A story of perseverance and perseverance. This is how the Balearic Ornithology Group (GOB), one of the main conservation entities on the islands, defines the demolition, after 19 years of legal battle, of twelve luxury apartments built in Cala Llamp, one of the most affected coastal areas of Mallorca. for the destruction. Erected today as a symbol of the fight for the protection of the territory and against urban corruption, Cala Llamp has witnessed these weeks the intervention of workers and excavators in a place whose devastation seemed to have no end. Urban planning legality is once again reestablished where it should never have been built.
Cala Llamp is not located in any municipal center. This is one of the most coveted areas of Andratx, a town located in the northwest of the island of Mallorca that, in the midst of a real estate whirlwind, mainly in the coastal area of the island, was the scene, in 2006, of the first major coup against corruption. in the Balearic Islands. Currently, several chalets are offered at a checkbook in Cala Llamp. One of them, measuring 691 square meters and for sale for 12.8 million euros, is advertised in one of the “most elite” places in Mallorca: “The charming port and marina with its famous promenade full of noble restaurants, bars and stores force them to stop.” In the vicinity, the “precious” Andratx golf course and “the beautiful sandy beach in Camp de Mar”, which “can be reached in just five minutes by car”.
He boom of the construction took its toll in Andratx, but especially in Cala Llamp, where until just a few weeks ago the twelve illegal homes survived that are now being demolished to tragedy of its rich inhabitants. Among them is the British Lee Pendleton, who, in interviews granted to TheTelegraph and The Daily Mailclaimed to be experiencing a “terrible disaster” following the demolition of his 1.6 million euro apartment: “It is heartbreaking.” The defects that began to appear from the beginning – he bought the home in 2007 – turned into suspicions of urban planning irregularity, which finally led to a court order for the demolition of the entire building.
The two affected blocks were built under an urban planning license granted in the summer of 2005 by Eugenio Hidalgo (PP) – already then mayor of Andratx – to the company Marmacén Sol SL. The authorization, however, was annulled by a Contentious Court. –Administrative in May 2009. The Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJIB) would confirm this resolution in October 2011. The resolution stated that the construction was born from a bribe that the promoter, Manuel Zapata, paid to Hidalgo and the then municipal warden, Jaime Gibert. During the investigation of the case, Zapata admitted that he had paid both of them a bribe of 60,000 euros.
Negotiations and favor deals
Both the former first mayor and the builder recognized the facts and were sentenced to minimum sentences compared to the eight and five years that, respectively, the Prosecutor’s Office requested for both. The ruling pointed to the negotiations and favorable deals that Hidalgo carried out to benefit Marmacén Sol as well as Zapata, with the aim of granting him the construction license aimed at constructing multi-family buildings “knowing” that the lands “were not urban and on which no building act could be carried out in July 2005.” The highest judicial instance of the islands recalled that “subsequent proceedings that supported the nullity of the license were even made to disappear.”
From the moment the apartments began to be built until their final demolition, 19 years have passed, “too long a time,” in the words of the GOB, which “reveals the difficulty that public action has” in ensuring that institutions and Justice “act diligently, quickly and forcefully against indiscipline and urban corruption, even in cases as clear as this one.”
The fight continues
The entity celebrates that the demolition of these blocks has become another “symbol” of the fight in defense of the territory, as Covetes and Llucalcari already were. In 2013, Justice put an end to one of the territorial attacks that have generated the most impact in Mallorca, that related to the construction of up to 68 apartments, a swimming pool and an illegal restaurant in Ses Covetes, at the end of the virgin beach of Es Trenc (Mallorca). The license was granted irregularly in April 1992.
Despite the successive judicial resolutions issued by the TSJIB, the National Court and the Supreme Court in favor of the demolition of these buildings, the promoters ignored them in one of the longest judicial battles in memory (almost two decades in the hands of the courts), while the PP, at the head of the Campos City Council, promoted the reform of the municipality’s subsidiary regulations to declare the land developable in one of its multiple attempts to maintain foot illegal constructions.
