The president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, has once again spoken this Thursday about the Stratvs case and has done so, among other things, showing his confidence that the last defendant, the manager of the Island Water Board, José Juan Hernández Duchemín, "will be summarily exonerated". These statements come on the same day that Hernández Duchemín had to go to court to answer for an alleged crime against the environment, for which he remains charged.
Hernández Duchemín, who was summoned at 11 a.m., has been charged with favorably reporting the authorization of the Stratvs wastewater treatment system in 2008, despite the fact that there were reports warning of "a high degree of contamination". In this regard, San Ginés maintains that what the official did was "a report based on a previous presentation by the promoter", that is, the owner of the winery, Juan Francisco Rosa, in which he "says he has complied with certain infrastructures that have been carried out and that he complies".
The authorization was provisional, for six months, and San Ginés maintains that during that time the businessman presented "various analytical reports that apparently proved that he was discharging under the parameters established by law". However, in the order in which she ordered the closure of the winery, Judge Silvia Muñoz questioned precisely that the administration did not carry out its own "monthly periodic analyses", as established in that provisional authorization, and that the only thing presented were three analyses provided by Juan Francisco Rosa himself, "in which it is not known who, where or with what reliable guarantees the samples are taken".
In addition, despite the fact that this authorization was only for six months, the winery continued to operate and discharge without obtaining any new type of permit and without the administration acting to prevent it. However, San Ginés believes that "there is nothing to fear" with this indictment and has compared this situation with that of the Tourist Centers, which at that time also received an authorization, according to him "very similar", although indefinite, for their discharge system.
"It would make me laugh"
San Ginés has also responded to the writing presented by one of the private accusations in the case (the one representing the Negrín family), which warned the Court of the "attacks" that the procedure was suffering and of an alleged attempt to "obstruct justice" by the president of the Cabildo and the Minister of Territorial Policy of the Government of the Canary Islands, Domingo Berriel. "If it weren't because the matter is very serious, the obstruction of justice would make me laugh," San Ginés said on Radio Lanzarote - Onda Cero.
In addition, he has once again questioned the report carried out at the request of the Court by the Cabildo's lawyer Joana Macías and has insisted that the Corporation's legal services are carrying out a counter-report. And although it has not yet been presented, he already anticipates that this opinion "will refute Macías' report in a resounding manner."
Therefore, according to San Ginés, the lawyer for the private prosecution is not questioning him, but "the legal services of the Cabildo" and "the rest of the lawyers" of the Corporation. "It is not that I defend or attack Joana Macías' report, it is that if I don't, who I leave at the mercy of the horses is the jurists of the Island Plan, Heritage and Environment, who have been applying the Special Plan of La Geria. A Plan that is in force, no matter how much this lawyer has questioned its validity or legality," the president reiterated.
In her report, the lawyer maintains that the document as a whole has defects of nullity and questions the fit and the privileged treatment that has been attempted to give to Stratvs, although despite everything she concludes that the winery would not be legalizable with this Plan. "The report seriously attacks the technicians of the Government of the Canary Islands, for preparing a Special Plan supposedly to benefit private interests, which would be a crime", argues San Ginés, who also does not share that the Plan is flawed by nullity.
When submitting that report to the Court, the president of the Cabildo added a letter warning that it had not been "validated or supervised in depth", to which the judge responded that the Cabildo cannot supervise the reports of its technicians. In addition, he warned even that trying to influence the experts may constitute a crime.
"Stratvs has no fit"
Regarding another of the points in that report, relating to whether the winery could be legalized with the new Special Plan of La Geria, Pedro San Ginés does agree with Joana Macías' opinion and recognizes that Stratvs "has no fit" in that Plan. "As far as I know, neither Stratvs nor any other of the structuring equipment," he maintains.
In fact, he recognizes that that is why modifications have already been proposed to that document that has just been approved, and to which only Alternativa Ciudadana opposed in the Cabildo. "The Plenary has entrusted us to modify the articles of the Special Plan of La Geria so that the structuring equipment fulfills its function," says San Ginés, who has reiterated that with the current document "there is no room" for Stratvs. "In the same way that you cannot legislate to regulate the situation of any winery, you cannot legislate for all wineries except one. This is quite easy to understand," he says.
"It is different if what was built exceeded, as seems to be the case, what was authorized", added the president, referring to the fact that Juan Francisco Rosa did not even comply with the license he had granted, and that according to the Prosecutor's Office and the investigating judge was also illegal. But that, according to San Ginés, "has nothing to do" with the La Geria Plan and the new modifications they intend to make to accommodate it.
