Councilor Óscar Noda has harshly criticized the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, whom he accuses of showing “an absolute institutional contempt” for his repeated absences during the plenary sessions.
"Not only was he absent from the last plenary session without any justification," Noda stated, "but in today's session, he left the plenary and took an extremely long time to return, leaving the vice president in charge."
The spokesperson recalled that the Island Council plenary “is the highest body for debate on the island’s affairs” and regretted that Betancort “once again demonstrates the little respect he has for Lanzarote, for its citizens, and for the day-to-day problems.”
Noda added that the president is "not even capable of carrying out the most basic of his tasks: presiding over the Cabildo plenary session."
According to the councilor, the situation worsened when, “at 2:44 p.m., Betancort sent a note from the Cabildo in which, full of cynicism, he accused the opposition councilors of intentionally abandoning the plenary session and preventing the normal course of the debate.”
"Of course we intentionally left the plenary session," Noda responded, "but the one who really prevents the sessions from developing is you, with your unjustified absences and your lack of commitment to the institution you preside over."
The councilor also reproached the president for “trying to hide behind feminism” when accusing the opposition of “lack of respect towards the vice president,” calling that strategy “an absurd excuse that borders on insulting intelligence.”
"You are not disrespecting women, you are disrespecting all the citizens of Lanzarote and La Graciosa," added Noda, who criticized Betancort's "shamelessness" for accusing the opposition of institutional disregard while "he is absent or remains silent on crucial issues such as water, housing, or the lack of investment in the island."
The councilor of Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista went further, describing the president's attitude and way of managing the Cabildo as an "unseemly spectacle."
Furthermore, he denounced that barely half an hour after the Cabildo's statement, "Coalición Canaria's machinery was set in motion with an exculpatory note repeating the same ridiculous excuses and accusations against the opposition to cover up their own shortcomings."
Lanzarote and La Graciosa have a very serious problem: Oswaldo Betancort
According to Noda, Betancort justified his absence that day due to a vote by the National Parks Council, although "the previous plenary session remains unjustified."
"Says the supposed president of all Lanzarote and La Graciosa residents, who, like a third-rate Houdini, disappears from the island and from the plenary session without giving explanations," Noda quipped.
The councilor concluded by stating that, if Betancort considers not attending plenary sessions, being continually absent, and not approving any proposal from the opposition to be "respect and democratic vocation," then "Lanzarote and La Graciosa have a very serious, almost irresolvable problem, which is called Oswaldo Betancort."
