The Plenary of Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council voted yesterday in favour of a motion put forward by the PP, which received opposition from the PSOE, calling for legal actions that would enable the removal of squatters within 24 hours, similar to the situation recently witnessed in Tuscal.
The proposal, advocated by the PP’s spokesperson, Carlos Tarife, was supported by testimony from Carlos Jiménez, a resident of the neighbourhood, who highlighted the challenges faced in the area following the occupation of two properties, prompting residents to mobilise. “They are criminals who have even instilled fear, threatened, and stolen from the elderly, women, and children, creating an atmosphere of terror that had never before been felt in the community. The most concerning aspect is that the law favours the wrongdoers, until a tragedy occurs as a result of the failure to implement measures that resolve the issue.”
Tarife argued that “we must provide necessary tools to the National Police and the judiciary to facilitate swift evictions, enabling homeowners to reclaim their properties promptly”, a suggestion that the socialist spokesperson, Elena Mateo, critiqued for “not addressing these solutions for cases in the board or Añaza.”
In this context, the mayor, José Manuel Bermúdez, specified that, “with the forthcoming measures, it is vital to distinguish between the criminal who unlawfully occupies a home with a weapon in hand, disrupting community peace, as has occurred in Toscal, and a family with children facing vulnerability.”