Environmentalists, however, assert that the reestablishment of urban planning legality in Andratx does not end in Cala Llamp. As they denounce, in Monport 50 homes with their swimming pools, parking lots and illegal urban services – whose license was also granted by Hidalgo – are still standing in a protected area since 1991. The GOB recalls that in August 2021 it was published in the Balearic Official Gazette (BOIB) the agreement with which the Andratx City Council entrusted the Government with the drafting of the demolition project of the existing buildings. However, they regret that the Consell de Mallorca, which in 2017 demanded the demolition of the buildings, has not again insisted on carrying out the restoration of legality. “Now we need to ask the City Council what the next step will be,” they say.
Cala Llamp, maximum exponent of wild urbanism
Cala Llamp starred in his own corruption case, the ‘Relámpago case’, which investigated tax evasion through tax havens, money laundering operations and double sales of building plots. Divided into a dozen separate pieces, this judicial procedure allowed the state and regional administrations to recover more than 14.5 million euros of money defrauded from the Treasury, to which are added the million euros that a taxpayer regularized within the framework of the case, as well as two million collected by the British authorities as a result of the convictions against several Englishmen involved in the plot.
Cala Llamp was the protagonist of his own corruption case, the ‘Relámpago case’, which investigated tax evasion through tax havens, money laundering operations and double sales of building plots.
The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office activated this case in 2007 following a million-dollar network of tax fraud concocted by the Feliu law firm, the epicenter of the investigations, with the aim of defrauding through successive sales of the same land. According to the sentences derived from the case, the network used tax havens, foreign accounts and multiple shell companies to conceal the movement of millions of euros illegally and avoid the corresponding payments to the treasury. Only in one of the aspects of the procedure, which led to an agreement of conformity between the accusations, the wealthy British couple formed by Christian and Martha Monica Hore and the lawyer Alejandro Feliu, involved the restitution of 10.6 million euros to the Agency Tax.
Ana Torroja, convicted of tax evasion
The singer Ana Torroja, former member of Mecano, was also sentenced in the Relámpago case to pay 1.4 million euros to the Treasury after reaching an agreement with which to avoid prison as well as public exposure as a result of a process in which who acknowledged that he had defrauded 796,410 euros in taxes – compared to the two million estimated by the accusations. To do this, the former vocalist used a corporate structure distributed in Panama, the Netherlands Antilles, the Netherlands and Spain, which she used to simulate that she resided in the United Kingdom and not pay personal income tax. The Prosecutor’s Office, however, withdrew its charges against the lawyer Gabriel Feliu, who had advised her on the purchase of a luxurious villa in Camp de Mar (Andratx). Lola Flores, Camilo Sesto, Isabel Pantoja and Lolita are some of the musicians Torroja joined for evading their responsibilities with the Tax Agency.
Several Internet forums referred to the Feliu Law Firm “for the founding of companies abroad or offshore, offices, services and professionals, bank accounts as well as credit cards abroad.” The investigations even linked this Mallorcan firm, which advised its clients on opulent economic operations, with up to 816 companies with declared assets amounting to 307 million euros.
The great blow against urban corruption
The investigations of the ‘Relámpago case’ took place in parallel with the Andratx case, whose first investigations seemed to be limited to few licenses granted illegally, but which would end up becoming the paradigm of urban corruption on the islands. The judicial procedure came to be divided into 79 separate pieces and included more than 140 defendants, including former senior officials of the PP, promoters, architects and officials. And, in between, several front men.
The events led to the arrest, among numerous other charges, of the then mayor of Andratx, Eugenio Hidalgo (PP), who that same day – November 27, 2006 – proclaimed himself a “political prisoner” by pointing out that everything was a “setup.” against him. Meanwhile, Jaume Matas (PP), then president of the Government, claimed to be the “first surprised” by the events in a press conference he offered to defend his honorability and that of his government and stand in defense of the institutions. With the wild urban planning of Andratx, many saw their assets increase with seven-figure amounts, through tax havens, while others turned a blind eye.
In the summary, names also came to light such as that of the biographer of King Juan Carlos I, Selina Scott, for the supposedly irregular construction of a swimming pool in his Mallorcan summer residence – the investigations were finally archived – as well as that of Florentino Pérez as owner of a luxury mansion valued at 25 million euros. Although an expert determined the existence of evidence of crimes of urban prevarication and against the planning of the territory in the construction of a 200 square meter swimming pool, gyms and changing rooms attached to the businessman’s home, he was never charged and the investigations They would finally end up being dismissed due to prescription.
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