A small group of activists entered the construction site of the La Tejita hotel in the south of Tenerife this morning (Thursday), and temporarily stopped the construction work on part of the complex closest to the sea because, they argue, “it violates legality” by affecting an area of “public land.”
About twenty people linked to the Salvar la Tejita association gathered at around 8:30am next to the fences of the construction site that adjoins the beach of the same name and started chanting slogans in English including “it's not tourismphobia, it's corruptionphobia,” while carrying signs that read “fun for a few equals destruction of natural habitats”.
About an hour later, ten of them jumped over the fence and entered the construction site and sat down next to one of the mechanical diggers, stopping it from working and held up a banner that read “This is our beach,” in reference to the actions led by César Manrique on the island of Lanzarote in the 1980s.
Faced with this action, the Guardia Civil and the Local Police were called to deal with representatives of the owners of the new hotel (the Viqueira group), the construction company, and the activists, whom they identified and took their data from. However, they weren’t evicted from the site and remained inside the facilities until late this afternoon.
One of the spokespeople for Salvar La Tejita, Alfonso Boullón, said in statements to EFE today, that this protest is aimed at "demanding that the law be complied with in the face of the failure of the administrations, who have not acted after the non-compliance of different aspects of the permit granted by the Government of the Canary Islands for the construction of this hotel.”
“What we are asking, is that what the General Directorate of Costas in Spain says should be fulfilled, that this land is in the public maritime-terrestrial domain and that therefore the Viqueira company cannot in any case destroy it. It is very sad that it is us, the citizens, who have to come and read the law to the company and the authorities,” explained Boullón.
Furthermore, he continued, the “execution date of the work has already expired, and it does not have a water purification system which will mean that everything that faecal waste will be pumped directly into the sea.”
“This is the straw that breaks the camel's back. We ask that this madness stop, this race to break the law, to destroy the environment and sell everything to the highest bidder. We ask that the regulations that defend the territory be complied with, for the good of all,” he said.
“We see political organisations talking about having to change the model and this is the change of model,” he concluded.
