"The one who really benefits the most from this operation is none other than Juan Francisco Rosa." This is what the UCO agents maintain in one of the reports that are part of Operation "Unión", referring to the bribe offered by businessman Fernando Becerra to the socialist councilor Carlos Espino. In fact, Rosa appears as a defendant in at least two court orders that are part of the summary of the case, to which he would be linked precisely by this matter.
In theory, the proposal made by Becerra to Espino, on behalf of businessman Luis Lleó, consisted of unblocking the situation of the Costa Roja plot, after the license for the thousand homes granted by the former mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, had been paralyzed by Justice, following a complaint filed by the Cabildo. In exchange for his intervention, they offered Espino a millionaire commission, to be shared with the intermediary, Fernando Becerra.
After reporting the events to the Civil Guard, the socialist councilor held several meetings with Becerra, which were followed and recorded by the agents. In them, the businessman introduced new nuances in the proposal, even proposing a plan that would not only include resolving the situation of Costa Roja, but also that of the illegal hotels in Playa Blanca, some of them owned by Juan Francisco Rosa.
The strategy
Specifically, Espino was proposed that the Cabildo withdraw the contentious appeal it filed against the building permit for Costa Roja and, in addition, include those lands in the Special Territorial Plan for Tourism Planning that the Corporation was preparing.
For its part, the Yaiza City Council should consider that plot within the General Urban Planning Plan, which was in process at that time. For this, according to what Becerra transmits to Carlos Espino in the recorded conversation, they had Leonardo Rodríguez "controlled", who was then Councilor for Urban Planning of the southern Consistory.
However, the new proposal does not end there. Once the door to the urbanization of that land is opened, the businessmen with illegal hotels would buy the plot from Lleó, to in turn give "shares" of this land to the Cabildo as compensation, thus seeking the regularization of their establishments.
"And you, damn it, you sell it really well too. You can sell it well: No, in the end the citizens have been compensated, with this plot for common use, and so on? parks, I don't know?", Becerra insists to Espino. In exchange, yes, the businessmen asked for one more thing: that they be allowed to make a golf course in the area.
What did Lleó gain?
For the UCO agents, it is clear: "From this new proposal raised for the use of the Costa Roja land in order to legalize all the illegal hotels in Playa Blanca, it can be said that Luis Lleó does not obtain any direct benefit, except those obtained from the sale of the land." That is, Espino is being asked not only to regularize the situation of the Costa Roja plot, which is the one that really affects Lleó, but also that of all the illegal hotels in Playa Blanca. And from that, according to what they maintain in one of the reports of Operation "Unión", the "great beneficiary" would be Juan Francisco Rosa.
"With this proposal he would not only prevent the demolition of the two hotels he owns, but he would also, first, regularize the situation of those hotels. Second, he would be the owner of the Costa Roja land to transfer it to the Cabildo, and thus use it as equipment areas and green areas. And third, for the transfer of these lands to the Cabildo, he would obtain compensation without obstacles for the construction and exploitation of a golf course in Playa Blanca".
Rosa, buyer of Costa Roja
In addition to the benefits that this strategy proposed by Becerra would bring him, the UCO considers that there were other reasons that made Juan Francisco Rosa "as interested as Luis Lleó, or even more so, in that the two obstacles (Cabildo and Yaiza City Council) that the project had to overcome, could be overcome without problems".
On the one hand, the agents maintain in their report that of the million square meters that Costa Roja occupies, 764,000 belong to companies linked to Lleó and his family, and about 375,000 are in the name of Rentalanz, of which Juan Francisco Rosa is a director. That is, he was already the owner of a part.
But in addition, Rosa was negotiating the purchase of the entire plot from Lleó, having held several negotiations that are accredited in the UCO's telephone taps. According to the agents, at the time Operation Unión breaks out, the purchase was only awaiting the affirmative response from Bancaja, the entity that was going to finance the credit. In fact, an employee of this bank, Ginés Rodríguez, who appears in multiple conversations with Lleó, was summoned to testify as a witness in this case, and confirmed that Rosa was interested in buying the plot from Lleó, and that he knew that he was in the process of trying to regularize the plot.
Asked if Rosa was aware that Luis Lleó "was trying to influence Carlos Espino to unblock the Costa Roja land", Ginés Rodríguez said that he "believed" that Juan Francisco Rosa did know, "but through a legal negotiation to give a solution to the existing urban problem in the Costa Roja plot and the hotels".
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