Oswaldo Betancort lamented this Monday in a parliamentary commission before the Minister of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands, that the marine cages of Playa Quemada have not yet been removed, southeast of Lanzarote, "when the administrative concession for its exploitation ended in August 2021, and when the legal reports issued by the ministry itself say, clearly, that there is no extension of it because it is excluded from the PROAC".
“Both the Ministry and the Cabildo of Lanzarote are letting this company do whatever it wants, with the approval of the mayor of Yaiza, surely, looking for a way to change the Law as it suits them, as is happening in the Government of Spain, expressly adapting the Penal Code to the needs of those who commit them”, Betancort denounces, recalling the statements of María Dolores Corujo last October, when she assured that the cages of Playa Quemada "had their days numbered".“A forcefulness that has not been effective, like so many other empty statements of commitment and seriousness with an island that does not deserve this contempt”, laments Betancort.
“To all this, we must add the connivance of the current mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, who joins the words of the president and her way of managing Lanzarote, to the detriment of her municipality and her people, when from the City Council itself they commissioned a study that shows that the farm pollutes the area, an effect caused for years by the exploitation of the 53 marine cages that are still installed, I insist, despite the fact that the cages do not have a concession nor does the PROAC contemplate that area as suitable for the development of that activity”, says Betancort.
Oswaldo Betancort accuses the Ministry of “waiting complacently for the company to go to the Courts, to now use this extreme as support for continuity, to know for how long, giving the company the possibility of obtaining an extraordinary extension to maintain the aquaculture activity in the Bay of Ávila de Playa Quemada”.
“I demand that this government initiate all the necessary actions to stop allowing this harmful activity that is counting on its total consent and that demonstrates, once again, that the socialist party does not defend the island of Lanzarote or the residents of the south, in this case, a small fishing population that is already running out of patience”, concluded Betancort.