Thousands of people have returned to the streets this Sunday in the Canary Islands to protest against the ”destructive” tourism model. After the historic mobilizations of April 20, this time the population has taken their demands to the tourist centers of the islands. ”We want tourists to know what is happening. Not only do we want our leaders to listen, we also want those who visit us to understand that this model is unsustainable,” explained the organizers of these marches, which have been held throughout the Archipelago under the motto ‘The Canary Islands have a limit.’ The islanders demand ”real changes” after institutions have ”ignored” their requests. The housing crisis, the lack of water and the construction of new megaprojects are some of the reasons that have pushed the population to the streets.
”Not one more bed”, ”It’s not tourismphobia, it’s canaricide” or ”We must protect our land from ecocide” are some of the slogans that have been read. As explained by the organizers, today’s event was not a ”massive demonstration”, as it was on April 20, when more than 200,000 people gathered in the capitals of the islands. On this occasion, the objective was to launch a ”target” in the heart of tourism in the Canary Islands and remember that none of the requests that residents have made in the last six months have been attended to. ”We ask for it today please for the last time”, could be read on one of the posters of the Las Américas march, in the south of Tenerife.
In this sense, among the reasons that explain the transfer of the mobilizations to tourist enclaves is the job insecurity of those who work in this sector. ”Our fight is also for all those people who depend on tourism to survive. We do not fight against them, but with them, demanding decent working conditions and a model that benefits all of society, not just big businessmen,” they indicate.
”By protesting in the center of mass tourism, we send a clear message: they will not silence us. “We are here to stand up to those who enrich themselves at the expense of the destruction of our islands,” they add. The loss of biodiversity, lack of water and poverty, they point out, are just some of the manifestations of a larger problem. Along these lines, activists have not failed to remember this October 20 that 775,000 people in the Canary Islands are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. This is 33.8% of its population, as stated in the XIV Report ‘The State of Poverty. Monitoring of the indicators of the EU 2030 Agenda. 2015-2022’ . Another piece of data that this report has revealed is that 64.8% of the population in the Canary Islands (about 1.4 million people) claim to have difficulties making ends meet, 4.1% more than the year before. past.
Measures against the housing crisis, a tourism moratorium, the suspension of large macroprojects on the islands, greater protection of natural spaces and a tourist tax are some of the demands that the population has raised this Sunday. In Tenerife, the population demands the stoppage of two tourist macro-projects: the La Tejita hotel, in El Médano, and Cuna del Alma, in Puertito de Adeje. With this objective, a group of activists even organized a hunger strike in April. However, the regional government did not give in either. Likewise, Tenerife residents ask for solutions to the collapse of the roads. According to data managed by the Government Delegation, more than 6,500 people gathered in Las Americas.
In Gran Canaria, the mobilization also took place at 12:00 p.m. in Maspalomas and gathered 1,500 people, according to data from the Government Delegation. ”Climate change only seems to matter when renewable energies are used as an excuse to sell our land and our resources to large transnationals. “That is not progress, it is exploitation,” read the manifesto read at the end of the march.
Demonstrations also took place in Fuerteventura, La Palma, El Hierro and Lanzarote. On this last island, more than 2,000 Protestants gathered in the tourist center of Puerto del Carmen. Specifically, the mobilization ended at the Fariones Hotel, owned by the influential businessman Juan Francisco Rosa. This week, within the framework of the protests against the tourism model, a group of activists broke into the illegal Papagayo Arena hotel, located in Playa Blanca. ”Our water is in your pool” or ”this hotel is illegal” were some of the slogans that were repeated in the establishment.
This time, the demonstration has also been supported outside the Canary Islands and Spain. Specifically, as reported by the Tenerife Association of Friends of Nature (ATAN), there have also been mobilizations in Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Madrid and Berlin.
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