prison" of Doña Josefa.
According to Podemos Fuerteventura in another statement, the formation has requested the Cabildo majorero to "ask for the pardon" for the next Council of Ministers (which will be held this Friday) and "use all possible means to offer a social housing to his family." The party has claimed from the beginning that Josefa and her family, who have three grandchildren and two children in their care, should be relocated so that she can demolish the house as the judicial sentence obliges her and as she herself affirms that it is her intention. The party has also indicated that it intends to present through its parliamentary group in the Regional Chamber a Non-Law Proposal this same Monday.
Somos Lanzarote also asks for pardon
On the other hand, in Lanzarote, Somos has joined the petition for pardon for Josefa and has called to participate in the concentrations that the Platform of People Affected by the Mortgage has convened in front of the insular directions of Government in each island, also in Lanzarote, this Monday at 6 in the afternoon.
"We are facing a situation of social emergency, given the socio-economic conditions of Josefa's family environment, which requires a fair, generous and immediate political response, taking into account the delicate state of health of the affected person, so the Spanish Government is required to report as soon as possible on the approval of the pardon for Hernández", the formation points out in a statement.
"From Somos Lanzarote we want to send Josefa and her environment an affectionate and supportive greeting, hoping that social mobilization will achieve a fair and reasonable solution for her case, far from the insensitivity with which the system seems to have treated her so far", they point out.
The formation concludes its statement affirming that "it would be very sad to observe that, in an archipelago like the Canary Islands, in which so many urban irregularities have been committed in recent times, it ends up being a 63-year-old woman who ends up entering prison, for the construction of a house in which she lives with family members who, in that case, would be in a painful situation of helplessness", so they ask the Spanish Government to "as has happened on previous occasions and without so many elements that justify it, agree to grant the pardon to Mrs. Hernández".
