Podemos Lanzarote has revealed that CC members, Orlando Umpiérrez and Antonio Morales, approved the current Regional Plan for the Management of Aquaculture in the Canary Islands (PROAC), which contemplated the installation of marine cages on the coasts of Arrecife, San Bartolomé and Tías, while now the party "rejects it." Morales, who is currently in the ranks of the Renovating Movement of Tinajo, was then Minister of Agriculture of the Cabildo for the Canarian Coalition.
In the minutes of the session of the Regional Aquaculture Commission held on May 28, 2018, which Podemos Lanzarote claims to have had access to, it is revealed that the presidency was held by the then Minister of Fisheries, Narvay Quintero (CC) and that Orlando Umpiérrez, of CC Lanzarote, served as vice president. In addition, Antonio Morales was also present, representing the Cabildo.
"None opposed the approval," they point out from Podemos, who also maintain that Quintero said that the Plan "was necessary to unblock new requests for facilities" and Umpiérrez stressed that this document was "of great importance for the future development of aquaculture in the Canary Islands," as stated in the minutes.
Podemos also highlights that the minutes mention that the documentation from the councils had been received and that a "sufficient degree of consensus" had been reached. "It specifies that all attendees express their agreement with the document although they ask that possible modifications to it be analyzed, which did not occur," they point out from the purple formation.
Podemos Lanzarote considers that these public officials of CC are "responsible for this outrage", by approving a plan that "threatens the coasts, biodiversity and the main industry of the Island, in addition to contradicting the parameters of the Island Council that expressly requested that the coasts of the tourist centers not be included in the PROAC."
"CC left the interests of its island defenseless in favor of an industry whose activity only obtains private benefits at the cost of exploiting, polluting and exhausting environmental resources of Lanzarote, until converting that area of coast and beaches into unusable resources for the use and enjoyment of citizens, in addition to exhausting them as a tourist resource, given that the pollution generated by the aquaculture industry prevents the coasts of the most profitable tourist centers of Lanzarote from remaining viable for tourism," they maintain from Podemos.
The purple formation also criticizes that, despite being "responsible for the problem", when moving to the opposition, CC recently announced "that it would present a Non-Law Proposal (PNL) in the Parliament of the Canary Islands to modify the PROAC regarding the detailed ordering of areas suitable for aquaculture on the island of Lanzarote", and that in addition "it showed its rejection of the public tender called for the selection of a project for the granting of an aquaculture concession between those three municipalities."
Podemos Lanzarote also highlights that, in addition to the nationalists, the "Popular Party" must be added as responsible, since the former mayor of Tías, Pancho Hernández, "also did not make allegations or challenge the approval of a Plan that puts at risk the economic engine of his municipality and the environmental balance of the marine environment."