The platform Save the Puertito has called for a demonstration against the Cuna del Alma tourist project on June 14th. The protest will take place at 12:00 at the doors of the Baobab hotel in Costa Adeje, owned by Belgian businessman Filip Hoste, also the promoter of the 420 luxury villas already being constructed in Puertito de Adeje, in the south of Tenerife. “On that day, we will inform its customers about the sale of luxury apartments of an illegal project. We will explain what Puertito de Adeje is, how it is being destroyed, and why we should not support businesses that harm the environment,” say the organizers.
The works of Cuna del Alma continue after the current Government of the Canary Islands, formed by Coalición Canaria and the Partido Popular, allowed the three sanctioning files opened against the promoter during the last legislature to expire for destroying sites, threatening the area’s protected flora, and starting work without an environmental impact assessment.
More than a year after the file on patrimonial damage expired, the Directorate-General of Cultural Heritage of the regional government proposed a new sanction against the company Segunda Casa Adeje S.L. The proposed fine is 229,503 euros, much lower than the one proposed in 2022, which amounted to 600,000 euros for a “very serious” infraction.
According to the files, constructing these villas resulted in “irreversible” damage to the archaeological sites. Furthermore, the company violated the precautionary suspension of the works. The new proposed sanction holds the promoter of Cuna del Alma responsible for altering and manipulating sites, failing to comply with archaeological control obligations, and failing to comply with precautionary measures. “The promoter company disobeyed the resolution of precautionary suspension of the works dictated by the Tenerife Cabildo, which allowed the interventions in a protected area to continue,” notes the official documentation accessed by this newspaper.
A report dated October 11, 2022, certified that excavations were carried out in the area under explicit prohibition, lowering the land elevation and altering the topography of the site. Another inspection conducted two days later confirmed that precautionary measures had been violated “with heavy machinery and personnel working in the restricted area.”
The sad viper
In November 2022, the Department of Ecological Transition ordered the precautionary halt of Cuna del Alma due to the “imminent threat of environmental damage” posed by the work on the protected wild flora. The Canary Government confirmed a population of sad viper (Echium triste) in the lands affected by the project, a species with a special protection category within the Canary Islands Catalogue of Protected Species. This file also expired in summer 2023.
The promoter requested to relocate this plant, but Ecological Transition issued an unfavorable report stating that it could only be transplanted when there is a threat to people’s safety due to the plant, to prevent significant harm to crops, livestock, forests, fishing, or water quality, for imperative reasons of overriding public interest, or for research or education purposes.
In February 2024, the Canary Islands Government declared itself incompetent to decide whether the population of sad viper located in Puertito de Adeje should be transplanted or not. The Executive then left the decision to the Tenerife Cabildo. Finally, the Adeje Town Council took over this matter, and with José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga (PSOE) at the helm, authorized the promoter to relocate the sad viper, thus paving the way for the resumption of works.
The Town Council had the approval of its environmental body, which approved a series of measures focused on collecting the plant’s seeds and scattering them in other areas of similar characteristics. At the time, its president was still Rosendo López, a biologist who resigned from that position after it was revealed that, while holding it, he advised the company behind the controversial project.
An expropriation for 12,000 euros
The works of Cuna del Alma are also closer to the Galindo family’s warehouse, located a few meters from the beach and with more than 80 years of history. This property, initially used for packing bananas, eventually became a family meeting place. Although the initial investment in the tourist project is 350 million euros, and despite the price of the stays offered by the promoter ranging from 480,000 to three million euros, the amount proposed to Juan Francisco for expropriating his warehouse does not exceed 12,668.31 euros.
The warehouse measures 63 square meters and is located next to the coast, at a strategic point for the project. “My family doesn’t have extra land or money to give away Puertito for 12,000 euros so that the promoter can offer a semi-private beach to its clients and residents,” Galindo said in an interview with this newspaper.
