Four of the five experts who testified this Thursday afternoon in the trial of the Los Dolores bathrooms assured that this action was not legal and even warned that the "volcanic flow was destroyed" to build the public restrooms. The experts began to testify at 5:30 p.m. and did not finish until 11:00 p.m. The other expert who testified had been called by the defense of one of the defendants in the case, who commissioned a private expert report. In this case, the expert defended these works and indicated that the bathrooms were placed outside the Site of Cultural Interest (BIC), although within the protection area and that they did not affect the volcanic flow.
However, this was the only one who defended the works, in contrast to the rest of the people who testified in the trial. On the contrary, Diego Pastrana, the first expert to testify on Thursday afternoon, indicated that "the sea of lava reached the church in a natural way and now it can be seen that it is cut off." "I have no doubt," he assured as a member of the Agency for the Protection of the Urban and Natural Environment. Pastrana prepared a report in which it was pointed out that this intervention in Mancha Blanca was "illegal."
During the oral hearing, the expert pointed out that the works required, according to the Canary Islands Historical Heritage Law, "a mandatory report from the Cabildo of Lanzarote, the Island Heritage Commission and the Superior Council of Historical Heritage. "This was not done," he stated.
Pastrana assured that after learning of the complaint filed by Seprona about these works, he went to Mancha Blanca to inspect them. "I saw that a piece of volcanic lava had been raised that is projected inside the BIC. It could be seen that the volcanic lava was cut off," this expert assured. In addition, he said that the works would have been approved by the Island Heritage Commission if they "were convenient", although he indicated: "I think they probably would not have approved them," he clarified.
"Do not confuse the expert"
After this, Pastrana had to face questions from the defendants' lawyers, who were quite forceful and put the expert in a serious predicament. And it is that, when asked if the report of the Island Heritage Commission is binding in addition to being mandatory, Pastrana hesitated and finally assured "that the two concepts are the same."
This was refuted by the lawyers, who assured that if it was not binding, why did he conclude that these works were illegal? At this point, Pastrana limited himself to saying that the work "was not in accordance" with the Canary Islands Historical Heritage Law. Even, after several questions from the defense lawyers, the judge had to intervene to ask that "the expert not be confused."
Only "provisional" works and with "removable materials"
After this statement, it was the turn of Leopoldo Díaz, head of the Office of the Island Territorial Planning Plan (PIOT), who made it clear that in that area where the bathrooms were placed, only "provisional works with removable materials" could be carried out. This is because the land had the classification of rustic territorial protection. Therefore, Díaz understood that the action "was not legal."
Around 7:15 p.m., the statement of the head of the Historical Heritage area of the Cabildo, María Antonia Perera, began, who highlighted the importance of the volcanic lava in the area where the Los Dolores bathrooms are located. "It was very important because it confirms an act of divine intervention from an ethnographic point of view", she pointed out, while saying that this is why they tried to protect it by declaring it a BIC in order to "restore and maintain it".
"Dimas wanted the report now"
Perera recalled the conversations she had at that time with the then president of the Cabildo, Dimas Martín, accused in this case. "He knew that the area was a BIC and I did not understand why he urgently needed a Heritage report to be able to carry out actions in that place," she explained. "He wanted it now, he wanted the report now," she said.
Perera insisted that what should have been done in that area was to return it to its "original" state, and not build public services. She assured that she herself told Dimas Martín that this space was declared a BIC and that the most convenient thing was to draft a framework project to act in this place. "To everything I said, Dimas agreed but then what I said was not carried out," she lamented during the trial.
According to what she explained, the previous idea that the president of the Cabildo conveyed to her "was not to make bathrooms", but to "carry out the landscape restoration of the volcanic flow". Thus, in a second phase, these toilets were going to be built, which still did not have a defined location. "I never saw that landscape restoration of the flow," Perera assured, who insisted that she even thought that what Dimas wanted to do was to reform some bathrooms that were already in Mancha Blanca.
The head of the Heritage area pointed out that she never understood the urgency in the construction of these toilets and she also did not explain how no one realized that the volcanic flow was being "dismantled". The lawyers of the three defendants in the case, that is, of Dimas Martín, Sergio Machín and José Manuel Fiestas Coll, tried to weaken Perera's arguments by clinging to the fact that she did not communicate in writing with Dimas Martín and only did so verbally. To this, Perera pointed out that "Dimas was aware that this was a BIC and that the flow could not be touched", she pointed out, while saying that she only communicated with Dimas Martín and not with Sergio Machín.
"The flow was dismantled to make some bathrooms"
The fourth person to testify on Thursday afternoon was Manuel Perdomo, former honorary Heritage inspector of the Cabildo, who was the one who prepared a report reflecting that there had been a significant dismantling of the volcanic flow for the construction of the Los Dolores bathrooms. The defense lawyers tried to dismiss Perdomo's version on a couple of occasions reminding him that he was dismissed from his position in 2010 by the current president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, after two decades in this position.
However, Perdomo related that he met with Dimas Martín and explained to him "the values of the area, the Site of Cultural Interest, the historical fact of the flow, the time, the cistern and the protected elements". "The information was shared with Dimas Martín in an interview and we left with the feeling that the president had understood us," he declared.
However, ten days after this interview, Perdomo was surprised to realize that "the flow was dismantled to make some bathrooms". As a result of this, Manuel Perdomo prepared a report denouncing this situation. "There was an accomplished fact that was the destruction of the flow, which was already irreversible", he lamented, while insisting that he realized these facts on July 21, 2003. For this reason, he raised a "series of questions" to "minimize or mask" those damages.
At 10:30 p.m., the last statement began, that of Rosendo López, an expert hired by a lawyer of one of the defendants. In this case, the declarant assured that he visited the area and collected data and, after that, he wrote a report. "I documented myself and came to the conclusion that the bathrooms were located outside the BIC, although in the protection area and they did not affect the volcanic flow," this expert pointed out, the only one who defended the works.