The businessman Juan Francisco Rosa intended to reinstall a Nativity scene this Christmas in the illegal Stratvs winery, despite the fact that the facilities were closed exactly five years ago by court order and despite the fact that they still have not opened their doors due to lack of permits.
The businessman's daughter, Noelia Rosa, sent a letter to the Cabildo on September 14 on behalf of Sociedad Bodega Stratvs SL requesting authorization to install that Nativity scene, as it is a Protected Natural Space. However, a month and a half later, she herself presented another letter withdrawing her request.
As a result of that second letter, the Minister of the Environment, Antonio Morales, issued a decree on December 5 closing the file that had been initiated to process this request, which required, among other things, favorable prior reports.
Rosa is not even the owner of the plot
This request is in addition to others that Juan Francisco Rosa has presented in relation to the winery in recent years, while he is still awaiting trial in the main piece of the Stratvs case. One of the requests was addressed two years ago to the Island Water Council of the Cabildo, requesting permission to install a wastewater treatment plant in the winery. However, the intervention of the Negrín family forced the Island Corporation to request an external report that concluded that Juan Francisco Rosa is not even the owner of the land where the winery is located.
"Neither BTL Lanzarote nor Juan Francisco Rosa Marrero have any ownership of the property", warned the Negrín's lawyer, José Luis Sáez, in a letter he sent to the Cabildo after learning "through the media" that the institution had initiated a file, which began to be processed the day after receiving Rosa's request. In that letter, the Negrín family warned the politicians and technicians who participated in that file that they could incur in a crime of prevarication if they continued.
Finally, after requesting a report, the Cabildo ended up rejecting the request. "The permission of all the owners of the registry property 3630 of Yaiza, in which the treatment plant will be installed, is not on record", the report concluded. Precisely the alleged usurpation of land is one of the crimes for which the businessman is accused in the Stratvs case, in the piece that is still pending trial, and in which the Negrín are present as a private prosecution.
Five years since the sealing and a trial still pending
Rosa's winery was sealed in December 2013 by the investigating judge of the Stratvs case, Silvia Muñoz, in a decision that was later endorsed by the Provincial Court. Almost two years ago, however, Judge Salvador Alba decided to lift this precautionary measure, alleging, among other things, that the trial was "close to being held", although that did not lead to the reopening of the winery. And it is that, among other things, that criminal case revealed that the facilities lacked permits that would cover what was actually built, so it has not been able to obtain a new authorization for its start-up.
Since then, the trial of one of the two pieces into which the case was divided has already been held, in which eight people were convicted, including former mayors José Francisco Reyes and Gladys Acuña, for crimes of prevarication and against land planning, in relation to the granting of the opening license of the winery, which was declared illegal.
In addition, the main trial is still pending, focused on all the events surrounding the construction of this macro-complex on protected land. In that piece, Rosa faces a request for 15 years in prison by the Prosecutor's Office and 21 by the popular accusation for falsification of an official document, usurpation of property, against land planning with serious damage to a protected natural space, against historical heritage and against the environment for illegally excavating in a protected space.