His arrival at the Mayor’s Office was not exactly a bed of roses nor did he do it the way he would have liked, because he had to replace Fidela Velázquez after being disqualified by a court ruling. Four months after taking office, a complaint from the San Juan de la Rambla Somos Todos party questioned the legality of her election. We had to wait until July of last year for the Prosecutor’s Office to ratify it. After his first year in office, also marked by the pandemic, the mayor takes stock.
– First year passed. What is your assessment?
“Positive. I am very happy with the work done by the government group. Above all, because despite the uncertainty of the events at the end of 2020, the changes in the government and the consolidation of the harmony pact without the presence of Fidela Velázquez, it meant the continuation of many projects, added to the new ones that we have been incorporating in a year, moreover, marked by an economic, social and health crisis”.
– It has even had to face its own party for the layout of the Insular Ring, from which this municipality has been particularly affected…
“Rather than confronting me, I have made it clear that there may be other proposals. I do not call it confrontation but debate, where San Juan de la Rambla, in the current proposal for the Insular Ring, has to have other alternatives. In this sense, we recall that the plenary unanimously agreed to invite those responsible for the Ministry of Public Works this year to assess different options, not only because of the landscape damage and the disconnection of the middle zone, there are many proposals that we have made in the allegations. We are not the ones to say which are the best, it should be the technicians who offer them and debate them with the public, something that has not yet been done”.
– Do you support the residents of the La Rambla neighborhood who demand safe entry and exit from the TF-5?
“I am with them, not only since they are demonstrating but since I am in the Mayor’s Office, because every day that passes, the situation worsens. This action should have been carried out a long time ago and it has not been done despite the fact that it is a demand that has been going on for 42 years and that can be raised independently of the Insular Ring. There is a project, in 2017 a patrimonial report was missing, but the reality is that it has to be budgeted for it to be real. We will continue to press before the administrations. The demand also goes through footbridges that give security of passage to the users of public transport”.
– How does the government pact with AIS-CC work?
“It works well and is in the facts, because there is always talk of government, not of two different parties or delegated councillorships. We have different political acronyms but we work in a single block, which is the government and that gives me peace of mind. I hope it continues this way because it shows that beyond the political acronyms there is an interest in working for the people”.
– Will Casa Oramas be the first hotel in the municipality?
“Yes, and we are happy because we already have 1.8 million approved by the Tourism Department of the Government of the Canary Islands for the project and the first phase of what will be a rural hotel with nine rooms. Now it is up to the City Council to initiate the administrative process for its drafting and execution. The action has to start this year but the administration is very complex and setting dates generates expectations in the neighbors that are not fulfilled later and they doubt that the action can be done”.
– Would it be possible to execute all the projects that are underway without the investments of other administrations?
“Without them we would not be able to face all the projects that we are executing. Adding up, we have as many external investments as the City Council’s budget. Now the challenge is to have the administrative capacity to respond.”
– Do you consider that until now San Juan de la Rambla had been abandoned by higher administrations?
“I don’t know if it has been abandoned, but it is true that there is currently an investment commitment by the Cabildo, the Government of the Canary Islands and Coasts. The North and San Juan de la Rambla need a commitment like the current one to be able to fight against imbalances, levels of poverty and unemployment, and economic development, so I invite you to continue betting on this vision of the Island that I believe it did not exist at another time. Not everything is the metropolitan area”.
