Cayetano Silva made the leap to politics in 2006. Until then, he did what he liked the most: teaching. It was a colleague who encouraged him to take the step while they talked about the need for a change of management in the City Council. He doubted a lot and finally joined the PSOE, of which he was a sympathizer. His uncle, José Hernández Rodríguez, was the first democratic and socialist mayor of San Juan de la Rambla for the defunct Progreso Rambla party. With a degree in Economics and Business Administration, in 2007, 2011 and 2015 and 2019 he stood in the municipal elections as second in the list led by Fidela Velázquez on the four occasions. In the first term the PSOE was in the opposition and then it arrived at the City Council although its first government was interrupted by a motion of censure. From there, his political career grew. In October 2019, he became the insular director of Security and Emergencies. Thirteen months later, he resigned when he was charged with an alleged crime of prevarication for compensating, when he was a councilor for the Treasury, with 4,220 euros to the mediator of a land acquired by the City Council in 2005 and doing so against the criteria of the secretary and the auditor. Finally, in July of this year, he was acquitted.
Did you ever think that you were going to be held accountable to Justice for paying 4,200 euros to a mediator?
“No. This is where the game comes in: morals, ethics, what to do and the lack of an in-depth case study come in. Ethically I could not stop paying that money, I would have felt bad. Throughout the process I have had many nights in which I have not slept but it is true that what has made me rest is that my performance was in accordance with my ethics and morals. Both as a socialist and as a Christian that I am, there is an issue of social justice that no politician could ignore. In addition, we presented ourselves to try to change the direction of the municipality, and that implied the defense of those who have the least possibilities to defend themselves. After 2011, the PSOE Government paid many debts that were had from previous efforts, both with people and with institutions. Among them, the compensation with the mediator, which at first glance seemed a minor situation and from which there was not going to be a sentence against. But in the end, justice has ways of regulating itself, correcting itself and it has proved us right by saying that what happened was an injustice ”.
– So you don’t regret the decision you made?
“No. It is hard, it has cost me many things, among many, to present my resignation in the Cabildo for consistency with the party and with its internal rules. And I recognize that it has also been very hard for my family to be involved in a judicial process and with some media that, not telling the whole truth, have placed more emphasis on one part than the other. Still, the support I have had from both of them and also from the neighbors, even in the hardest moments, has helped me a lot. Perhaps the problem is that all city councils need good technicians ”.
– Did you trust to be acquitted?
“Yes. It seemed very hard to me and it was not consistent that they did not absolve us. But when you see social media against you, sometimes you hesitate a bit. I did hope that in the end justice had to see the importance not only of paying an owner, but also a person who had dedicated his entire life for 40 years to a place that in the end, due to those maneuvers, did not compensate him. ”.
Your party had signed a government pact with AUP-Yes, we can and in the end, when you and Fidela Velázquez were charged, it demanded your resignation. Did you expect more support from your partner?
“I admit that it is. To date, only one person from this political formation has addressed me to congratulate me on having been acquitted. Just as at the time they put comments on the networks about our situation, I would have liked them to be coherent and they would have done it when we were acquitted. You have to be in good times and bad and they have not done it and in that sense, they have disappointed me. In addition, I believed that he was a good partner for the government, to continue joining forces to ensure that the municipality put aside the confrontations and we all work together ”.
-Do you trust that the case pending for the former mayor for a decree of gratifications extraordinary municipal staff is also resolved in your favor?
“I’m sure that will be so. I trust that the Justice understands what situation occurred with that decree and also, that nothing was reached because at no time was the objection lifted and it was left in the middle of the elaboration. For all that, he has to rule in favor of Fidela ”.
-Were you and Fidela Velázquez a good de facto couple ruling?
“Undoubtedly, that is why it took me a lot to make the move to the Cabildo and it was she who convinced me that I had to do it for the good of the municipality. Since 2006 we have been together and shared many things, both in the government and in the opposition. We are the two people who have gotten the most into each other and also who have discussed the most. I was very well managing with her ”.
Why then did you accept the post of island director?
“We presented ourselves to the City Council with a very powerful team of people, including the current mayor, Ezequiel Domínguez. The possibility was opened that someone from the municipality could take a leap to the Cabildo, another way of managing and helping. Given that expectation, the offer of the president, Pedro Martín, could not be wasted. It was not a political leap but an advance for the municipality since for the first time San Juan de la Rambla had an island director and someone managing the government, because there were councilors in the opposition ”.
–He was in office for one year and two months. What did you learn during that time?
“If I have to highlight something, it is the capacity of the Cabildo technicians. During that time I felt that my decisions were made safely, with good reports, with a technician from both the Secretariat and Intervention who helped me to do so so that my decisions were coherent, something that the City Council was missing a lot ”.
– Did you have any pending challenges?
“A lot of. In a year and a half, you have time to step on the ground and see how it can be managed, especially when you have two difficult moments like it happened to me. The first, the retirement of the chief officer that coincided with the fires in the North, and in the middle of that, the pandemic.With the substitute for the chief officer, we had to make very tough decisions, such as shielding the fire stations with what this meant for the professionals themselves, but we managed to ensure that during that time the service did not drop below 44 troops throughout the island. The great challenge that I was left with and I know that the new director is at work is to have the fire stations in the South, Guia de Isora and Arona. Another is the professional scale, which in 20 years of the Consortium is very weak. And in the Security part, the Island Volcanic Emergency Plan was being drawn up and it ended last year. The implementation and implementation of that plan remained for me. Furthermore, three municipalities do not have an Emergency Plan and it would have been an achievement for all of Tenerife to have it ”.
-Would you like to return to the Cabildo?
“I am in love with my profession, teaching, in which I have been reinstated for nine months and I am very happy. I will be wherever the party wants, but for now, my place is to be teaching Economics at the night high school at IES Agustín de Betancourt. It will be a difficult year for the nocturnal one because last year the Covid situation made many people reluctant to study in the evening-night as they are older. But we are trying to make the North discover that it has a jewel there that is an opportunity for many people and in that sense, the previous year gave us great joys as our students finished Law or Tourism ”.
-And the City Hall?
“If the party sees that I can fill that position, I’ll be there. At the moment the team that is doing it very well and has my unconditional support, so we are going to let it work by giving it the support so that San Juan de la Rambla continues to advance. We are no longer the municipality with the most unemployment in the North and little by little we are going to try, together, from wherever we are, to continue having a municipality at the point of the spear ”.
-Did you ever think of being the mayoral candidate, because everyone pointed to you as the replacement for Fidela Velázquez?
“I know that everyone was pointing at me but we were a team and each one had their role. When Fidela left, we would look at it, because the profile of a mayor is tough, it requires a lot. If it has to be assumed, it is assumed, but I did not have time to think about it because we were focused on straightening the course of a municipality that is excessively divided politically and I think it is the great problem of San Juan de la Rambla ”.
. What in your opinion are the main needs of the municipality?
“In addition to the social peace to which I was referring and which remains a pending challenge, we must find an economic alternative to be the economic engine of the North, as it was at the beginning of the 20th century, an agricultural place with two great sources, the banana and the potato and then with the shoes. However, since the end of the last century we have returned to being a dormitory place and not a place of production and that economic launch is the main objective that San Juan de la Rambla should have. There it would also involve other administrations, it cannot be, for example, that the Las Aguas pool has been closed for so long and that the City Council has been for ten years like a hammer with Costas and this department has not acted. The North of Tenerife needs a boost ”.
