Photos: Sergio Betancort
"With twenty years in the practice of law, the same time that the capital of Lanzarote has been sunk by a deep crisis of public management and without any action, from one side or the other, José Carlos Rojas presented his proposal and that of the team that accompanies him from Lanzarote Avanza to govern the capital of the Island cwith a project made from the heart and that reaches the heart of the people of Arrecife"." We need to govern because the city cannot stand any more deceptions", he stated emphatically amidst applause from supporters and colleagues of the electoral alliance who went to the Arrecife Civic Center to listen to the model of a feasible city that Lanzarote Avanza envisions, "a model impossible to develop if there is no good management and heart".
Rojas warned that "we are not coming to Arrecife to talk about putting or removing mayors, or about green, red or blue lines; because we are very clear that our only objective is to support the citizens of the city".
José Carlos Rojas, "already embarked and excited about the electoral campaign together with his people, women and men, colleagues on the list who reside in the different capital neighborhoods and who know their problems very closely, promises commitment, management, transparency, will and heart". The first action to be carried out, he maintained, "will be the implementation of a shock plan to respond to the basic needs of the neighborhoods that suffer from the lack or deterioration of infrastructure and deficiency or directly absence of public services", alluding to initiatives of paving, public lighting, sidewalks and cleaning, among others.
For this, he added, "I need councilors more from the neighborhoods, more in the street than councilors from offices". José Carlos Rojas' idea is to create the figure of 'neighborhood councilor' to "listen, do and be" because for Lanzarote Avanza "if we insist on not listening to our neighbors we are condemned to walk in the wrong direction".
José Carlos Rojas cited Yaiza "as a model of public management that has a healthy City Council, a municipality that went from being in absolute misery to being a reference for Lanzarote. In Arrecife we can also and are qualified to achieve it".
Rojas also remembered Gladys Acuña, "the person who leads and pushes Lanzarote Avanza and the woman who convinced me to lead the candidacy of Arrecife. I told her in principle that I didn't want to, now I'm here totally committed, so you know who won the discussion", he pointed out amidst laughter.
Several of the people who accompany Rojas on the Lanzarote Avanza list also participated in the presentation of Arrecife. "Trained young people eager to work and get the city ahead expressed their confidence in the political project", they point out from the party. Phrases like "we are tired of being sold smoke" or "it is frustrating that being as we are there are only fights between politicians and nothing is done to reverse the situation", "are an example of the discontent of neighbors who feel run over and who have joined the Lanzarote Avanza project to work for the capital", they add. A project that Ramón Bermúdez called in the same Arrecife night "of confluence of civil society". Bermúdez, candidate for mayor of San Bartolomé and one of the most recognizable faces of Lanzarote Avanza, assured that "we are prepared to govern in the Cabildo and in the seven town halls, and Arrecife especially demands it now".
