The mayor of Candelaria and president of Fecam, Mari Brito (PSOE), and the former local councilors Gumersindo García (mayor of Candelaria 2001-2015, PSOE), Carmen Luisa Castro (mayor of Güímar 2013-2019, PP) and José Juan Lemes (former mayor of Arafo 2011-2019, PP and then CC) will be prosecuted for the commission of alleged crimes against the environment, after the Court of First Instance Number 1 of Güímar rejected the appeals of the lawyers of the four accused, so They will have to go to trial, as will several former Urban Planning councilors from those three municipalities, members of the Vice-Ministry and the manager of the Polígono Businessmen’s association.
The order, almost 100 pages long, states that the mayors have omitted administrative actions since the summer of 2013 to control and legalize wastewater discharges, something that they did undertake starting in March 2017 when the criminal case was opened.
In fact, today the industrial water treatment plant in the Polígono and the regional wastewater treatment plant are completed, although the latter has not yet come into operation, because it does not receive water from the municipal sanitation networks. It is surprising that Mari Brito is among the municipal councilors, when she was not mayor until 2015, two years after the Polígono was received.
On January 18, 2022, the court issued an order in which the four mayors were prosecuted for alleged continued crimes against the environment and prevarication in relation to wastewater discharges from the Güímar Industrial Estate.
The judge points out that, “consciously and voluntarily,” they allowed a “continuous and uncontrolled” discharge of wastewater from the industrial estate, El Socorro and La Viuda, “without purifying, treating or legalizing” and generating a “serious risk.” for water and people’s health.
