José Miguel Rodríguez and Ubaldo Becerra are no longer councilors of the Arrecife City Council, and the PIL has issued a public apology. Eight months have passed, but finally it could be read that the message of the ...
José Miguel Rodríguez and Ubaldo Becerra are no longer councilors of the Arrecife City Council, and the PIL has issued a public apology. Eight months have passed, but finally it could be read that the message of Operation "Unión" has sunk in, at least in part.
However, and in light of the press conference offered by the Independientes de Lanzarote, everything could also be understood to the contrary. Because in addition to apologizing "if any of the party members have acted wrongly", in that appearance they also deployed their traditional discourse, returning to present themselves as victims and attacking the media, political adversaries and even the police operation of the UCO, arguing that it was disproportionate.
Furthermore, and far from definitively distancing themselves from Dimas Martín, they defended his career and declared themselves "proud of his legacy". Of the legacy of a convicted man for embezzlement of public funds and several other crimes in different trials, and charged in Operation "Unión", which points him out as the leader of a plot aimed at collecting illegal commissions.
Evidently, the PIL's role last Tuesday was not easy. In fact, it has taken them more than half a year to make a public assessment after this operation that has splashed their leader and many of their public officials and militants. And in this situation, some party members were betting on greater forcefulness, which was ultimately not seen. And it is that they were hardly going to "break moorings" with Dimas Martín in the press conference in which they presented his son Fabián, also charged in Operation "Unión", as the new leader of the party.
Ubaldo Becerra and José Miguel Rodríguez, whose resignations were expected to appear among the media, seem to have become the "scapegoats" for the party. Just a few weeks ago their votes served the PIL, the PP and the PNL to present a motion of censure in Arrecife and make Cándido Reguera mayor, but now, in their party they already admit that both recognized before the judge having committed "a serious action in their public activity". It's something.
However, although only they were talked about in these terms, the truth is that Becerra and Rodríguez are neither the only ones nor the ones facing the most serious accusations within Operation Unión. Other members of the party, such as Matías Curbelo, Dimas Martín's right-hand man, were even arrested "in flagrante" when he was collecting an illegal commission, as he himself confessed later before the judge.
The commission in question, which was only one of those uncovered during more than a year of investigation, amounted to 100,000 euros. But for the PIL, the work of the UCO agents, the Arrecife Court of Instruction Number 5 and the Prosecutor's Office only detected "the collection of some small commissions". It was one of the pearls and contradictions of that appearance, in which they came to affirm that the summary of Operation "Unión" seems more like a "heart novel or a pink sauce". It is the particular reading they make of a summary that, for the majority, is a chilling portrait of the corruption that has become entrenched on the island.
"Politics is not an easy world, there are many interests and many temptations that interfere in the work of a public office". That was perhaps the most famous phrase pronounced at that press conference, before which one does not know whether to create an NGO for the poor and suffering politicians subjected to temptations, or to beg the UCO to settle permanently in Lanzarote.
As the PIL spokesman himself, Manuel Cabrera, explained later, in statements to Radio Lanzarote, what they wanted to say is that "since one accesses a public office, they begin to make offers, to do things". Something to which he added a phrase that, curiously, is the essence of what Operation "Unión" has come to show: "The system has been flawed for a long time".
Therefore, in the face of this, it is not a question of avoiding or not the "temptation", but of denouncing it by going to the courts, and also of being forceful with the people who commit crimes. Something that is very far from using convicts as spiritual guides in institutions, and from defending their "legacy".
Indeed, as they argued from the PIL, "as humans we can all err". But one thing is to err, and another is to demand illegal commissions from businessmen to award them services or pay them invoices that are being deliberately withheld, or to try to rig the award of a General Plan. To err is human, but to commit a crime is to be a criminal. And not everyone is susceptible to falling into that, or at least they shouldn't be. Otherwise, the system is much more than flawed.
