Janet Anscombe

Overview of News

National Police, in collaboration with the Citizen Security Brigade and various hotels in south Tenerife, have arrested two british citizens – 48-year-old Robert C.D. and 41-year-old Artiste L.C. – for a series of burglaries from hotel rooms. Jewellery to the value of €20,000 was seized in the operation, as were various implements for breaking and entering. Much of the jewellery stolen had already been sold in “compra de oro” shops, dedicated to the legal purchase of such items.

The arrests came as part of the police operation codenamed ‘Operación Chincheta’, the result of huge concern among the hotels in south Tenerife. The two under arrest are said to have passed themselves off as tourists in order to carry out their thefts. They are now being processed by the relevant judicial authorities.

As I posted HERE last August, sharks now seem to be more frequent on the east coast of Tenerife because of increased numbers of fish as a result, locals say, of untreated sewage less than the legal limit of 150 metres from the coast.

Now, a new report from the Canarian Government’s Environment Department says that nearly three-quarters of Santa Cruz’s untreated sewage is being evacuated straight into the sea by the auditorium just 100 metres from the coast. The capital’s Ayuntamiento, reacting to the report, says that it has done this rather than pumping the sewage to its local treatment plant for a few years now … and that it has permission from the Canarian Govermnent dating from 2007 to do so.

So that’s alright then, is it?

In a day of lucky escapes, a 78-year-old man is recovering this evening from a near drowning just before 4pm this afternoon at the La Pinta beach at Puerto Colon. The man, said to be a foreigner in Spain, was rescued by the lifeguard at the beach and when emergency services arrived, he was assisted by paramedics who transferred him by ambulance to Hospitén Sur, where he is said to be doing fine.

In a lucky escape verging on the miraculous, four young men, occupants of a Peugeot 206, walked away unscathed at lunchtime today after the car fell from the Los Olivos sliproad onto the TF1 northbound verge. Emergency services were called out and were on site almost immediately; attending were the Guardia Civil, Cabildo road teams, and an ambulance. Amazingly, paramedics only had to treat two of the car’s occupants for grazes to elbows and hands.

A man died after suffering a heart attack in Playa Fañabé area shortly before 11pm last evening. Emergency services were called at 22.44pm with reports that he had collapsed, and emergency services attended the scene, but despite their best efforts to resuscitate him, they could not save his life and he was declared dead at the scene. The poor man was 52 years old and a foreigner in Spain.

Update 4 January 2012: As every year, the Kings will be arriving in various towns throughout Tenerife tomorrow 5 January to deliver their presents to all good children. There will be the usual arrival by ferry in Los Cristianos around 7pm, but many towns will see such parades.

Another main one in the south is Adeje, where Los Reyes will arrive by helicopter at 5pm in the football ground (entrance ticket €1) and will then parade at 7.30 through the town’s main street, Calle Grande.

Another huge parade is, of course, in Santa Cruz, where despite fears of a cancellation because of the economic crisis, the kings will after all arrive at 5pm at the main CD Tenerife football ground, the Heliodoro, before parading from 7pm through the city, starting at Plaza República Dominicana, and proceeding through Avenida de las Asuncionistas, Ramón y Cajal, Galcerán, Plaza de Weyler, Méndez Núñez, Pilar, Villalba Hervás, La Marina and ending at the Plaza de La Candelaria.

As I noted in the El Hierro eruption post, scientists say that they’ve never before seen anything like the volcanic material coming up as smoking lava bombs which they’ve called Las Restingolitas in honour of the little town of La Restinga so close to the eruption zone.  On the outside is a dark glassy substance, thought to be some sort of basalt composition comprising minerals of peridot, pyroxene, magnetite and halite (sodium chloride), but inside is a white spongy mass that is minerologically very different, probably a type of silica but of a highly explosive rhyolite type which might even have been brought up from the oceanic crust.

Now, Las Restingolitas are on display in Tenerife in the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre. The exhibition will last until 31 January, and is open Tuesday to Sunday, between 9am and 7pm. The museum is halfway between the tram Intercambiador (opposite the Santa Cruz Auditorium) and the main Plaza de España (with the fountain), and on the tram line it is just at the first stop (Fundación), where the ice rink has been set up.

