Suspicions about José Francisco Reyes had been vox populi for some time, because it is hard to believe that someone would issue dozens of illegal licenses for the pure pleasure of contravening the law and current urban planning regulations. And since ...
Suspicions about José Francisco Reyes had been vox populi for some time, because it is hard to believe that someone would issue dozens of illegal licenses for the pure pleasure of contravening the law and current urban planning regulations. And for three years, the Justice system also began to take action on the matter, initiating an investigation in which the Prosecutor's Office took over the accusation. But it is now that the fruits are really beginning to be seen.
The police unit against organized crime, which two years ago received the green light from the judge to track the assets of José Francisco Reyes and his environment, has found evidence that would demonstrate that the family of the former mayor of Yaiza had accumulated sums of money difficult to justify. That is, either he became rich raising goats, or he obtained that money during his subsequent and long period as mayor of Yaiza, in which he granted almost thirty illegal licenses.
Until now, Reyes had even denied owning a yacht, despite the fact that it was bought by a company that has its registered office in his own home. However, the Udyco investigation reflects not only that vessel, but many other companies and properties registered mainly in the name of his children, who would have been dragged, like his wife, into this judicial process.
It has taken three years of investigation to reach this point, and we will have to continue waiting for the case to go to trial. But regardless of the well-known presumption of innocence, it is an undeniable fact that for the first time there is sufficient evidence on the table to order the arrest of José Francisco Reyes and his entire family, and searches of their homes.
And as in Operation Union, an indictment for a complaint that is ongoing is not the same as one derived from a police investigation that includes telephone tapping and, in the case of Reyes, also a tracking of his assets. Because in this case, we must also give presumption of veracity to the evidence found and to the work carried out by the agents, the judge and the prosecutor, who have been working on this case for years, and who until now had not adopted a measure of such magnitude, which even includes the arrest in Barcelona of one of Reyes' daughters.
With this operation, the heart of one of the alleged axes of corruption with which the island has lived for years is directly attacked. We are not talking about newcomers to politics such as Ubaldo Becerra or José Miguel Rodríguez, who, if the accusations against them in Operation "Unión" are proven, would have learned very quickly to adapt to the sewers of politics. In this case, we are talking about the man who has done as he pleased for years in the south of the island, flooding Playa Blanca with cement and granting illegal licenses to businessmen who could not have built without his collaboration. And now, finally, we get to the bottom of the matter: whether he did all that in exchange for nothing.
But while waiting for trial, and with all these elements in hand, we will have to see how the different political forces react, starting with the PNL. Whether it continues, like the PIL, with the strategy of defending its own and even attacking the media for doing their job, revealing what others want to remain hidden, or whether it dares to adopt some precautionary measure against Reyes, who granted licenses even to his party colleague Pedro de Armas.
But above all, we will have to see what the other parties do. What do the politicians who have clean hands do, given the possibility of sitting down to govern under the shadow of corruption. The cards are already on the table and, for the moment, many have begun to choose which side of the board they want to be on
