"I'm hallucinating." This is how the mayor of Yaiza, Gladys Acuña, assesses the sentence by which she is acquitted of disobedience to the sole administrator of Lanzarote a Caballo and in which the judge, Aitziber Oleaga, harshly criticizes the City Council and herself, of whom she says that she had "economic interests" to prevent the activity, since she is a relative of camel herders from Timanfaya.
The mayor believes that the judge's words are "unfortunate" and insists that she "only complied with several sentences" that indicated that the camel rides carried out by this company did not have an activity license. However, this latest ruling does not question this circumstance, but rather that the City Council did not grant this license.
Acuña defends herself by pointing out that "everything" this matter "begins in 2003", when she was not mayor and that it has been the courts that "say in a final judgment that this man does not have a license to carry out this activity." "In 2008, the camel herders reported that he continues to carry out this activity without a license. The City Council indicates that he must leave the service because he does not have a license to protect him. But he continues and continues. After I don't know how many complaints from the Local Police, he is reported for disobedience. Now we see that this lady fails in this sense. I'm hallucinating", says the mayor of Yaiza, quite annoyed.
However, what the judicial ruling questions is not that the administrator of Lanzarote a Caballo did not have a license to carry out camel rides, but why the City Council did not give it to him when the legalization "should not have posed any problem and should have been delivered immediately", according to the ruling.
She doesn't know why the license wasn't given
In this regard, Acuña does not know "right now" why the license for camel rides was not granted, when she did have a license for "horse riding". "I would have to look into it. It was rustic land and depended on the territorial classification of the Cabildo", she defends, despite the fact that the sentence indicates that the company did have this territorial classification and, even, the Cabildo stated in 2010 that this permit was not necessary to carry out camel riding activities with visitors and tourists.
As of today, the mayor of Yaiza "does not know" that she has this territorial classification. "At least in my time I didn't see it. I will have to check in case they gave it to her later. But if so, I don't have anything to do with the movie either, because in 2009 I stopped being mayor and I haven't been mayor all my life", she justifies.
The judicial ruling also insists that the City Council should have considered that Vicente Hidalgo obtained the license by administrative silence, but instead "took out of his sleeve a law that was not applicable to the case, because no urban planning license had been requested to build anything, and dismissed the obtaining of a license that had been legally acquired". On this matter, Acuña responds that "she gets lost".
"I was censored in December 2009. It is possible that after censoring me he obtained the territorial classification, but I don't know", she points out. However, Acuña returned to the Mayor's Office of Yaiza, although she "did not remember" this matter "anymore". "I didn't look at the file again", she defends.
In addition, she insists that the City Council "already regulates" this camel riding activity, in this case in Timanfaya, which is "taxed". "If you want to play with another activity, you have to apply the same rules of the game to everyone. What cannot be is that some pay for carrying out an activity and others for the same do not pay anything", she questions.
"If I have to be investigated, let me be investigated"
The mayor of Yaiza has been especially upset by the words that the judge uses about her, which she describes as "very unfortunate". Acuña affirms that she "does not hide" that she has relatives working as camel herders, but assures that "it is not true" that she had economic interests that led her to prevent this activity.
"It is not like that. It is not true. I find the words that the judge uses regarding me scandalous. I am not bothered by my relatives, because it is true, but when it is said that I have economic interests, that has to be proven. If I have to be investigated, let me be investigated. I think that is what is appropriate in the face of these words from the judge", says Acuña, who believes that "the assessments" about her role as mayor "are very far from reality".
For this reason, she anticipates that she will assess the sentence and affirms that "she does not know" if she can appeal it, although the truth is that this option is not possible, since the City Council was the one who denounced Vicente Hidalgo but then did not appear as a private prosecution, so he is not involved in the case. "Look at the interest I had that we didn't even appear as an accusation because there was no special interest in persecuting anyone. We denounced him because maybe they tell me that I am prevaricating by omission. It is illogical from every point of view", she justifies, while pointing out that in Vicente Hidalgo's attitude she saw "a very clear disobedience".
"I hope it is a reproduction of the defense's words"
Even, given the words that the judge uses in her sentence, Acuña believes that she may have collected them "from the defense of the sole administrator of Lanzarote a Caballo". "I hope it is a reproduction of the defense's words. If not, it would have no explanation. The judge will have to say on what basis she says that, she has to have some proof to accuse in that way", criticizes the first mayor of Yaiza, who assures that the magistrate's assessments "do not fit".
Acuña considers that "they went to attack someone who has had nothing to do with either the beginning or the end" of this situation, and assures that in the face of this sentence "she has felt aggrieved and harmed, because it has been reproduced in the media and it is not true". However, she is not worried about the magistrate's sentence, although she "finds what is said there very harsh".
"I'm not worried that it will go further. I have nothing to do with it. One has to be worried when one has really done what one shouldn't do. In this case, I have done what I had to do, no more, no less", she affirms.
"The camel herders are not going to stand still"
Faced with this new sentence, Acuña warns that the camel herders "are not going to stand still". "They have fought and have reached the end, defending their interests. If one fights for one thing, the sector will fight for another", she affirms. The mayor assures that the City Council has to be "objective", to see if this activity "has a territorial classification", something that the Cabildo assures is not required since it is not a construction that is being talked about, but camel rides.
"If the land allows the activity, a license must be given", recognizes Acuña, who assures that if the technicians inform her "otherwise" she will not give it. "I have to look into it, I can't answer now", she points out, asked if the City Council will now grant the license, after this judicial ruling.
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[The administrator of Lanzarote a Caballo will not denounce Acuña, but warns that he has "sharp teeth" in case it is necessary->78449]
[The Court acquits the owner of Lanzarote a Caballo and maintains that Yaiza did not authorize camel rides "for economic interests"->78427]
