After the curfew has expired and after the Government of the Canary Islands has decided to allow the hotel activity until midnight, the Local Police of Arrecife has decided to reinforce the surveillance from this weekend. In addition, the City Council will appeal to the Cabildo to request the help of the Canarian Police, according to the councilman responsible for the municipal police force, Alfredo Mendoza.
"We foresee that this weekend will be hotter than the previous one," said the councilman on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero. And, he says that there have been "many" calls they have received in recent days at the police station asking if there was a state of alarm and if there were time restrictions on mobility.
Thus, he indicated that "the weekend shifts of the agents have been reinforced" so that there is a greater police presence. The main objective will be to avoid binge drinking and possible crowds so that images such as those recorded last weekend in the Peninsula do not occur.
Likewise, the agents will continue to ensure compliance with the measures against Covid. And, as Mendoza recalled, although the state of alarm has ended, the use of masks is still mandatory, as well as maintaining distancing measures. In addition, the TSJC did endorse the limitation of people in meetings that, in the case of Lanzarote, remaining at level 2 of health alert, should continue to be a maximum of six people.
"We must be more responsible than ever"
To coordinate this device, the mayor of Arrecife, Astrid Pérez, the deputy mayor and councilman of Police, Alfredo Mendoza, and the Chief Commissioner of the Local Police, José Antonio Lasso, held a meeting on Thursday morning.
After it, Ástrid Pérez has remarked that the deployment of the Security and Citizen Intervention Unit of the Local Police of Arrecife and other agents of other units of the body will be redoubled, because "it is necessary to enforce the current regulations". Thus, he has also asked for the collaboration of citizens "to avoid the spread of covid, especially when this week the island registers increases in the volume of infections."
"We put everything on our part, with more troops on the street, but citizens must continue to row in compliance with the measures before capacity of premises, concentrations, social distancing, always wear the mask, and lower infections," said the first mayor at the end of the meeting. "We can not take steps backwards when we are closer to start the economic and social recovery of Lanzarote," he added, asking for "responsibility" and "much prudence" to the neighbors.
"The meeting we have held is essential so that the capital can give an effective and coordinated response to ensure compliance with the rules and thus control the pandemic. The agents will put special surveillance to the hotbeds where more crowds occur.", said for his part the deputy mayor and councilman of Local Police, Alfredo Mendoza. "We must be more responsible than ever, because the rate of vaccination makes us think that we will soon return to normal. We must be very prudent to avoid the arrival of a new wave of infections," he added.
"We have not been up to the task any politician"
On the other hand, Alfredo Mendoza has spoken about the "controversy" generated after the end of the state of alarm. "We are playing to do politics with a health situation that I think is worrying," he said. "We all knew when the state of alarm was going to end," he added.
According to Mendoza, "no politician" has been up to the task. "We are not a country politically up to other European countries. We have seen how parties have played to say one thing today and tomorrow the opposite, when we all have to be on the same line and row," he said. "And when I say that it is a political issue and that we have not been up to the task, I think it is not the same to communicate that the state of alarm ends, than to communicate to the population that the State has tools to continue without a state of alarm, because the autonomies have competences and because there is an organic law of Public Health that also regulates health situations," concluded the councilman.
