Tías has started 2025 being the protagonist of an embarrassing news story. The name of our municipality appeared on January 1st in the main media outlets of the Canary Islands associated with such regrettable terms as "brawl", "seriously injured" or "knife". During the early hours of New Year's Day, at the festival held in Puerto del Carmen, a person was seriously injured in a fight that required urgent transfer to the Hospital after having to wait for the arrival of health resources. The incident left a surreal image that quickly went viral on social networks: the members of the orchestra interrupted their show to make a call to order. "We cannot work in these conditions," said one of the members while those present recorded the events with their mobiles in a square full of attendees.
The New Year's Eve festival in Varadero should be an event to celebrate the arrival of the new year with joy and family, not a scenario of fights and chaos and, even less, aggressions with injuries. What happened that morning leaves us with a worrying balance: one person seriously injured by a knife and an atmosphere of insecurity that tarnished what should have been a party for residents and tourists. But what happened is not something exceptional on New Year's Eve in Varadero, any resident of the area will be able to point out that it is common to observe on weekends the lack of police presence in the place before, during and after the end of the night leisure hours. The lack of prevention in terms of traffic competences within the urban area causes the attendees to have total freedom to leave in the same cars in which they arrived, after hours of consuming alcoholic beverages in the establishments of the area.
Nor can we treat this incident as an isolated case. Year after year, the lack of foresight and planning of the government team formed by PSOE and Podemos turns massive events like this into risk scenarios for the population. The scarce police presence and the absence of sufficient health resources until the end of the event are a clear sign that the City Council still does not learn from the mistakes of the past. Mistakes that the citizen pays for.
It is not the first time that Puerto del Carmen becomes the epicenter of altercations during mass events. In previous years, we have witnessed similar situations that always show the same negligence. The newspaper library reminds us of regrettable situations such as the following: " pitched battle in Puerto del Carmen, tourist center of Lanzarote", "An altercation in the Varadero reopens the debate on the lack of Police in Tías", "The fight that produced three injured in Puerto del Carmen occurred between tourists leaving the Atlantic Center". It is inadmissible that, despite the background, the municipal government does not adopt serious measures to prevent these situations from repeating themselves. While other municipalities on the island invest resources in security matters, others maintain a narrow-minded view of reality with the hope that the winds will change in their favor. Nor should we be surprised by the attitude of this municipal government if, in the face of legal obligations regarding security in each and every one of our towns, it votes against, as they did in the plenary session held on December 17. A cost that we cannot continue to pay.
The price of this lack of responsibility is not only suffered by the attendees of the event, but also the image of Puerto del Carmen as a tourist destination. This tourist center is the economic engine of Tías and one of the most important in Lanzarote. Businessmen, residents and tourists cannot continue to bear the consequences of the neglect of this government group, as the lack of investment, organization and foresight in security matters deteriorates the image of our municipality, both internationally in the tourist markets and at the island level among the residents of the island.
It is especially serious that this altercation also occurs at a time when the island data reflect a general decrease in crime in Lanzarote. Despite this, we cannot fall into the trap of assessing the security situation only through the data of the last nine months, we must take into account that, having fewer agents on duty, not all requirements are covered, which leads to a reduction in the criminal cases that end up in the statistics. As an example, mention can be made of the data provided by the government group itself in reference to the circulation of vehicles in Puerto del Carmen, yielding a figure of 2 million vehicles in transit in just three months, which means an overload of traffic in the main economic center of the municipality. No matter how much data is provided, if there is no police presence, most of the incidents in traffic matters are not reflected because there has been no intervention by the agents. In these cases, it is the users themselves who have to look for solutions that, later, usually lead to conflict situations with other users of the road. This makes it clear that the problem does not lie in the general context of the island, but in the inability of the government of Tías to effectively manage security in key events in addition to other situations.
We cannot continue to improvise with the security of our municipality. Puerto del Carmen cannot afford more incidents that damage its reputation or put at risk those who choose this place to live, work or enjoy their holidays. It is time for the government team to stop acting passively and assume its responsibility. Residents and tourists deserve a Puerto del Carmen to continue, planned and worthy of its importance as the economic engine of Tías and Lanzarote.
