In 1998, the Yaiza City Council requested an opinion from the lawyer and professor of Constitutional Law at the University of La Laguna, Antonio Domínguez Vila, on the possibility of granting licenses for hotels after the precautionary suspension of licenses ordered by the Cabildo that year. Yaiza continued to grant licenses, which were later annulled by the courts, and now, thirteen years later, within the procedure that is being followed in Court 2 of Arrecife for the case of illegal hotels, an attempt is being made to determine who gave the orders for these licenses to be granted and based on what criteria.
The Prosecutor's Office's thesis points to the former secretary of Arrecife, Felipe Fernández Camero, who is the lawyer for the Yaiza City Council in the hotel and anti-Moratorium processes, and an attempt is being made to determine whether he was also his advisor. Camero and his daughter are also lawyers for a large number of promoters affected by the annulment of these licenses.
Fernández Camero is charged in this case and last February requested the testimony of Domínguez Vila as a witness, who in his opinion warned the City Council of the obligation to communicate the licenses to the Cabildo so that it could verify whether they conformed to the Island Planning Plan. However, the opinion also stated that "although it would not be possible in strict legality to grant new licenses" due to the suspension agreed by the Cabildo, "if from a political point of view it is desired to strain the problem, licenses could continue to be granted."
With the testimony of this witness and the presentation of his opinion, Camero's defense is trying to demonstrate that it was not the former secretary of Arrecife who devised and advised following a common strategy to grant licenses, even knowing of their illegality, and to circumvent the control of the Cabildo. The witness's testimony, in any case, leaves many gaps around the preparation of the opinion and clears up almost nothing.
Assignment without procedure
The assignment of the work has no administrative procedure. The opinion was commissioned by telephone, according to the witness's statement, by the municipal secretary (also charged in the case), Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes. The university professor assures that he then sent the signed report, but there is no written document requesting the work, nor that it has been paid and there is no record of entry in the City Council of said opinion.
Furthermore, Domínguez Vila does not appear on the list of lawyers who have provided services to the City Council despite the fact that he brought a lawsuit on this matter. In addition, in 2007 the secretary again asked Domínguez Vila to send the opinion, even though it was supposedly already in the possession of the City Council and despite the fact that its content was no longer of interest to the Consistory, since it was limited to the period of license annulment.
Domínguez Vila, who said he was surprised that he was proposed as a witness, assured in court that he does not know Fernández Camero. During his testimony he was asked how it is possible, if he does not know the lawyer, that Fernández Camero contributed to the case, firstly, the unsigned report and subsequently the signed report. Domínguez Vila said he cannot know.
The secretary Vicente Bartolomé Fuentes declared in court in this procedure that the licenses were not notified to the Cabildo because that is what Domínguez Vila's report indicated. The professor, for his part, defended that the report warned "clearly that the licenses granted had to be communicated to the Cabildo.
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