"It was a mafia." That is the devastating phrase that the judge and prosecutor investigating the case of the illegal licenses in Playa Blanca have heard this week. After three years of investigation, in the ...
"It was a mafia." That is the devastating phrase that the judge and prosecutor investigating the case of the illegal licenses in Playa Blanca have heard this week. After three years of investigation, in recent months they are making giant strides. First, although he later retracted, with the confession of José Francisco Reyes himself. Now, with the statement of a witness who has decided to take a step forward and has denounced that the former mayor of Yaiza received no less than 500,000 euros for handing over licenses to a Basque company in the Playa Blanca Partial Plan.
Allegedly, half a million euros for building a few homes, which represent only a tiny part of the multi-million dollar businesses that were done in the south during the mandate of José Francisco Reyes. And that is why, thinking about the figures that could have been handled during that time causes even dizziness.
Gone are the "paper theories" and the persecutory manias of the former mayor. Pending the completion of the investigation of this case and the issuance of the appropriate sentence, the truth is that the investigation has been building up evidence and, above all, has put on the table that those who argued that it was not possible for a mayor to hand over dozens of illegal licenses just because, or for the pleasure of destroying the coast of Playa Blanca, were not crazy. That it was not far-fetched or twisted to think that there were many more interests behind all that.
However, getting here has been a work of true judicial engineering. The same one that the Investigating Court Number 5 has been applying for two years now, in this case with Operation "Unión". And it is that in both processes, despite the lack of resources, despite the reinforcements that do not arrive and despite the obstacles that they have been finding along the way, they have managed to show a crude reflection of the reality that Lanzarote has suffered for years. So many, that undoing the skeins of corruption that had been woven was almost a task of titans, which until now no one had dared or no one had wanted to address.
But now, things have changed and the fruits are beginning to be seen, with increasing clarity. And it is that despite the traces that have been tried to erase and the frameworks that some built to remain safe and leave exposed only the scapegoats, impunity could come to an end. Or at least, the nights of sleeping peacefully, if they ever had them.
With growing rumors of a new blow from Operation "Unión", which has been working in silence for months and still maintains an important part of its summary under secrecy, and with the progress in the case of the Playa Blanca license plot, it is evident that the judicial work has only just begun.
And for that, the participation of witnesses, complainants and people who are deciding to break a silence that has lasted too many years is also being key. The silence of many people who know what has been happening on this island, and who would have a lot to say to put an end to it.
In the case of the last witness who has just testified in the Investigating Court Number 2, it was seeing Reyes' arrest that prompted him to go to the Prosecutor's Office to report the events he had allegedly experienced, despite claiming that he had received threats not to tell what he knew. And like this one, many other people are launching themselves to speak, either because they have decided to join the fight against corruption or, as happens with some of those accused in Operation "Unión", simply because they have already been splashed and have decided to collaborate.
But be it for one reason or another, all those who are joining forces with those responsible for the two major operations against corruption in Lanzarote are getting those who have been behind the great "businesses" of this island to tremble again.
