Whether you ask it or affirm it, it might seem too "recurrent" due to the ease and, sometimes, the lightness with which it is used by people in so many public professions for audience reasons, but I find it eloquent and appropriate enough to express and clarify my particular opinion in the face of recent events and "false accusations."
Much has been commented in recent days in all types of media - radio, digital, social networks, and print media - about the "accusations," not at all presumed, but indeed false, because the person who, in the second round, threw them from their mouth, identified with them the names and surnames of those who "supposedly" had committed, according to their words, a "serious crime," affirming the existence of "extortions" and/or "pressures." First, from all the Canary administrations, without specifying? to finally direct them at me, in the capacity of Councilor for Fisheries at the time, and at the person of a worker -Advisor- responsible for the OAG, both as representatives of the Island Council of Lanzarote.
And in the face of this situation, after almost a year in which they could have filed the corresponding complaint where it should be, had such events occurred, which I repeat are false -April 2013-, it is why one, indignant, asks: What motivates today, a year later, a "Vice-Patron" of a Fishermen's Association, if not recognized, Mr. Olivero, if known by the fishermen and, representing them, to denounce with such false accusations. He says that in defense of a colleague, the President of the Provincial Federation of Fishermen's Associations of Las Palmas, who also, these past days, directed from his "own hand" -allow me the expression, although today we do little with the finesse of a fountain pen-, a letter to the Ministry of Environment, to position himself with a supposed support from the Sector and with manifest accusations, in favor of Oil Prospecting that has caused so much controversy and confrontation between detractors and supporters? Of course, I do not share it, but I understand it even less.
Sadly, allow me the license, according to the content of the referred letter, it has been "politicized" too much, but it has been done by those who understood to profit from it, which is not always strictly for political benefit. And, make no mistake, the public representatives of the local, island, and autonomous Canary administrations -with different acronyms and ideologies-, under the responsibility of their positions and in defense of the general interest and a majority social voice (citizen and collective), against the "dictatorial" position of a central government with the intention of authorizing oil prospecting in the waters of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, unanimously positioned themselves against it. All this, in the face of an authorization that forces us to take an unnecessary risk, expert reports support it, causing the loss of the strengths and riches (territorial, environmental, biodiversity, and marine) that differentiate us and make us unique, as well as weakening the development model -Tourism and energy sustainability- that we decided to bet on. But also, to the lack of loyalty and institutional respect, which should prevail in the relationship between governments. And so things continue, pending, among other fronts, what the courts decide.
Returning to the topic at hand, I say that the positioning of these representatives is not understood, especially because it is the Fishermen's Association San Ginés de Arrecife -to which reference is made-, with a recognized trajectory in the Canary Islands, which immediately categorically denies such an accusation. Let my considered and personal gratitude to its Senior Patron, Mr. D. Aquilino Arrocha, and to the rest of its Council, as well as to the fishermen members, go ahead -Because there is only one truth. Thank you from the heart-.
Considering this last point, I now ask myself the following question, has it really been a position of "muto propio" of these fishermen -who also said, in the first instance, to do so representing a sector that does not support them today- or rather, have they expressed themselves in this way following some recommendation or proposal (in exchange for something, of course)? If this is not the case, I reiterate, I still do not understand it, I must be quite clumsy in the face of so many contradictions.
They do not go to the courts in a whole year to denounce what they "supposedly had suffered", but they do not denounce it publicly in that same period either. They position themselves, personally and as representatives, in a sense that is far from the majority reality of their own sector -there is an absolute rejection, 21 of the 26 Associations, to oil prospecting (in Lanzarote, the four that exist plus the Association of La Santa)-, and, with everything, they are the ones who stand up as defenders of a collective against "supposed pressures" from the Canary institutions and leading people of the same. Well, this will then be the moment of convenient justification, more than words that verbalize or type freely propagating through the waves, the rotatives, and the networks -they will have to demonstrate it with "facts", -I guarantee that non-existent-, but for which I suggest they go to the courts without further delay. I will do what corresponds, and I welcome with great satisfaction the forcefulness shown by the Island Council in the face of these manifestations as well as its proposal to undertake the necessary legal actions so that the "bad arts" used to discredit and discredit worthy and clean struggles are not impugned.
What is clear to me is that these ideas of intrinsic evil of people, in the position of the supposed defense of a "Sector", which does not seem to have asked for it, to support and allow an oil activity that puts us all in danger, and that, mainly, would affect the fishermen and their "daily bread", we have already heard them before, ad nauseam, in the mouths of disinformation agents. Promoted by multinational companies that control and promote large media campaigns, applying a conscientious strategy to legitimize and, thus, achieve the authorization and, consequently, the implementation of Oil Prospecting that never had arguments or majority support, but that are increasingly less sustainable. A clear example is what happens in the Balearic Islands.
And, in any case, if the words of Mr. Olivero are really the spontaneous expression of his personal feeling and suffering, he is not doing anything other than projecting his own pettiness in the field of public life. In addition to disrespecting himself, something that should not worry him much "because one is the owner of his silence, but a slave to his words"; he lacks it to a whole sector of colleagues and professionals who have been free, responsible, and aware of the damage that this extractive activity of hydrocarbons in the sea would cause them. Reasons for which they have adopted a resounding position against Oil Prospecting in the waters of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. It arose from the dialogue and attention to their demands -at least on two previous occasions-, that on May 20, 2013, it was offered by the undersigned -proposing for this task the head of the OAG-Ezequiel Navío- to transfer all the information we had on this matter, including the "supposed pros" (collecting then the statements made by representatives of Repsol and the Ministry of Tourism itself, which were clearly dismantled) as well as the "contrasted cons" (understanding the experts that one of the most harmed would be the fishermen themselves). All of which, must be that it would not fit well with the reality of the one who seems unable to go beyond what he has reached, proposing himself in representation of a sector that does not accompany him and some statements that are not sustained. Nor those of his partner.
To conclude, allow me once again, to also address directly to who accuses me without blushing, in his capacity as Vice-Senior Patron of the Fishermen's Association San Ginés, Mr. Cristóbal Olivero, with the following words: "A Title does not guarantee the real competence, nor the professional or personal honesty of who possesses it" (Freeman). And before his own actions, "I attest".
Mónica J. Álvarez Martín, councilor-Island Council of Lanzarote