The former mayor of Yaiza, Gladys Acuña (PIL), declared this Tuesday before the Investigating Court number 2 of Arrecife that in 2009, when she held the mayoralty, she convened a meeting with Juan Francisco Rosa, owner of the Princesa Yaiza Hotel, "to see the steps to follow" regarding the execution of the sentence that annuls the license granted by the City Council itself to that establishment.
Acuña testified on Tuesday as a witness in the case investigating the possible commission of criminal offenses in the granting of hotel licenses in Playa Blanca (Yaiza) by the mayor who preceded her in office, José Francisco Reyes (PNL). The Court has accepted the Prosecutor's request to summon witnesses after providing the conversations recorded in the "Unión" case related to these hotels.
The meeting, in March 2009, was attended, in addition to her and her deputy mayor, Leonardo Rodríguez (CC), the municipal secretary, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, the businessman Juan Francisco Rosa and his lawyer, Felipe Fernández Camero, who also served as the City Council's lawyer. These last three are charged in the proceedings.
As a result of a conversation tapped by the Civil Guard between Acuña and Dimas Martín that same day and that was reproduced in the Court during Acuña's statement, and at the request of the Public Prosecutor, the former mayor, who had just won the municipal elections, justified the meeting by pointing out that both parties were involved in the execution process and to "keep both informed". Fernández Camero's firm, which has been charged in the case for being considered the instigator in the scheme of granting licenses, defended both the City Council and the developer in that lawsuit.
Acuña acknowledged that she does not know if the interests of the City Council and those of the property were the same in that procedure. She assured that in that meeting the agreement was adopted to "follow the steps of the execution" and that the only person who did not agree was the deputy mayor Leonardo Rodríguez.
"There was a lot of talk about Felipe"
The former mayor also stated that she received advice from Fernández Camero verbally on the issues of execution of the Princesa Yaiza and the Hotel Papagayo Arenas, and that she did not consult anyone else on these issues, although she thought about changing lawyers "for aesthetics, because there was a lot of talk about Felipe".
Despite the fact that in March 2009 the then mayor decided to follow the steps of the execution of the sentence, as she herself stated, the Contentious Court number 3 of Las Palmas, which is handling the procedure, imposed on Acuña six months later, in September, a fine of 150 euros, to be reiterated every twenty days, for having exceeded the execution period without the City Council ruling on said procedure and without having appointed the official in charge of carrying out the execution. In March 2010, the same Court dismissed the appeal for reconsideration that Acuña presented to avoid the fine.
In the conversation recorded in March 2009 within the framework of the "Unión" operation, Acuña says the following to Dimas: "Before making any decision, I met today with Felipe Fernández Camero and Juan Francisco Rosa because it is not what I think and that's it. So I met this morning with them and I said, look, I think this and I say, but you will tell me (...) So what we decided was that within the term that expires the day after tomorrow we will present a writing saying that the Cabildo is in talks with the Government of the Canary Islands to through a law give protection to all this type of constructions and on the other hand we are working on the General Plan (...)".
ACN Press/S.G.