Landfill Case: the papers that the Supreme Court did not consider when filing the case against the senator from El Hierro

On December 12, the Supreme Court cleared the judicial horizon of the current senator of the island of El Hierro, Javier Armas. A year and a half earlier, the leader of the AgrupaciĆ³n HerreƱa Independiente (AHI) and former Deputy Minister of Finance of the Canary Islands Government was on the verge of trial for the so-called Vertederos case, which had been investigating uncontrolled waste management on the island since 2006. The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Prosecutor’s Office had formulated the indictment in September 2018, in which it requested eleven years in prison and four years of disqualification for environmental crimes. After several postponements, the hearing was to be held in October 2023, but his election as senator three months earlier, in the July general elections, changed everything.

Armas became a judge and, consequently, the Supreme Court took up the case in January of this year. Eleven months later, the Criminal Chamber of the high court has decreed its provisional archive. Magistrate Pablo Llarena signs the order that exonerates Armas from criminal responsibility for events that occurred in the 2003-2007 term, when he held the position of director of the Environment, Security and Emergency area of ā€‹ā€‹the El Hierro Council.

The environmental association Ossinisa, the complainant in the case in 2006, has presented a letter urging the State Attorney General’s Office to appeal that order. He maintains that in the summary there is documentary evidence that contradicts what was stated in the Llarena resolution.

The current senator from El Hierro was accused of condoning activity in three uncontrolled landfills on the island. One of them was located in the El Majano area and was an illegal and polluting car scrapyard. Another, in La Dehesa, within the protected natural area Parque Rural Frontera. And the third, on the mountain called La Cumbrecita.

The Supreme Court does not appreciate in Armas’ actions conduct (by action or omission) that could fit into any of the crimes charged (against natural resources and the environment and against territorial planning). In the case of the third landfill, that of La Cumbrecita, because there is no evidence that the dumping began when the current senator was entrusted with environmental functions in the El Hierro Council (2003-2007).

With respect to the other two uncontrolled landfills, those of El Majano and La Dehesa, the Supreme Court puts forward, in summary, two reasons. On the one hand, he maintains that at that time Armas did not hold the status of Environment Minister of the Cabildo and that, therefore, he was not the ā€œguarantorā€ of legality in this matter nor the person competent over inspections, infractions and sanctions. Furthermore, it says that there is no evidence that the Government of the Canary Islands had carried out any inspection at that time for alleged infractions in waste management on the island nor that the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard , the Canary Islands Agency for the Protection of the Natural Environment (Apmun) or any individual had filed a complaint for ā€œdefective operation of the landfills.ā€ In fact, it places the actions of Seprona and Apmun on later dates, starting in 2008.

“Nor is there any obligation on the part of the investigated party – ex officio and without prior complaint – to create a surveillance structure that would support the environmental sanctioning competence assigned to the Cabildo of El Hierro, nor is there any evidence that the investigated party managed supervisions in the that would hide the transgression of the regulations regulating discharges,ā€ states the order signed by Judge Pablo Llarena on December 12.

Writings that ā€œcontradictā€ the order

The complainant in the case, the environmental association Ossinisa, maintains that there are documents in the procedure that contradict those statements contained in the order of Judge Pablo Llarena. This group was represented for years as a popular accusation in the procedure, but was forced to withdraw due to the excessive duration of the case (17 years) and the high economic cost it implied for its members.

One of the writings to which Ossinisa alludes is a report sent in May 2007 by the Agency for the Protection of the Urban and Natural Environment (Apmun) of the Government of the Canary Islands to the Investigative Court 1 of Valverde, where the case was investigated.

In this document, the then president of the organization reports, first of all, that in August 2005 Seprona filed a complaint for an infraction at the La Dehesa landfill, consisting of ā€œthe opening of ditches approximately 300 meters long by two meters high, where urban waste is dumped and subsequently burned and buried, producing emissions of toxic gases into the atmosphere.ā€ The Cabildo of El Hierro responded a month later that a new waterproofed vessel had been put into service in the environmental complex, that the system that was the subject of the complaint had already become ineffective and that, therefore, the waste treatment complied with the regulations.

