Thursday, November 20, 2008

Barrera comes out fighting

San Fulgencio councillor, Manuel Barrera Garcia came out fighting last week when he accused the local police in of corruption suggesting the ‘possibility’ that businesses in the area have got councillors in their pockets.

The press conference follows Barrera’s arrest and subsequent release after video footage of him allegedly showed him taking a bribe in a restaurant from two detectives., apparently employed by the Mayoress, Trinidad Martinez.

Barrera had been caught allegedly accepting a bribe in the restaurant in Valencia and was secretly filmed pocketing the cash – after counting it – by Spanish national newspaper La Verdad. The money, 5,000€, was described by police as a ‘sweetener’ for Barrera who had apparently agreed to ‘help along’ certain building projects in the area including one for a golf course and several thousand houses. Barrera admitted accepting the money, part of a total of 240,000€ that was discussed, but said that he had been accepting ‘on behalf of his party (AIM) but a spokesman for the party denied any knowledge of both the incident and the money

Red Rag
The focus of Barrera’s anger seems to be pretty much every one in the town hall, and the local police who he accused of being a ‘mafia,’ with chief Bernado Cortijo at the head. Barrera expressed his astonishment at how Cortijo and his ‘mafia associates’ were allowed to continue in their work, implying that that in itself was reason enough to suspect them of bending the laws to suit themselves. Ex-colleagues, and mayor for a day, Mark Lewis and Mick Blake did not escape Barrera’s wrath as he tore into their character, stating that they were not fit to hold the posts they were currently in. Lewis he claimed, had driven an English registered car for 25 years (the maximum allowed is 6 months) and had never paid any taxes in Spain even though he was earning a living as a musician and singer. Blake, he claimed, was not clean either and had been stopped for being drunk in the past by the police with Barrera adding that Blake had only one hobby and that was drinking. He has denounced them both as liars following accusations by the British pair that they were threatened with their lives by Barrera after their withdrawal of support when he was arrested in October.

Local Business
He accused several local businesses of ‘possibly’ being the driving force behind several councillors for their own economic interests. Something which Barrera claimed had been going on for a ‘long time.’ He went on to say that he and his fellow AIM members were ‘risking everything’ at the moment but he was confident in the outcome because he is ‘clean and transparent’ and that he follows the laws, not getting involved in corruption or the local ‘mafia.’

The current town hall, he said was ‘using everyone to get what they want’ and not taking into account the interests of the vast majority of residents who live on the Urbanisation but listening to the minority in San Fulgencio - who make up just 18% of the voting public. He suggested that the time had come for La Marina to separate from San Fulgencio in a move that he claimed would ‘solve the problems of the last 25 years.’ He said that the Urb represented the New Europe and that San Fulgencio town was something from the past that refused to recognise when change was needed. ‘the residents of the Urbanisation are a mixture of nationalities and need to be treated differently to the mainly Spanish population of San Fulgencio. On the urbanisation now we have no lights at night, no music, a police force that disappears when it gets dark, and hardly any facilities for an area with this amount of inhabitants. Just look at San Fulgencio, they have a health centre, a theatre, sports facilities, schools, and more. All the money that is collected goes to the town hall in San Fulgencio and that is where most of it stays.’

He also denounced claims in an English language newspaper that had declared, during the 2007 election, that Barrera was ‘dangerous ’ and went on to show his clean police record and other documents to support his good character.

It seems as if this is a story that is going to run and run whether Barrera is innocent, as he claims, or not there is more, a lot more, to come from this story. Whether it comes from Barrera, who implies that he has a lot more things to say about the situation, or another source, only time will tell.

This extract was taken from the Leader newspaper.

No comments: