The mayor of Santa Cruz, Jose Manuel Bermudezannounces that “of course Santa Cruz will comply with the law of historical memory, but we reject that this city be designated and a different speed be applied than the rest of the Archipelago” and argues that “we will resort to the current catalog of Francoist vestiges, for not conform to the law, in which only this municipality is pointed out, in what we understand to be a stigmatization of this capital, co-capital of the Canary Islands”.
Bermúdez affirms that “the catalog released this morning does not comply with Law 5/2018, of December 14, which in its article 12 says that The competent ministry will draw up and approve a catalog of existing Francoist symbols, streets, monuments and mentions in the Canary Islands, which is not fulfilled, since in the one that has been made public only monuments and enclaves of Santa Cruz de Tenerife are reviewed, and it is not a general catalog of all the Islands, which is required by the aforementioned law”, argues the mayor .
The first mayor also understands that “the Government of the Canary Islands once again points to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, ignoring what is stated in the Canary Islands Historical Memory Law itself and stigmatizing this city, which is the co-capital of the Archipelago” and announces that “obviously, we will scrupulously comply with the removal of the Francoist vestiges that are indicated in the catalogue, but we will not act until it complies with the precepts of territoriality required by the aforementioned article 12”.
“It is unassumable -reiterates the mayor- that only Santa Cruz de Tenerife appears in that catalogue, is it that there are no traces of Franco in the rest of the municipalities of the Canary Islands?” and he argues that “precisely article 13 of the aforementioned law expressly mentions that the withdrawal procedure will become effective once it is certified by the competent body that the corresponding object or mention of Francoist symbology is incorporated into the catalog (of Canarian territorial scope) referred to in article 12 of the aforementioned law”.
To conclude, José Manuel Bermúdez reveals that, “in addition, the study on which the Government of the Canary Islands has based itself to prepare this catalog released today is precisely one commissioned by this City Council and prepared by a professor of History of Art of the University of La Laguna (ULL) María Isabel Navarro”, and concludes by assuring that “all this is surprising to say the least and it is not understood that there is an exclusive catalog for Santa Cruz, which contradicts the law itself”.
