One of the individuals from a group of young people that hasoccupied Two properties in the centre of Santa Cruz de Tenerife threatened several residents with a knife on Wednesday as he exited one of those dwellings.
The incident occurred after 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, amidst reactions from locals in The Toscal. This contingent of youths, numbering more than a dozen as per various residents from the Chicharrero neighbourhood, occupied first a property on El Greato Street several days ago and then another in Ravina 2 Passage on Tuesday night. It is important to note that this area of El Toscal contains numerous dilapidated properties, including these two that have recently been occupied.
Around twenty neighbours gathered at the upper end of Ravina 2 Passage, a small pedestrian pathway lined with derelict houses, when suddenly two young individuals emerged from the occupied property number 10.
As two residents approached them, insisting that they vacate the terrera housing as it had owners, one of the occupants confronted them and brandished a knife as a threat. This led to a scuffle owing to the confrontational demeanour and the insults from the two occupants.
The young individuals, seemingly of Moroccan descent, departed onto Santiago Street while maintaining their provocative behaviour amid the outcries of the residents who had gathered.
Police intervention on Wednesday night in the Ravina 2 Passage of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. / Ed
Approximately at 8:00 p.m., three National Police vans arrived, who took statements from the neighbour that one of the occupants had recently threatened with a knife and conversed with other occupants that remained inside number 10 of Ravina 2 Passage. One of them was a young woman who presented the officers with some documents regarding registration requests in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
After speaking with this young woman, the national police informed the residents that “they could not take any action” as it was private property and that they could not enter without a court order. Regarding the knife threat, they merely noted that a statement had been filed by the affected party.
Furthermore, the agents attempted to reassure the residents who expressed their outrage over the sense of insecurity following the occupation of these two properties by this group of young people. The police explained that if anything were to happen to them, they should not take the law into their own hands nor confront the occupants, while waiting for judicial proceedings regarding a complaint for property usurpation to unfold.
The day
Some attendees expressed their frustration over why the officers were unable to act prior to the occupation of the two properties and the insecurity this group of predominantly Moroccan youths was creating.
One resident recalled that a few days earlier, at the other occupied house on El Greato Street, an altercation had occurred, apparently a fight among members of this same group, but the officers could not intervene because upon arrival, the young individuals claimed that nothing had occurred and any cuts on their arms were accidental.
Several witnesses to the occupation of the house in Ravina 2 Passage recounted how the events transpired on the night of Tuesday, February 11. “We had noticed several young individuals loitering in this area, but we didn’t pay much attention until that Tuesday night when we began hearing noises outside. It seemed that they were tampering with a door,” they recounted.
The ‘occupied’ house in Ravina 2 Passage, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. / Ed
One witness managed to photograph two of the occupants tampering with the door of the property at number 10, whose facade displays evidence of abandonment, while gaining access to the interior of the terrera dwelling.
The witnesses alerted both the National Police and the Local Police but neither force could act as there had yet to be a formal complaint from the owners, and they could not enter the property without a court order. This situation repeated itself the following day, Wednesday, after the altercation between two of the occupants and several residents.
The owners of number 10 in Ravina 2 Passage, who reside nearby, filed the appropriate complaint with the National Police on Wednesday. Meanwhile, official sources from the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council stated that none of the youths in this group have been granted registration in the capital of Tenerife and that an expulsion order is in effect for one of them.
Additionally, these same municipal sources confirmed that the owners of the Ravina 2 Passage house had submitted a works license request to renovate the property, from a single floor. There is no information available on the other occupied property on the adjacent El Greato Street, only that it too is abandoned. There has been no complaint made regarding this residence.
Residents are calling for urgent measures to address what they perceive as “a source of insecurity causing alarm within the neighbourhood”. “Ever since they arrived, we feel very uneasy. They are provocative, and we fear something serious may happen. I cannot recall feeling this way, with such fear within me, ever,” said one visibly anxious neighbour who wished to remain anonymous due to concerns of reprisals.
