The investigation of the "Yate" case brought to the table more than two years ago the alleged illegality of the Marina Rubicón Sports Port and now, in the final indictment, the Prosecutor's Office has requested that the license that allowed the construction of this infrastructure be annulled. Thus, in addition to judging the crimes of urban prevarication that are imputed to the former mayor and two technicians of Yaiza for authorizing that license, the trial could also serve to decree the illegality of this port.
Unlike what happens with the vast majority of the licenses investigated in this case (which had already been previously annulled by the courts in the contentious-administrative process), Marina Rubicón still has its license in force. However, that could change when the Yate case goes to trial. "It is appropriate to decree the nullity of the licenses unduly granted", argues the Environmental Prosecutor's Office in its writing.
In August 2010, within the framework of the "Yate" case (which began by investigating the massive granting of illegal licenses for hotels in Playa Blanca), prosecutor Ignacio Stampa requested a copy of the administrative file that led the City Council to authorize the works of Marina Rubicón. And from the hand of that file, a surprising chronology was revealed, of some works that began without a single permit and that obtained a municipal license only six days after requesting it, when the port was almost finished.
And all this, in the midst of strong social and environmental protests for this work; of judicial orders to stop the works; of complaints from individuals who later withdrew them after receiving money from the promoters of the port (Juan Francisco Rosa, Rafael Lasso and Francisco Armas); and of lawsuits that were filed at the request of the then coordinating prosecutor in Lanzarote, Miguel Pallarés, who in 2008 was sent to a new destination outside the island.
Three defendants
Now, the "Yate" case has reopened this issue, finding alleged crimes against land management (in its form of urban prevarication) in the granting of this license. Only for this file, which is one of the many that have been analyzed in this case, the prosecutor asks for one year in prison and ten of disqualification for José Francisco Reyes, two years in prison and ten of disqualification for the secretary of the City Council, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes, and two years in prison and ten of disqualification for the municipal surveyor Alfredo Morales.
In his writing, the Prosecutor's Office points out that Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes issued a report for the granting of that license "knowing of its manifest illegality, contributing decisively to the final dictation of the decree of granting of license by the mayor". In his report, the secretary "deliberately omitted essential aspects that made it impossible to approve the construction license for the construction of the sports port, because he knew that the prior report of the Cabildo on compatibility with the Island Plan and its Revision was required".
The following day, March 20, 2003, the surveyor Alfredo Morales issued another favorable report, despite being "fully aware that the building invaded the area of public maritime-terrestrial domain", according to the prosecutor. In addition, the report was based on the ordinances of a Partial Plan in which that land was not really located and referred to a project that "was not even approved by the Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water or by the Vice-Ministry of the Environment".
The Prosecutor's Office argues that the municipal surveyor also "knowingly" omitted that the General Plan of Yaiza in force did not contemplate the construction of a port in that area and that it had not been declared as an Insular General System in the PIOT either, for which it would have been necessary to carry out an environmental impact study. "Although there was no land management instrument that covered a General System Marina del Rubicón Sports Port", Alfredo Morales "reported favorably, contributing decisively to the granting by the mayor of the aforementioned license, stating in his report that it complied with the determinations of the Plan", argues the prosecutor.
A license to stop judicial proceedings
On the same day that the technician issued that report, José Francisco Reyes granted the license, according to the prosecutor, "obviating the most elementary administrative procedural rules, violating the most basic rules of mandatory observance imposed by the applicable urban planning regulations" and "without having the prior technical or legal reports required".
When Reyes signed that license, on March 20, 2003, the port works were practically finished. However, that permit was used by the promoters of Marina Rubicón to present it in the courts, which had paralyzed the works precisely because they lacked a license.
In addition, Juan Francisco Rosa signed a contract with the businessman who had denounced the works. Under that agreement, the promoters of Marina Rubicón paid him 1.8 million euros to withdraw from the five contentious lawsuits that he had opened, as well as from another criminal case against Rafael Lasso for an alleged crime of disobedience, having continued the works despite the order to stop. Shortly after, the Courts filed all the cases that remained open against Marina Rubicón.
However, at the request now of the Prosecutor's Office, the Justice will finally have to rule on the possible illegality of that port, and also on the alleged crimes that were committed when authorizing the works.
