Nueva Canarias (NC) demands greater leadership from the Cabildo de Tenerife to alleviate the situation of abandonment in which the Bencomo Cavewhere the researchers consider that the penultimate mencey of Taoro lived, and whose situation of abandonment DIARIO DE AVISOS denounced in 2016. This enclave preserves a valuable Guanche archaeological site that is located on one of the slopes inside the Tamaide estate, in private property, with more than 60,000 square meters of extension.
The Secretary for Territorial Implementation of NC, Valentín Correa, considers that the best solution to avoid the abandonment in which it currently finds itself would be for the Directorate of Historical Heritage of the Cabildo de Tenerife to promote, together with the Vice-Ministry of Culture of the Government of Canary Islands, the acquisition of the Tamaide estate, where the Cave is located, “an important vestige of aboriginal history prior to the fifteenth century”.
In 2017, the Cabildo de Tenerife, and specifically, the then Minister of Heritage, Josefa Mesa, took the first steps to repair a patrimonial injustice with the Cueva de Bencomo, used for centuries as a cattle fold. His efforts, together with that of the former director of Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands, Miguel Ángel Clavijo, managed to rescue this Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) from oblivion and institutional abandonment and undertake the first archaeological excavation the following year by the Prored company , in which remains prior to the fifteenth century were rescued. Since that year, the Bencomo Cave has once again been postponed, waiting for the La Orotava City Council, interested in its purchase, to reach an agreement with the owners. “Despite the historic discoveries made at that site in 2018, no significant protection action has been taken since then. It has mattered little to them that it appears in decree 49/1986, of March 14, of the Canarian Government, published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands (BOC) of April 2, 1986, as BIC, ”says Correa. The NC representative stresses that on this site “the general interest must prevail over the individual, since our archaeological heritage must be universal due to its uniqueness. For this reason, we hope that the Cabildo is capable, once and for all, of taking a step forward and leading this initiative”.
In addition, Correa advocates that all the steps planned since 2018 for the Bencomo Cave be followed. So far, only two of them have been fulfilled, the cleaning and the archaeological excavation. Behind them there were several expectations, such as the launch of a site museum in the place that would house all the found objects and an interpretation center located opposite, in the Humboldt viewpoint. For this, it was essential that the City Hall acquire the property.
“We will propose that its location be in the North zone to revitalize a region in which the lack of investment and a true plan to renew its infrastructure has left it relegated within the context of the rest of the Island”, indicates Valentín Correa.
