Straddling egocentrism and philanthropy, businessman Eduardo Lacasta Lanaspa is once again plagued by controversy. Although this time with a very different character from the six-year prison sentence that he carries for the fraud of the so-called Fincas Atlanta case. Months ago, Lacasta assumed the cost of painting the portico of the Romanesque church of San Miguel de Latre, in Caldearenas (Huesca), but with a toll that has outraged the neighbors: he decided to portray himself as Saint Matías.
The 12th century Romanesque temple, included in the Route of the Serrablo Churches, belongs to the Bishopric of Jaca. Sources from the Government of Aragon tell this newspaper that, since it is not protected and not its property, it cannot do anything. The same sources indicate that a Cultural Heritage protection agent went to the church on two occasions and informed the Bishopric of what he had seen, and is currently awaiting a response.
The mayor of Caldearenas, Primitivo Grasa, notes the anger among the neighbors. “We were speechless seeing how he had painted his face there, he looked like a saint,” he points out. The City Council, in turn, indicated that it “was not aware” of this circumstance. “We saw it when it was already done, it may have been going on for half a year now,” the first mayor pointed out. The anger of the neighbors, he points out, “is very great,” and now they demand that “everything he has painted disappear.”
Grasa has contacted the Bishopric to ask for explanations. According to what he tells elDiario.es, he has been informed that they will soon address the issue in “a commission” in which “they will decide what to do.”
According to the first mayor, Lacasta does not live in the town, but his family descends there, has a house and usually goes “almost every weekend.” The businessman was in charge of tackling the repair of the roof and the interiors of the temple market, but, according to the first mayor, he did not ask permission either from the City Council or – as he has been informed – from the Bishopric itself.
Located in the Alto Gállego region, Latre is a district that belongs to Caldearenas. About a dozen neighbors live there.
As the City Council explains on its website, the church was expanded and renovated in the 17th century. It has a single rectangular nave roofed with baroque lunette vaults, culminating in a semicircular apse, inside which you can see a series of corbels next to the roof tile, some of which show decorative figurations.
From 15 years to three months in prison
Lanaspa was convicted in 2019 for the so-called Fincas Atlanta case, in which he defrauded more than 45 million euros from both public administrations and individuals, although the most affected were the Tax Agency, the Government of Aragon and the Zaragoza City Council. . Thanks to an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office, he managed to reduce the request for a sentence from 16 and a half years in prison to only 6 years in prison, for a continued crime of fraud, punishable insolvency, a crime against the Public Treasury and membership in a criminal group.
However, since none of these sentences exceeded two years in prison, Eduardo Lacasta only spent three months in prison. Yes, he had to pay compensation of 6.6 million euros.
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