MAYOR KNEW ABOUT ILLEGAL TAJO CONSTRUCTIONSBy David Eade
The Partido Popular councillor and former delegate for public works, José Herrera, has broken his silence over the illegal constructions in the protected Hoya del Tajo in Ronda which is being investigated by the courts. Herrera denies he gave permission for the construction of stables and agricultural units rather he says he issued legal proceedings against them.
Herrera was responding to the court testimony of Mayor Antonio Marín who appeared before the judge on August 20. Marín told the court he had no responsibility in the matter and had not been involved in any discussions that could have led to offences under the town planning law. Furthermore the mayor suggested that it was Herrera who was responsible for the offences and he had not briefed him on what was happening.
Not so says Herrera. He insists that he has committed no legal offence over the construction of the buildings and stables because he never approved them and issued sanctions against the development. Furthermore the mayor and members of his then Partido Andalucista contingent were fully briefed at the meetings of the information commission and the proceedings were reported to Marín. He viewed it as disgraceful that the mayor was trying to evade responsibility by blaming his then colleagues and town hall officials.
There is a political angle to this in that at the time of the alleged offences Marín’s Partido Andalucista was in coalition with the Partido Popular. Indeed it was rumoured that the PP ruled the roost and Marín was just a figure head, which might give rise to the mayor’s testimony. Since then the mayor has broken the pact with the PP, entered a coalition with PSOE and he and his PA councillors have left that party, sit as non aligned but are members of PSOE.
TWENTY-EIGHT ARRESTED FOR COCAINE TRAFFICKINGA year-long investigation by the Judicial Group of the National Police in Ronda has led to the arrest of 28 people in the town on drugs trafficking charges. All are aged between 21 and 40 years with six being held in prison and the rest being released on bail.
The ring leaders are between 21 and 30 years and they hired other young people with “difficult situations” who were offered a week’s holiday plus a payment of between 1,000 and 1,200 euros.
Ronda’s police chief, Salvador García, said that those hired were used as drugs couriers. They went to Santo Domingo in the Caribbean where they holidayed for a week. Once they had finished their holiday they were given doses of cocaine that they hid inside their body. They then returned to Madrid’s Barajas airport acting as tourists. They travelled in pairs with 40 per cent of the couriers or mules being women.
They then were picked up at the airport and brought to Ronda by car. Once the cocaine was recovered it was prepared for sale in Madrid, Sevilla, Marbella as well as Ronda and the surrounding Serranía.
The police operation, code named Mojito, resulted in the seizure of three kilos of cocaine of very high purity worth 540,000 euros. Also now in the court’s hand is the documentation that supported the courier operation that is said to date back over five years. Officers have also found 12,000 euros in cash and jewellery.
The investigation was so large that virtually all the National Police officers based in Ronda were involved. Also taking part were police in the towns and cities where the drugs were distributed and at Barajas airport.
This is not the first time that Ronda or the wider Serranía has been involved in similar investigations or arrests. In the past year alone six people in the area have been arrested for carrying out similar trips to the Dominican Republic and the police there have made arrests at a hotel. Currently Mojito remains open and further arrests have not been ruled out.
GAUCÍN RESIDENTS TO APPEAL AGAINST POWER LINEThe fight by residents, ecologists and Gaucín town hall to halt the proposed Endesa power line that will cut across environmentally protected areas goes on.
It was back in December 2007 that we first highlighted here the campaign to halt the pylons and power lines that Endesa said were needed to meet the increasing needs for power in the Gaucín to Jimena area.
There were suspicions that as the line would terminate at El Corchado in San Pablo de Buceite the main beneficiary of this rape of the countryside would be the proposed golf course and urban development. However as both have long since collapsed there is no obvious “increased need” on a large scale in the area.
Endesa has always hid behind the fact that the regional government’s ministry of innovation, science and business backed the scheme. Indeed it gave the project “exceptional interest” status, which in effect swept away all rights of appeal or common sense deeming the power line was a necessity for the local communities and businesses.
The action group fighting the scheme are now taking their fight directly to the ministry. They will argue that the power lines are not needed; they will destroy areas of natural beauty between Casares, Gaucín and San Pablo and will also put at risk birds and wild life in areas that have been given environmental and national monument protection.
However it would be wrong to dismiss this as a “not in my backyard protest”. The residents have accepted that Endesa may need to boost its electricity supplies. Jamie Orr-Ewing, a foreign resident of Gaucín who is the spokesperson for the action group said of the project: “It will be another set of high tension lines with three cables running in parallel to the existing lines. We have already demonstrated the route of the existing lines can be utilised, meaning the new lines are not necessary. This opinion is supported in writing by an ‘Ingeniero Técnico Industrial’.”
For the people of Gaucín their battle is not at the end of the line.
ANGRY PARENTS
The parents of 150 pupils attending the Miguel de Cervantes School in Ronda are protesting as the dining room has had to be closed because of the lack of space - this has apparently been a problem for a number of years. There have also been protests at the school for Benarrabá and Algatocín were parents are angry over the lack of teachers.
PAY ROW
Following the announcement by the PP mayor of Gaucín, Francisco Ruíz, that the municipality was bankrupt and that he’d have to close the town hall unless he received financial aid, a row has broken out over his salary. PSOE says his socialist predecessor de Molina received 17,692 euros over 14 months against Ruíz’s 64,719 euros a year. The PP has angrily rejected the figures.
CATTLE FAIR
Ronda is famous for its livestock fairs and although the famous royal May fair – the oldest in Andalucía – was cancelled due to the financial crisis the September fair went ahead. The PP is demanding the creation of an area specifically for the cattle and equine markets as they say there was inadequate provision for water, feeding or shelter at the improvised fair site.
HOME GROWN
The Guardia Civil and local police in Arriate raided two homes in the town and arrested three people accused of growing and trafficking marijuana. One house had a greenhouse in the patio with eight plants three metres high and the second dwelling had the same number of plants with an intensive growing system. Also seized was equipment for preparing the drugs for sale.
CONFRATERNITY MUSEUM
The various confraternities in Ronda that hold the celebrated processions during Semana Santa will shortly have their own museum located in the former court house in the historic town on the calle Armiñán. Recently the delegate for citizen participation, Francisco Cañestro, met with the confraternities to show them the 350 square metre space and to give them details of the future museum.
FALLING NUTS
The chestnut harvest is underway and it is predicted that it will be 50 per cent down on previous years. Rafael Cordero of the Asociación Agraria de Jóvenes Agricultores in Ronda says they expect to collect two million kilos of the nuts from 4,300 hectares in the Serranía de Ronda and Valle del Genal. That is considered to be a bad harvest due to the rains in late August. In good years the figure is around five million kilos.
