The Teguise City Council affirms that it will defend the ownership of the land of La Graciosa before the State after learning that the Ministry of Finance demands an amount of money for the acquisition of the public land that the Consistory once gave them.
The mayoress Olivia Duque points out that she held a meeting with the residents to "analyze the communications they receive from the Treasury so that they pay various amounts of money or justify why part of their land invades the state public domain." Duque was accompanied by the deputy mayor Rita Hernández, the advisor to the Cabildo of La Graciosa and resident of La Graciosa, Alicia Páez, and the senator for the Autonomous Community, Pedro San Ginés. The senator for Lanzarote and La Graciosa, Manuel Fajardo Palarea was not invited by the Teguise City Council.
Duque stated that from the government group they will do "everything possible so that that land reverts to the benefit of the residents of La Graciosa at no cost." "We are talking about a situation that should not even be taken into account since historically this land has always belonged to the residents of the Island, now is not the time to speculate unfairly with this territory."
"It is important that all the residents of La Graciosa are clear that the Teguise City Council is with them and that we are already working on a response and an action plan so that these lands cease to be considered as territorial occupation and are assumed as what they really are," she affirms.
From the City Council they point out that "the Treasury demands from the residents of Teguise payments of up to 94,000 euros for the acquisition of the public land that they are supposedly occupying and that Teguise ceded about forty years ago."
"This situation is the result of an accumulation of poorly developed actions such as the initial demarcation of the land. However, we will work without taking into account the origin of the problem because now the important thing is that the residents can make use of something that belongs to them without having to face exorbitant payments," adds the mayoress.
"We will defend that the land of La Graciosa stays among the residents of La Graciosa, against the pretensions of certain institutions to speculate unfairly with a territory that has always been and will be of our residents," she concludes.