The mayor of Teguise held an extraordinary meeting that was attended by the Head of the Local Police of Teguise and the Command of the Civil Guard of Lanzarote, as well as the Government Delegate and municipal officials and technicians from Social Welfare and the Environment, to discuss an urgent issue affecting the municipality of Teguise, such as the illegal occupation of homes in Costa Teguise.
To this end, Oswaldo Betancort convened a Security Board, in which he conveyed to the State Security Forces and Corps his "enormous concern and powerlessness to prevent a conflictive and very unpleasant situation for the residents," said Betancort, who expressed his unease since "local administrations are tied hands to be able to tackle illegal occupations in private properties, which in addition to tremendously affecting the residents of these occupied homes, contribute to the deterioration of the image of the tourist and residential town."
In this sense, Betancort has urged the members of the Security Board "to seek and propose among all a firm and consensual determination that manages to intimidate the people who illegally occupy these properties and that have nothing to do with cases of social helplessness of people with real and urgent need, and that from the Social Welfare service of the City Council we attend in a reserved way," declared the highest municipal mayor.
"The residents of the areas affected by this social scourge continually alert me to the serious problems of coexistence and health that are occurring in abandoned apartments in Costa Teguise, which are in a legal limbo, and where the City Council has no power to intervene," said Betancort.
"For that reason," he added, "we have asked the members of the State Security Forces and Corps to increase the presence and pressure on the areas of usurpation of homes." "It must be recognized that since the first operation was set up, the work of the Civil Guard and Local Police has been very diligent, but at this point we believe that we must be more forceful, while the executive or judicial power does not seek solutions to a growing and worrying problem that affects many locations," concluded Betancort.