The recording lasts about 10 minutes and the current former socialist deputy Juan Bernardo Fuentes Curbelo circulates on the screen; his nephew and his successor as General Director of Livestock of the Canarian Government, Taishet Fuentes; the intermediary of the Mediator plot, Marco Antonio Navarro Tacoronte, and the lawyer Plácido Alonso Peña. What adds scandal to that video is that they appear with prostitutes at the Hotel Iguazú Playa in Gran Canaria more than a year ago.
But, above all, what makes the recording relevant is that it was the first warning that Navarro Tacoronte sent to a PSOE officer when he was in danger from “the polluters.” Specifically, they specify from his environment, he sent it months ago to Conrado Domínguez, a member of the Canarian Government as director of the Health Service for five years.
In an interview with EL MUNDO, last Saturday, Navarro Tacoronte stated: “I came from Health.” The fact is that he considers Conrado Domínguez as “his friend” of him. And that’s why she turns to him for protection. “Conrado tells him not to broadcast that video, that the PSOE is his family and that he is going to harm the family,” they point out from the intermediary’s environment.
This newspaper tried unsuccessfully to contact Conrado Domínguez yesterday, who resigned last November after being implicated in the so-called Mascarillas case, in one of those resignations that preceded the case and that today are observed in a different way. Specifically, they are seen as indications that the PSOE had prior knowledge of the scandal and that it was taking measures, preventive firewalls, such as the removal of Taishet Fuentes itself in June for “loss of confidence.”
Although the party still took months to remove Tito Berni, its deputy in Madrid, it was able to do so quickly because it had evidence that allowed it to force his resignation suddenly. «They have told us that there are photos and you go out. And you know there are photos », launched Santos Cerdán, Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, to Juan Bernardo Fuentes, to bend his will. And that forcefulness is today the basis of the socialist argument to defend itself.
In Ferraz, however, they assure that they found out about the case the same day that the first arrests took place, on February 14, when the news “appeared in the media.” Starting at 10 that morning, the Canarian press began to echo the arrest of Taishet Fuentes, among other people allegedly involved in the plot, but without yet making reference to his uncle.
Even so, barely three hours later, the party’s national leadership had already demanded the parliamentarian to resign his seat. It was Cerdán himself who -according to eldiario.es- contacted him while he was in a meeting of the Finance Commission, which had begun at one in the afternoon and lasted less than 30 minutes, and who, in the face of resistance of his interlocutor to present his resignation, warned him of the existence of compromised photos of him with drugs and prostitutes. At that time, no information had yet been published in this regard.
“There was absolutely nothing before”, they respond emphatically at the Socialist headquarters to the question of whether they had any previous indication that militants from their party could be involved in the alleged plot of contact with businessmen to offer them influence in exchange for money. «In eight hours the deputy was expelled and had delivered his deputy act. With corruption, either you have zero tolerance, like the PSOE, or you get along with it, like the PP, “they add about the speed with which they addressed the case.
The feeling in the party has spread that the magnitude of the scandal was not properly “dimensioned” and it was believed that with the automatic resignation of Fuentes Curbelo a “controlled blasting” was carried out. It is also considered that they are now transmitting an image of “nervousness” when explanations should be given with “seriousness and rigor”.
In addition, internal party sources see an “error” in trying to circumscribe an issue that exclusively affects the Canary Islands: the pieces into which the case has been divided and which are still under summary secrecy include the investigation of contract awards from the Ministries of Defense and Interior.
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