The criminal proceedings opened for the construction of the Stratvs winery, which already has at least 18 defendants, has had its first consequence. The Yaiza City Council has ordered the closure of the winery's restaurant, thus confirming that it was operating illegally.
The news comes two and a half months after the indictment of the mayor of Yaiza, Gladys Acuña, as well as several councilors and technicians from the southern City Council. Among them, the former surveyor of the Technical Office, Pablo Carrasco, and the one who has been the secretary of the Corporation for years, Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes. Both have recently been removed from their positions, to serve a final sentence for a crime of malfeasance, and also have another sentence in the first instance.
During the past month of August, the Governing Board of the City Council adopted the agreement to "communicate the suspension of activity and closure" of the Stratvs restaurant, as stated on Radio Lanzarote ? Onda Cero by the deputy mayor of the municipality, Francisco Guzmán Rodríguez. "We gave him the pertinent period for allegations and once it was completed, another meeting was held where it was agreed to decree the sealing of the activity," he explained.
The order, as confirmed to La Voz by the mayor, Gladys Acuña, was executed "on Thursday or Friday" of last week. "It is already sealed", Acuña pointed out. During her statements in the Courts, the mayor had to answer for the activity license she granted to the winery in 2008, but she was also asked what she planned to do from now on.
"We have gone to the administrative part, which is what we are responsible for, and that is where we have acted, which is what we understood had to be our decision," Guzmán Rodríguez pointed out in reference to the open criminal proceedings.
Almost twenty defendants
The criminal proceedings for the construction of the Stratvs winery have been growing in recent months, in which several visits have been made with technicians to the facilities. On the one hand, the people who intervened in the granting of the construction and activity permits are accused, both in the City Council and in the Government of the Canary Islands, since the Prosecutor's Office and the investigating Court understand that they did not comply with the law.
On the other hand, the owner of the winery, Juan Francisco Rosa, and the architect who designed it, Miguel Ángel Armas Matallana, are also accused, since the investigation and the reports of the experts indicate that, in addition, what was built has nothing to do with what had been authorized. Among other things, the reports indicate that permission was requested to rehabilitate an old construction, and what was allegedly done was to demolish it and build a new one.
In addition, the constructed surface would also far exceed what was authorized, and spaces such as the restaurant were not even, apparently, in the license application that was submitted at the time. Now, it is the City Council itself that recognizes the illegality of this space, by decreeing its closure.
