On April 13, 2016, a large group of national police searched the Granada City Hall, the headquarters of several companies and some private homes, among others that of the then mayor of the city, the popular José Torres Hurtado. They were investigating a possible urban corruption plot in which the most relevant person seemed to be the politician. He was arrested along with 15 people, among whom were councilors and urban planning officials from his government team. He Nazari case as the alleged plot was named, later led to some more separate pieces. However, what the police suspected then was not later supported by any court ruling; Trial by trial, the former mayor has been acquitted of all accusations. Then, the PP distanced itself from Torres Hurtado and dropped him. Seven years, eight months and two days later, according to the former mayor's own account, his party honored him this Friday in Granada.
Every year, at the Christmas meeting of its board of directors, the PP of Granada recognizes the career of one of its own with the presentation of a silver grenade. This year's award went to Torres Hurtado and was given to Elías Bendodo, deputy secretary of Autonomous and Local Coordination of the national PP. A symbolic way of rehabilitating the former councilor, 77 years old, beyond the provincial level because, also, the opinion of regional and state PP officials had a lot to do with his fall from grace at that time. During his time as Minister of the Interior and last person in charge of the National Police, Jorge Fernández Díaz, Antonio Sanz, today counselor of the Presidency and then delegate of the Government in Andalusia, and the current president Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla praised the police operation. This Friday, Bendodo stated: “I come to Granada mainly to give Pepe a hug.” [Torres Hurado]”. And the former mayor has made indirect reference to those who brought him down.
The provincial president of the PP, Francisco Rodríguez, has been in charge of the laudatio of the honoree, without making any mention of that April 13, 2016 or of the following days, months and years, which however the honoree has later mentioned. Rodríguez has defined Torres Hurtado as one of the “serious, honest, honest, hard-working people with a vocation for public service” who founded the PP of Granada and who has made it “shine.” They have been, he said, “many years defending the interests of Granada in the Congress of Deputies, in the Senate, in the Parliament of Andalusia or as a delegate of the Government in Andalusia.” Torres Hurtado was relevant in the party from the first decade of the 21st century until his fall from grace. Rodríguez highlighted that he was “the only mayor of the city who has won four consecutive elections.”
After a standing ovation from those present – which included some of those who at the time supported the defenestration of the former mayor, as he mentioned in his speech – Torres Hurtado took the floor, and was unscathed by a list of accusations that included alleged crimes of bribery, fraud in contracting, illicit association, prevarication, influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, fraud, falsification of commercial documents, unfair administration and against territorial planning. Excited and with a trembling voice, he stated: “Seven years, eight months and two days have passed since an operation, let's say unorthodox not to say harsher words, caused the fall of a City Council that was an example in Spain, in the province and in Andalusia (…) until they made us fall in a regrettable way.”
Torres Hurtado has given advice to those who now lead the party: “Never get involved in demolition operations for personal interests, for not being capable or for being useless when it comes to getting the voters to name you as mayor or as whatever. Do not try to win the mayor's office with trials and bad manners because in the end the citizens, the city and the party lose. (…) He who kills iron with iron dies.”
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