The Justice has once again rejected a request from the Jacón association to close wineries in La Geria, in this case in the municipality of Tías. This supposed "environmental association" asked the City Council of that municipality to close the Vega de Yuco and Martinón wineries in September 2015. Faced with the "presumed rejection" of the Consistory, it appealed to the Contentious-Administrative Court number 1 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and requested that it suspend its "rejection", as well as the license granted to Bodegas Martinón to install a treatment plant on its land. In an order dated this Wednesday, the Court has rejected both claims.
It is not the first time that Jacón has requested the closure of wineries in La Geria in the Courts. Already last May another court in Las Palmas rejected another request from this association, in which it demanded the "urgent closure" of 5 wineries, on that occasion located in the municipality of San Bartolomé. Then, as now, this supposed environmental organization was represented by the lawyer Juan David García Pazos.
This lawyer, through different associations, has tried to enter the most relevant corruption cases in Lanzarote. The lawyer led Agonane to appear in the Stratvs case, an environmental association from Fuerteventura. Agonane, however, ended up withdrawing from the case, claiming that she had felt "deceived and used" by García Pazos and that she had appeared in the procedure after being "convinced" by this lawyer. Even, from Agonane they assured La Voz that the only thing the lawyer did was "contribute noise" to that procedure. Shortly after Agonane's departure, Jacón herself tried to appear in that case, although she has not succeeded.
However, she has opened other lawsuits requesting the closure of different wineries in La Geria. Precisely a businessman linked to the owner of Stratvs, Juan Francisco Rosa, made a request similar to those that Jacón is now making. It was in 2014, with the aim of ordering the closure of all the wineries in La Geria, but he did not succeed either.
"No evidence has been provided"
Regarding the Vega de Yuco and Martinón wineries, Jacón appealed both the "presumed rejection" of the Tías City Council to its request to close them, as well as the municipal decree of November 2015 by which Bodegas Martinón was granted a license to install a wastewater treatment plant. The association represented by García Pazos requested that as a "precautionary measure" the "suspension of the execution" of those resolutions be agreed, something that the Court has not agreed to.
Regarding the construction license, the judge responds to Jacón that she has not provided "any evidence that proves that the work to be authorized manifestly infringes the legal system" and that, therefore, the "presumption of legality of the administrative act that has been issued" must "prevail". The order also emphasizes that granting her request would "cause harm" to the license holder.
Regarding the closure of these two wineries, Jacón argued that there is a pending criminal proceeding for alleged "unauthorized discharges". The order explains that the association argued that the principle of 'periculum in mora' exists, "since if the precautionary measure is not granted, said discharges would continue to be carried out, with the damages that this would entail for the environment." "The existence of preliminary proceedings for uncontrolled discharges is alluded to, but it is not explained why the judicial body was not asked to adopt measures to prevent their continuation," the judge responds to this.
In addition, the magistrate emphasizes that when requesting that a request that has been answered negatively be suspended, "what is intended" by Jacón "is not the suspension of the execution of the act but, on the contrary, the execution of the act of request." That is, that Jacón's intention was none other than to carry out the closure that she had been requesting from the beginning.
