A company owned by the Marchioness María de Borbón y de Rojas, cousin of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, has requested that those affected by the DANA catastrophe in a village in Requena be prohibited from passing through a road she owns. “We do not understand this insistence on passing through our property with two public roads and we are not responsible for any repair of the road destroyed by DANA,” states a letter from Borcier SA, the company that owns the Casa Vieja property, to which elDiario.es has had access.
This is the company that owns a large part of the land in the area. The King’s cousin company accumulates 1,997 hectares of dryland orchard land, pine forest and “white mountain” in the property known as Coto del Reatillo, acquired in 1995, according to data consulted by this newspaper in the Property Registry of Requena. The area is equivalent to 2,797 football fields.
The village of Reatillo also served during the post-war period as a camp for the Guerrilla Group of Levante and Aragón (AGLA), the precarious communist maquis of resistance to the first Franco regime. Currently, there are at least three elderly neighbors living there (Vicente, Dora and Miguel), as well as a pastor. A stone’s throw away, the king’s cousin’s estate, located at kilometer 10,600 of the CV-395 that connects Requena and Chera, is also a private hunting reserve.
The bridge that connects the CV-395 highway with the village of Reatillo has “collapsed” due to the “devastating” DANA, states the letter from the company, which also reminds that it is not responsible for its repair. Borcier SA says it “does not and has not granted any permission” for villagers to traverse its property nor is it responsible for any type of “incident” that may involve “liability or claim” for the owners.
The letter, signed by the sole administrator of the company, Ramón José de la Cierva García-Bermúdez, was sent on November 7 to the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation (CHJ), to the Department of Agriculture, Water, Livestock and Fisheries and the municipalities of Requena, Siete Aguas and Chera. In the letter, the company acknowledges that the residents of the village of Reatillo “are cut off from communication” as a result of the catastrophic DANA that hit the region on October 29.
The residents of the small village “are isolated by their own decision as they have not accepted the evacuation by the Civil Guard helicopter” and, always according to the company, “they refuse to travel” along the public roads that connect Reatillo with Siete. Aguas and the Oliveras.
The relatives of the emeritus king denounce the traffic on their roads of neighbors affected by DANA, “with vehicles or on foot and with loose dogs within a private hunting reserve.” They also cross crop plots, the letter adds.
Assets of 3.9 million euros
Borcier SA, created in 1990 and dedicated to cultivation, has assets of 3.9 million euros (the same figure as its share capital and its tangible assets), according to its latest annual accounts, corresponding to the financial year 2023 and deposited with the Commercial Registry. It has three workers with a permanent contract, two of them in the field and a third, employed in the office and with a senior management salary.
María de Borbón y de Rojas, daughter of the Marquis of Squilache Alfonso de Borbón y Caralt, appears as the company’s representative, as do her children Iván and María de la Cierva Borbón. The marquise’s husband, the agronomist Ramón José de la Cierva García Bermúdez, appears as sole administrator.
The engineer, in a telephone conversation with this newspaper, acknowledges that “the solution” with his neighbors “is not easy,” as the village of Reatillo depends on three municipal districts (Requena, Siete Aguas and Chera) and is located in an area floodable “The village has no telephone, electricity or sewage system,” recalls the sole administrator of Borcier SA (acronym for Borbón y de la Cierva).
“We were the first to arrive at Reatillo to ask about them and their state of health; Just at that moment the Civil Guard helicopter arrived,” says de la Cierva, Marquis of Mairena. The man, as he explains, simply intends to disassociate himself from any type of responsibility in the event of an accident on his property. Ramón José de la Cierva assures that he has collaborated by preparing a letter to request help from the social services of the three municipalities for the residents of the village affected by DANA.
He also states that he has arranged to meet Juanito, a shepherd with a corral in the village, to authorize him to “pack” his “sheep” and “lambs” on the marquises’ exalted property. “We have told the Civil Guard clearly that what we are going to do is look the other way even though [el terreno] “It’s very bad to pass,” says de la Cierva, who demands that the CHJ fix the “fallen bridge.” “Officially, I cannot authorize them to pass through my property but it is an exceptional issue and I look the other way,” defends the owner of the property.
The “stubborn” villagers of Reatillo
The letter dated November 7, in a more forceful tone, regrets that the residents of the village are “insistent” on passing by the farm. “We believe,” say the relatives of the emeritus king, that on November 6, the residents of the village “called the Civil Guard to tell them where to cross.” “What we do know is that the Civil Guard told them the path to Las Oliveras-El Reatillo so that that path was the one to use,” the letter adds.
However, according to the company’s account, on November 7, the villagers “repeatedly” ignored the alleged instructions of the Civil Guard, “insistent on traveling through private property.” The owners of the property claim that the neighbors damaged their property and put themselves in danger. “The terrain is dangerous, muddy, unstable [e] inclined,” they warn in the letter.
The sole administrator of Borcier SA is not aware that the villagers have permission from the CHJ to “invade” the public hydraulic domain and, in addition, maintains that they have carried out an “illegal creation of a route” through their property. The letter concludes by requesting that they record their “opposition” to neighbors crossing roads and private plots and insisting on the “absence of responsibility” on the part of the company in the event of an accident.
“We reiterate again that these residents of the village of Reatillo, voluntarily, did not want to be evacuated and relocated by the Civil Guard helicopter that landed in the village, and that they have two public roads, which are much better than state that the dangerous route that they are creating without anyone’s permission and using freely without permission,” the letter reiterates.
The business of the marquises
Ramón José de la Cierva, who is also CEO of the real estate company Ferisa Galicia SA and representative of Global City Information Technologies SL, answers this newspaper’s call from Madrid. The marquis couple lives between the capital and the Requena estate. “It’s complicated,” he insists in reference to the situation of the village’s residents, most of them elderly and without children. “Theoretically, there are three neighbors,” explains de la Cierva in reference to the oldest, although the shepherd and two other neighbors also live in Reatillo, he says.
His wife, cousin of the king emeritus, in addition to being a director of the Cultural Foundation of the Spanish Nobility, is also linked to other companies with her husband and children: she is the representative of the real estate developer Belvento Solare SL, with assets of 2.6 million euros, and CEO of Urban Qapla SL (with assets of almost half a million euros).
The Marquis of Mairena also defends the help they have provided to the residents of the area, by having satellite communication and solar panels on the property. “Thanks to this, all the people of Chera and Requena who wanted to communicate with their relatives were able to, it was like a pilgrimage,” says Ramón José de la Cierva in the form of “anecdotes.”
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