The Investigating Court 2 of San Cristóbal de La Laguna has filed the complaint that the defecting councilor Alfredo Gómez (formerly of Ciudadanos) presented in 2021 against the mayor of the municipality, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez (PSOE), and four other members of his team of government for an alleged crime of prevarication. The magistrate has issued the order of dismissal this Wednesday, more than two weeks after the holding of the local elections in which the Socialists were the most voted force in the City of the Advanced.
This complaint was filed by Gómez when he was a Transparency councilor (he left Ciudadanos in October 2021) and was later joined by Jonathan Domínguez, Canary Islands Coalition (CC) candidate for mayor in the past elections. The complaint accused Gutiérrez and other councilors of the government group of weaving a “clientelistic network” to award a hundred contracts “by hand” to family and friends.
In the filing order of the so-called Laykas case, the judge dismantles the accusations made by the complainant, who also introduced in his writing statements that have been revealed to be false.
The judicial resolution affects that the mayor of La Laguna did not sign any of the disputed decrees and that his friendship with one of the contracted women has not been proven “beyond images on social networks”, which “does not suggest that because of these photos at public events and for the sake of that friendship have led him to prevaricate.”
The complaint was also directed against the councilors Yaiza López (Citizen Participation and Musical Activities), Badel Albelo (Citizen Security and Fiestas) and Carla Cabrera (Markets and the Presidency), as well as against Alejandro Marrero, who held Security powers until his resignation in November 2022.
The judge maintains that in all the denounced files, offers were made to various companies and that in order to sign the contracts, favorable technical reports from the corresponding areas were available, as well as the award proposals.
In those cases in which there were warnings for signs of dividing the object of minor contracts (a practice prohibited by the legislation on the matter), these files were reviewed so that the decrees were only approved when there were reports and proposals for compliance. The order notes that the government team even went to the auditor for this, despite the fact that this prior inspection is not required in minor contracts.
The judge does not consider accredited that network of “sentimental ties, deep friendships and kinship relationships” that the defecting councilor denounced. She even reproaches the complainant for having “fabricated about contracts with siblings or parents” of members of the government team. In this way, he explains that neither the father of former councilor Alejandro Marrero is the owner of Pinturas Juno, as Gómez points out in his complaint, nor is the brother of Yaiza López a representative or administrator of the companies La Creme Film or We Are Paradiso and that the singer The one he identifies as Luis Yeray Gutiérrez’s cousin is not the mayor’s, but his mother’s, and he treasures “a long musical career.” With respect to the couple of councilor Badel Albelo, also a singer, the order highlights that she was not the winner of the contracts, but several companies in which she works and that have been hired for years, before the PSOE came to power. .
“Regarding the friendships between Yaiza (López), Carla (Cabrera), Badel (Albelo) and Yeray (Gutiérrez) it goes back a long time, due to their political ideas and for having been elected in the municipal elections, and given the small number of La Laguna and surroundings, that friendship relationship is logical, due to age, studies and circles through which they move. that it has been admitted in the statements of all of them and without this presupposing, without further ado, a criminal act ”, points out the magistrate.
Pandemic
The complaint signed by the former Citizens councilor and joined by CC also questioned the purchase of supplies related to the management of the Covid-19 pandemic (masks, disinfection…), understanding that minor contracts could not be signed for cover “periodic and foreseeable” needs. The judge recalls that these purchases were made at a time when the institutions were subject to the decisions of the central government and the reports of the health authorities, “no one knowing how long the situation was going to last, how it was opened by phases, the exits, the opening of premises, what could be done or not (walking, sports, masks everywhere…), so it cannot be understood that the mandatory use of masks, temperature measurements, disinfections. .. were considered periodic or necessary expenses”.
The order can be appealed for reform before the same court within three days or on appeal before the Provincial Court in the next five days.
