The Justice for Gloria Platform, made up of more than a dozen environmental associations and groups, has delivered more than 128,000 signatures to the Government Delegate in the Canary Islands, Elena Máñez, asking for "immediate action against the mistreatment, harassment and persecution" that they claim "the Seprona sergeant in Lanzarote, Gloria Moreno, is suffering.
With these signatures collected through the Change.org platform, they ask for "the immediate reinstatement of Gloria Moreno to her work, the lifting of the precautionary measure of suspension of employment and salary since April 20, 2018, the opening of an in-depth investigation of the sanctions and files and that responsibilities be purged and those responsible who have allegedly been in the chain of mistreatment, harassment and persecution be dismissed", among whom they point to the colonel of the Las Palmas Command, Ricardo Arranz, and the Captain of the Seprona of the province of Las Palmas, Germán García.
In a statement, the Platform maintains that the sergeant has been sanctioned without partial employment and salary for "exceeding" her involvement against animal abuse. In this regard, they add that she was now investigating "a case of illegal adoptions of animals in Arrecife, when an investigated person denounced her for harassment" and she was notified of this sanction for three months. In addition, on June 22, she was informed of the proposed sanction of loss of employment and salary for six months and removal from Seprona for two years, a sanction that includes "the loss of the current destination" in the head of the Seprona Detachment in Lanzarote.
"It is the last of a long chain of 4 previous files, two for minor offenses and two for serious offenses. The first is appealed in an administrative litigation, the second was estimated the appeal and the third for serious misconduct was allowed to expire and therefore was archived, while the fourth has not been communicated the final result of the file", they say in their statement.
"She ended decades of impunity" in Alegranza
In addition, they recall the intervention of the Seprona sergeant against the "hunts and feasts that had been taking place in Alegranza, in the Chinijo Archipelago Natural Park and on protected species, ending decades of impunity in which public officials to date, looked the other way and tolerated it".
"Sergeant Gloria Moreno is being persecuted for wanting to do her job of protecting nature well, in the face of the impunity in which some people in the Canary Islands have been operating for decades," they insist in the press release signed by a dozen environmental groups.
These associations also deny the accusations against the sergeant and state that "everything has been set up from a material falsehood", so they publicly ask again and the Government to rectify this situation and not apply the proposed sanction. "If we do not prevent it, it will set a very dangerous precedent: if the rest of the agents know that defending the rights of animals entails a sanction, they will think twice before protecting them, as if the fight against animal abuse and the defense of the environment were a crime and not an obligation".
"We expect a quick and forceful action"
That is why they state that they have requested "the immediate intervention of the Minister of the Interior and all the political groups in the Congress of Deputies", in addition to also transferring the signatures this Monday to the Delegate of the Government of Spain in the Canary Islands "as the highest responsible for the state security forces and bodies in the Canary Islands".
"We expect a quick and forceful action to put an end once and for all to the attitude of permissiveness and silence, when it comes to protecting nature", they demand from the Platform, formed by the Ben Magec-Ecologistas en Acción Ecologist Federation, Agonane Ecologistas en Acción de Fueteventura, El Guincho Ecologistas en Acción de Lanzarote, The Neighborhood Association Los Magos de la Degollada de Lanzarote, The Pueblo Maho Association, The Association for the Defense of Los Doggi del Sur, the Red Canaria Solidaria, Canary Federation of Animal and Plant Protection Associations (FECAPAP), Professionals for Animal Defense (PRODA), International Repulse Against Animal Abuse (RICMA) and Platform No to Hunting (NAC).