To all those who follow my posts on this blog, a very Happy New Year. I hope that 2012 brings all that you would wish to make your life happy and fulfilled.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE       —–      FELIZ AÑO NUEVO A TODOS

Update 30 December: The search continues today, with the disappearance now reaching a full week. Yesterday nearly 70 bomberos, police, and search and rescue teams, including two helicopters and lifeboats, searched widely for her to no avail.

The authorities have reminded the public that Margaret Holt is 65 years old, with brown hair, 1.65m tall, and slim. When she was last seen she was wearing a pink T-shirt, Bermuda-style light brown shorts, white sandals and carrying a black bag. Anyone with any information is asked to get in touch urgently by calling emergency services on 112, or bomberos on 080 or the Guardia Civil on 062.

Update 29 December: This story has now made the BBC, HERE, , and in Lanzarote, the search is being widened today with a lifeboat being brought in to see if there is any trace of her in the sea. The boat will search the north coast of Lanzarote, in waters off the Teguise and Haría municipalities where rescue teams on land and in the air will now resume a third day’s search.

Update 28 December 2011: The new conservative Government led by Mariano Rajoy has frozen the minimum wage for 2012. It will remain at 2011’s rate of €641 per month despite requests from Unions to raise it in line with inflation. The freeze on minimum pay rates will be approved by the Cabinet on Friday.

Original post 30 December 2010: Spanish PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has announced that the minimum wage will rise by 1.3% for 2011, to €641 a month. In 2010, it was set at €633.30. ZP said that the rise shows the govermnent’s understanding of the difficulties workers face in the present economic climate, and the effort the government was making to help them, regardless of how difficult it was to raise the minimum wage for the coming year.

Update 21 December: I attended a closed “strategy meeting” this morning organized by Tenerife Litigation, a co-operative arrangement between two highly-respected lawyers in south Tenerife, José Escobedo and Santiago Saenz. Joining them was Marcus Cabrera.

The meeting, with some 20 or so very involved or interested parties, was called to clarify the situation to date and discuss strategy for the future. What follows below is an update to the present situation, themes for further defence against the punitive and ferocious fines that are being levied, and ideas for strategies to lobby the Government to amend the 1995 law.

A 20-year-old man described as a foreigner in Spain has died after falling from the balcony of a hotel in Avda Rafael Puig, which runs from the Villa Cortés Hotel past the Parque Santiagos 1 and II, and up past Las Palmeras. Whether it was part of the craze for leaping into hotel swimming pools or not, the young man was found in the pool area, and emergency services received the call around 10.30pm last evening but on arrival could do nothing but confirm his death at the scene.

Spain’s Royal Family has posted online Christmas greetings today for us all.

The following Christmas card images are taken from the website HERE, the Casa de Su Majestad el Rey.

From the king and Queen:

and from the Prince and Princess of Asturias:

There are also Christmas cards from the two Infantas and their families on the Casa del Rey website at the link above.

Arona Ayuntamiento has at last approved its PGO (Plan General de Ordenación) which defines the plots within the municipality. One area that now has the go-ahead for development is El Mojón, a name usually associated with the new southern hospital just below Chayofa, but which in fact is the whole area between the present town of Los Cristianos and the TF1.

This area, of some 500,000 square metres, has been marked out with streets and paving for some time, and is now intended to become the “economic motor” not just of Los Cristianos, but of south Tenerife generally, according to the Ayuntamiento in a press conference yesterday.

The area will contain residential, touristic and commercial properties, and talks will start with businesses after Christmas to see how to get the maximum potential from the area.

Update 16 December: After taking statements today from the couple, the Court has imputed (formally named as suspects) the children’s mother, Sonia Aurelia P. B., on two counts of aggravated murder, and her partner and father to the little boy, Jesús Cristo P. L., on two counts of murder for being the instigator and accomplice of the killing. The Court remanded both in custody without bail, and lifted reporting restrictions.

As of yesterday, Sonia P.B. is now in Tenerife II prison, while her partner is still under police guard in a secure part of Candelaria Hospital. His wounds are said to be self-inflicted. Meanwhile, the two poor children have been cremated, a service that was attended by the distraught father of the little girl.

Original post 13 December: The bodies of two children, a little girl of 11 and her 5-year-old brother, were found earlier today in an apartment in the Vistabella area of Santa Cruz.