The mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, and the municipal secretary of the City Council, Pedro Javier Hernández, have been summoned to testify in the Investigating Court Number 4 of Arona after the preliminary proceedings opened after an order issued by Judge Nelson Díaz Flores to as a result of a complaint filed on January 11, 2021 by the socialist councilors Dácil León, Sebastián Roque and Luis García, expelled from the government group.
The three councilors denounced that in the municipal plenary session of November 26, 2020, the item on the agenda in which Mena’s passage to the status of non-attached councilor should be withdrawn, after the PSOE agreed his expulsion of the party -given the impossibility of finding an agreed solution to the municipal crisis opened since the dismissal of Luis García as mayor of Urbanism-, which would open the door to a motion of censure.
The municipal secretary argued, based on a complementary report, that the expulsion of the party could not be carried out in plenary until the appeal filed by the mayor before the Federal Commission of Ethics and Guarantees of the Socialist Party was resolved.
The opposition then asked, unsuccessfully, for a copy of the report and for the removal of the controversial item from the agenda to be debated and voted on. Furthermore, opposition groups and socialist councilors critical of Jose Julian Mena They defended that the expulsion of the mayor from the PSOE was an “executive act”.
On the other hand, in the plenary session the secretary did give an account of the move to the group of non-attached former Councilor for Urban Planning, as there was no record of the presentation of any appeal against his expulsion from the PSOE.
As this newspaper learned, Mena’s defense filed a brief with the Court on April 5, 2021 requesting the filing and dismissal of the preliminary proceedings, considering that the reported facts do not constitute a crime.
In addition to the mayor and the municipal secretary, the socialist councilors Elena Cabello, Pura Martín and Yurena Esther García have been summoned to testify as witnesses.
Currently, José Julián Mena remains in the ranks of the Socialist Party after winning the battle against his expulsion in court, first with precautionary measures and then when the judge fully estimated his claim.
