Cartagena, Jan 31 (EFE) No euphemisms, no circumlocutions.
During the Congress of the National Network of Environmental and Urban Prosecutors, which brought together 50 of them from all over Spain in Cartagena (Murcia), he reported that, based on the fact that the prosecutor’s office has no budget, the issues are being resolved using public bodies.
But currently they are “permanently like cat and mouse”, since some of these institutions, such as the Higher Council for Scientific Research, “have a more mercantilist attitude and if you don’t pay, they don’t do the test.”
He pointed out that in the European Union the maxim of “the polluter pays” has gone from being applied to the environment to that of “the polluter repairs”, which is usually more expensive.
In this sense, he explained that there are certain environmental damages that are not detected now, but that in 15 years, due to technological advances, “we see them with more precision”, so that for their repair “we will have to pay more”.
For this reason, he has highlighted the importance of having “the best possible technology at all times” and the need to be constantly updated.
He has said he is “absolutely aware” of the situation of the Mar Menor, but has warned that “the solutions are not 2+2=4, but infinitely more complex”, since “there is a very peculiar social perspective and an ancient mining vision that continues to kick its tail.”
“The problem is serious and the solutions are logically in the long term,” he added before expressing that “perhaps the problem we have in areas with significant environmental richness is that since we are used to nature being so bountiful with us, we don’t we respect it or take it into consideration as we should”.
“That wouldn’t happen in Iceland,” he reflected, using as a simile the great effort involved in growing a potato on that island.
The superior prosecutor of the Murcian community, José Luis Díaz Manzanera, has indicated that the case for the contamination of the Mar Menor is pending for the oral trial to be indicated and “well directed”.
On the other hand, he has indicated that for crimes against historical heritage, which is also dealt with by that prosecutor’s office, “there are few procedures that are initiated each year.”
Regarding urban crimes, he said that half of the sentences include the demolition of the illegally built property and that those that are against land use planning are the most numerous within this area of urban planning, since “a construction on protected land , even if it is rustic, is constitutive of a crime”.
In these cases, convictions are forcing half of the cases to demolish what was built, compared to 10% a few years ago, since “otherwise we would be assuming that the body of the crime is left and that is not makes sense”.
However, he considers that there could be more sentences if the city councils sent files on urban irregularities to the prosecutor’s office, as “it is their obligation”.