Fortunes amassed overnight; yachts in the hands of public officials who came from nothing when they entered politics; dozens of licenses granted illegally; a party that breaks down throughout several ...
Fortunes amassed overnight; yachts in the hands of public officials who came from nothing when they entered politics; dozens of licenses granted illegally; a party that breaks down throughout several crises, always marked by dark accusations between those who leave and those who stay, and whose leader and oracle is in prison... All these elements that make up the recent history of Lanzarote are evidence that many things have happened behind the backs of the citizens of this island, and the question is whether Operation "Unión" will serve to break this dynamic.
Since its inception, four months ago, it turned the island upside down, with searches in two town halls, in several companies and in architects' studios, and generated many expectations among those who dream of seeing a clean and regenerated island one day.
However, that will depend not only on those who have to fall "falling", but also on how each Lanzarote resident, from the waiter in a bar to the highest political leader of the island, assimilates what happened after this judicial intervention. Whether or not you want to learn a lesson.
During a year of telephone tapping and monitoring of the main people involved in the alleged plot dedicated to collecting illegal commissions, evidence was obtained that the judge and the Prosecutor's Office consider decisive to prove that public officials, orchestrated in most cases by Dimas Martín from Tahíche, were charging alleged illegal commissions to businessmen to grant them benefits from the administration.
Even, according to what the Civil Guard reported at the time, two people were caught "red-handed" when they were carrying out the economic transaction, worth 100,000 euros. And that, despite the fact that the golden years of fat cows have left Lanzarote. And that, despite the fact that this happened in the midst of an economic crisis, with less money on the street and with an island so exploited urbanistically that it would seem to have no possibilities for more.
In fact, the main limitation that Operation "Unión" will face is that it arrived too late. Because if those same means, those same efforts and those same UCO agents had arrived on the island a few years ago, they would probably have found much more than 100,000 euro commissions.
But even so, they found them. While the citizens of this island were going through hardships, filling the queues of the Cáritas soup kitchen and struggling to get a job and bring food to their family's table, there were politicians on this island who were dedicated to enriching themselves at the expense of public institutions, according to the accusations of the magistrate and the Prosecutor's Office.
It will be the trial and the progress of the investigation that determines the responsibilities and sheds light on what happened, but to date, there are at least 16 people charged with bribery. That is, for having charged, paid or promised bribes in the last year. And that is the true center of Operation "Unión": in an alleged plot dedicated to the collection of illegal commissions, with interests also in the General Plans of Yaiza and Arrecife.
Now, the first thing that is going to come out is not that, but the pieces that are beginning to separate from the summary, derived from the telephone tapping of the central plot. Alleged criminal acts that those responsible for the operation could not turn a blind eye to and forced them to intervene as well. But regardless of their importance, which they undoubtedly have, those "separate pieces" are not part of what was being pursued when this investigation began.
That central plot will be known in the coming months, when the preliminary proceedings are completed and the secrecy of the summary is definitively lifted. And then, with all the elements in hand, there will be no more excuses or justifications. That is when Lanzarote will demonstrate whether it really wants to definitively banish the worst of its past and begin to build a future without the burden of corruption.