They say that the relationship with local businessmen was closer because of the coronavirus pandemic
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/MADRID, July 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Deputy Minister of the Primary Sector of the Canary Islands Government, Álvaro de la Bárcena, and his head of services, Estefanía González, have assured the judge investigating the so-called ‘Mediator case’ this Thursday that the aid and sanctions that were agreed for local businessmen linked to the alleged plot were adjusted to the legal parameters.
According to legal sources consulted by Europa Press, both have defended the legality of the decisions adopted in their appearance as defendants before the head of the Investigating Court Number 4 of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, María de los Ángeles Lorenzo-Cáceres.
Likewise, De la Bárcena and González have asserted that, in relation to the subsidies granted in favor of said businessmen, they never received direct orders from either former Socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo, alias ‘Tito Berni’, or from his nephew Taishet Fuentes Gutiérrez .
According to the summary of the case, to which this news agency has had access, the Fuentes, together with the retired general of the Civil Guard Francisco Espinosa and the Canarian businessman Antonio Navarro Tacoronte –the “mediator”– would have hatched a plot to attract other local businessmen, especially cheese makers and ranchers, promising them political favors in exchange for money.
In this context, the two Canarian managers have explained that at that time there was a very difficult time in the primary sector due to the coronavirus pandemic, so there was a closer relationship than usual with these businessmen.
On the other hand, this Thursday Celedonio Castro, a taxi driver who appears in the case as a recipient of payments from a business couple addressed to the ‘mediator’, also declared. According to the aforementioned sources, he has branded Navarro Tacoronte a fraudster, assuring that he deceived him.
A “BRONCO INTERROGATION”
The instructor had also summoned Plácido Alonso, the first lawyer for the ‘mediator’, for this Thursday. In statements to the press upon leaving the Palace of Justice, after a “brough interrogation”, he has insisted that when Navarro Tacoronte was arrested he refused to hand over his two mobile phones, for which reason he has pointed to a possible cause for annulment of the judicial investigation.
In his opinion, the case would have been closed only with the ‘whatsapp’ between the ‘mediator’ and the then director of Sports of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Ángel Luis Pérez, whose confrontation was what uncovered the alleged, because “there was no scam “.
“That was enough,” he pointed out, adding that he believes that when Navarro Tacoronte spent several days in jail due to a complaint by Pérez “he went off the deep end”, because he is a “loudmouth”, and he told the Police that he had in their phones photos with “politicians, prostitutes and cocaine”.
“How am I going to hand over the phones if my client can face 15 years in prison instead of two? There was no open investigation to hand them over,” he reasoned.
In addition, he has said that he knew ‘Tito Berni’ because he was introduced to him by the ‘mediator’ in Gran Canaria. “After a pandemic, one looks for clients under the stones, Navarro is a scammer and a scoundrel, but he knows everyone”, he has stated.
In this line, he has admitted that he held a meeting with Fuentes Gutiérrez, then general director of Livestock, and with the Canarian businessman Alberto Montesdeoca, on account of a penalty of 74,000 euros that could lead him to “bankruptcy”.
