The next day 27 will be five years, no less than five years, which theoretically was a provisional eviction of a hundred residents to secure the slope of Bajo la Cuesta, a nucleus located next to the Las Caletillas thermal power plant, in Candelaria . That October 27, 2016, residents had to abandon their homes due to a municipal decree initiated in 2015, in view of what was described at the time as a situation of high risk of landslides. Now, on the 20 families that were able to return to their homes on May 28, 2018, after securing the slope of the Endesa company, the sword of Damocles hangs again, upon receiving the notification from Costas of a file on September 16. of recovery of possession of the public land maritime domain.
Costas, in that file – the same one that has opened in other centers, such as Las Bajas, in Güímar – gave a period of eight days for those affected to present allegations, which some, but not all, have done, says José Luis Langa, lawyer and president of the Platform for People Affected by the Coastal Law, which has lent itself to take the matter of some neighbors now not as united as before the eviction process, recognizes the neighborhood president María Candelaria Quijada Trujillo, one of those who leads five years without being able to enter his house.
Four families of the evicted women continue to live in rent today, which is paid by the Candelaria City Council, until now unable to cope with the security work on the slope that belongs to the Dani Ran company and to Costas, at a cost that exceeds one million euros. euros, more than due to the economic cost itself, due to the competence problems of the action, something that for example did not happen in Santa Lucía, in Güímar, where the Cabildo contributed 400,000 euros of the more than 600,000 in which the work was initially budgeted already finished.
José Luis Langa will meet again with the neighbors to try to be the one who leads the defense against this new “demolition” file, which replaces the one that expired a decade ago, just when Chovito was demolished, also in Candelaria, because that The file expired and the neighbors were able to continue in their homes until they were evicted in 2016, but provisionally and due to a “risk of landslides”, something that, by the way, has not happened since then, not even with the works carried out by the Town hall to reinforce the slope where the TF-1 is located in that area.
Langa affirms that “although some neighbors have not presented allegations, it is not serious, because it is normal for these allegations to be rejected. It is an administrative file. The important thing is when the instruction is developed and the normal thing is that it is resolved in the Contentious Court “, declared the lawyer, who details that” what is unheard of is that a provisional eviction takes five years, I do not understand how a judge allows this, with the economic and moral damage that this means for the neighbors ”. According to the letter that reached the neighbors, Costas is protected for the eviction in law 22/1988, of July 28, which establishes that “the works and facilities built prior to the entry into force of this law, without the authorization or concession required in accordance with the Coastal legislation then in force, they will be demolished when their legalization does not proceed for reasons of public interest ”.
Langa, as in his day the Valencian lawyer José Ortega, defends that this is a consolidated territory and that much remains to be investigated in this case. “We are going to do the same with the 57 houses that they want to demolish in Fuencaliente,” he recalled.
Chronology
July 2006. The Canary Islands Land and Environment Planning Commission (Cotmac) definitively approves the Candelaria PGO with some objections to be corrected, including that “in the towns of Chovito and Bajo la Cuesta the PGO will abide by the Costs determinations with respect to existing buildings, so it will not establish measures that allow their maintenance.
April 2007. Resolution by which the Agreement of the Canary Islands Planning and Environment Commission of November 10, 2006 is made public, relating to the General Planning Plan of Candelaria (Tenerife). Said agreement specifies that “the deficiencies observed in the towns of Chovito and Bajo La Cuesta have been corrected, in accordance with the report of the General Directorate of Coasts”, which prevents the protection of said candelarieros nuclei.
June 2008. The plenary session of the Candelaria City Council approves a proposal presented by the support group for the residents of Bajo la Cuesta for the maintenance of their homes. In it, they demand the rethinking of the demarcation, since, according to them, errors appear in the demarcation of 2006 with respect to that of 1966.
October 2008. The group of residents succeeds in getting the court to order a precautionary stoppage of the imminent demolition of their homes.
September 2009. Costas rejects the appeals to the demolition orders and announces that “it is resolved ex officio to recover possession of the public maritime land domain.
The appeals are dismissed because no evidence has been provided that allows taking into account that “the execution of the contested act may cause damages that are impossible or difficult to repair, but, on the contrary, the eventual suspension of the recovery of possession, would cause damage to the interest public”.
Langa: “They want to tear everything down before the transfer”
José Luis Langa affirms that “71 of the 88 Canarian municipalities have population centers with litigation with Costas”, and understands that this new “plague” of possessory files announced by Costas is part of “the desire to demolish everything they can before they the announced transfer of Coasts to the Canary Islands Government arrives ”, in which he is immersed in the mixed commission created for this purpose, as well as city councils and councils. He emphasizes that “they are always attacking the weak, the poorest.”