This Apmun report also alludes to the illegal and polluting vehicle depot in El Majano. The autonomous body explains that at the end of 2004 a file was opened as a result of the complaint made by Seprona against the company that operated in that place. On the date of the complaint, the scrapping was carried out on Cabildo land. The warehouse was vacated, but the company continued with the same activity on an adjacent plot. ā€œYou have been required to legalize the activity as a waste manager on 03/10/2005, having not complied with the aforementioned requirement,ā€ states that report, which concludes by saying that the sanctioning procedure was pending.

Another of the writings to which Ossinisa refers is a letter sent to the court in 2016 by the then Deputy Minister of the Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands, Blanca PĆ©rez. It talks about an infringement procedure opened by the European Commission to Spain in 2006 due to the existence of several illegal landfills in the country. Among them is La Dehesa, located in the vicinity of the Orchilla Lighthouse.

Ossinisa maintains that these documents prove that in 2006 and in previous years there were already complaints or open procedures by Seprona, Apmun, the European Commission and the association itself for uncontrolled waste management.

The responsibility of weapons

The other argument on which the Supreme Court supports the file is that Javier Armas did not have oversight powers over environmental matters in the El Hierro Cabildo. The high court indicates that the powers of ā€œinitiation, investigation and resolutionā€ of files on waste management can be delegated by the Canarian Government to the councils. And, specifically, in its president or, failing that, the Minister of the Environment.

On the date on which the events under investigation occurred, during the 2003-2007 mandate, there was no Minister of the Environment in El Hierro. Armas was area director. And, in the opinion of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, ā€œhe could not be assigned the delegated powersā€ ā€‹ā€‹that corresponded to the figure of a counselor.

Faced with these assertions, Ossinisa has sent other documents to the State Attorney General’s Office that, in his opinion, demonstrate that it was the current senator who had to respond for the uncontrolled discharges on the island. One of them is a letter sent in October 2006 by the then president of the El Hierro Cabildo, TomĆ”s PadrĆ³n, to the court where the investigation had just been opened. In it he reports on the people who had powers in environmental matters. And it mentions both Javier Armas himself and the coach Fabiola Ɓvila, also accused in this process.

In fact, it is Armas who, a month later and in his capacity as director of the Environment area, sends to the court the requested report on the authorizations related to the El Majano Clean Point and the La Dehesa Environmental Complex. In that writing, the current senator from El Hierro says that these facilities ā€œhave been used since the respective dates of reception under the supervision of the Cabildo of El Hierro, carrying out in them all the processes provided for by law that were defined in the transfer process and established by the Canary Islands Waste Plan (PIRCAN)ā€.

Armas’ signature also appears on a document from December 2004 that certifies the delivery of vehicles at the El Majano facilities to Fernando GutiĆ©rrez, promoter of the illegal scrapping and accused in a separate piece. In a statement given before the Civil Guard in 2008, GutiĆ©rrez stated that he had an agreement with the Cabildo of El Hierro and with Traffic, so that, when he picked up a vehicle for scrapping, he gave the owner “a piece of paper” where he made state that you had received it and the data (registration and model).

With that paper, the owner went ā€œto the Environment Departmentā€ of the insular corporation, where he was given ā€œa certificateā€ that, in turn, had to be sent to the Insular Traffic Directorate to deregister him. ā€œAs it is a smaller island and temporarily and with permission from the Cabildo, they could be deregistered in this way,ā€ he said.


Finally, it is also Armas, already in his capacity as Councilor for Citizen Services of the Cabildo of El Hierro, who signs a letter at the end of 2007 in response to a request for information made by Ossinisa regarding the La Dehesa landfill. ā€œThe samples referred to, understanding that they are subsoil probes both upstream and downstream of said complex to verify possible contamination of the aquifer, do not exist. Since there are no groundwater outlets or wells in operation in said area either (…) For all these reasons, said data cannot be transferred to you because such data does not exist,” the letter states.

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