The Teguise City Council has finalized the settlement of the debt arising from a ruling by the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, which ordered the institution to pay compensation for the improper occupation of land in Caleta de Caballo during the years 1994 and 1996, when roads, sidewalks, and other public infrastructures were built without the expropriation process having been completed.
The judicial procedure, initiated in 2007 and finalized in 2013, recognized the municipal obligation to compensate for the occupation of 25,460 square meters and established a maximum compensation of 6.6 million euros, to be determined during the execution phase. After a long technical and judicial process, the City Council reached an agreement that has definitively settled the litigation, ensuring legal certainty for the municipality and stability for public finances.
Planned Payments, Interest Savings, and Financial Responsibility
As of December 31, 2025, the City Council had paid almost one million euros corresponding to the last two annual installments, thus completing the agreed payment plan, which included the principal and interest. This action makes it possible to avoid the interest foreseen for the fiscal years 2026 and 2027, which represents considerable savings for the municipality.
The mayor of Teguise, Olivia Duque, has highlighted that "with the settlement of this debt, we definitively close a conflict that has conditioned municipal management for decades." In this regard, she has emphasized that "complying with this ruling was an unavoidable obligation, and doing so through a responsible payment plan has allowed us to avoid new interest and protect the economic stability of the City Council."
Duque also pointed out that this action "reinforces the legal certainty of the municipality and frees up resources that can now be allocated to improving the towns, public services, and infrastructure," reaffirming that "ordering the past with rigor is essential to continue building a solid and sustainable future for Teguise."For his part, the Councilor for Economy and Finance, Francisco Javier Díaz Gil, highlighted that this is "a historic ruling that Teguise had been carrying for more than three decades" and stressed that "today we can say that it has been fulfilled, settled, and closed," emphasizing that the action has been carried out with rigor, transparency, and responsibility, protecting municipal interests and those of future generations.
The agreement reached was legally assessed as beneficial for the City Council, as it avoids the accumulation of further interest and puts an end to a procedure that generated administrative and financial uncertainty. In this regard, the mayor of Teguise, Olivia Duque, pointed out that the municipality "needed to turn the page" and that this settlement represents stability, institutional confidence, and the guarantee of continuing to order the past to build the future.
With the settlement of this debt, the Teguise City Council manages to close a lawsuit that has been open since the 90s, protect the municipality from new judicial burdens, avoid future interest, and free up financial capacity to continue allocating resources to public services, urban maintenance, culture, sports, and support for the social and business fabric.
