Corruption and xenophobia on the island of El Hierro
Davide Nahmias,
I am the owner of the smallest hotel in the world located on the island of El Hierro (Canary Islands) and I have lived here for six years.
I bought the establishment in 2018 and moved with my family to the island, believing in a dream that would soon turn into a nightmare. When I arrived at the place I didn't know anything about it nor did I have anyone I knew here. The hotel was in a state of abandonment and I had to bring it back to life. In a couple of months I opened the restaurant and people from all over the island began to come regularly. All the employees were from El Hierro.
On several occasions I was offered cocaine consumption in the restaurant (I always rejected it) until I discovered that clients and employees were using and even trafficking inside my establishment, which led me to close the gate. Since then everyone enters through the main door. I fired a large part of the team and decided to turn the hotel around and turn it into an exclusive place. I was even expelled from a contest that they unfairly call the “cover route.” The ordeal begins for me and my family.
In November 2018, both the hotel and the Punta Grande pier became Assets of Cultural Interest (BIC).
From the beginning I have suffered threats directed at me and my family (I have 3 underage girls), the hotel has been painted with xenophobic and defamatory phrases such as “bastard”, “get out”, “Davide-mafia-drug”. This is a crime against the assets of the Government of the Canary Islands and the entire island knows who the perpetrators are, no one speaks and it is archived. They have painted the garage doors of my house three times and the bus stops (from my home to school) to intimidate my daughters. All this for having requested a report from the Frontera City Council on the circulation of the Punta Grande dock. Up to 30 vehicles were parked inside it, people used drugs with very loud music until late at night and drinking.
After having obtained a report from the local Frontera police indicating that it is not possible to circulate on said pier because it is not suitable for the circulation of vehicles, the city council places a prohibition sign. This one comes cut three times and thrown into the water, as well as graffitied. The professional fishermen refuse to walk 70 meters and the mayor issues a decree, changing the sign and placing a sign just below it that reads 'loading, unloading and authorized activities'. The problem is that since the change of direction of the signal, cars enter with authorization granted by the mayor but authorized and unauthorized at any time of the day, relatives of said illegal fishermen, friends and people of all kinds. I meet with the mayor to find out the reason for his decision and he answers that I come from outside but that the fishermen have families and I would lose a lot of votes.
On August 13, 2022, we celebrated the first wedding of a family from El Hierro – Palmera and at 10:30 p.m., when the couple arrived at the celebration, they showed up behind the same three Seprona de la Gomera patrol cars and entered through the terrace gate. without asking permission and not through the main door, scaring more than 140 guests, they begin to ask loudly, “where is the owner?”, all this in front of the bride and groom who start crying and guests such as lawyers and politicians from the island of witnesses. When they find me they tell me that the celebration is illegal because I do not have a concession of Costs or authorization for weddings, raising a fine of more than €9,000 that is currently in the administrative litigation of Madrid and another fine of €800 towards me. person for bad behavior towards the agents, which comes a year after what happened.
I have reported all the events reported several times at the Civil Guard barracks, but the complaints did not reach the court. In September of the same year as the wedding, through an army colonel and his wife, a lawyer, I made an appointment with Colonel Tienda, at that time the highest authority of the civil guard in the province of Santa Cruz. from Tenerife. Colonel Tienda himself, with the first mentioned colonel and his lawyer wife as witnesses, says that the Seprona agent who intervenes on the night of the wedding is known for acting like a Taliban. He admits that, if it had been the case to act, they could have intervened before, while everything was being set up, not during (the couple cried and people couldn't explain what was happening). Colonel Tienda himself apologizes to me. When we touch on the topic of missing complaints, Colonel Tienda calls a captain responsible for all the barracks in the province of Sta. Cruz de Tenerife. The captain responds that it is impossible but that he will find out. Days later, a box arrives at the Valverde court with a pile of paperwork and in the middle of it my complaints appear. As a witness is an official, Mrs. Raquel, who knows all the details of this story from the beginning. Raquel herself, on one occasion and in front of me, called the Civil Guard headquarters by phone to ask about the whereabouts of my complaints. The agent responds “send me the Italian over here” since they are buildings that are practically next to each other. I go there and they tell me that they are the first filter to the court and that they decide that my complaints are not going anywhere and they file them directly.
On one occasion, one of the few civil guards on the island tells me that I have to get used to the idiosyncrasy of El Hierro. I answer that we are in Spain and that he owes it to the flag he wears on his uniform. I report it and they file it.
On this island people are used to living on subsidies. The Cabildo grants them for any reason, thus pushing the population not to work. Cocaine consumption is also very widespread. They start at 14 years old. It is not about sporadic consumption, it is about a true invasion. There are many low-level traffickers spread throughout the length and breadth of the island. The authorities do nothing. They prefer people on drugs and with their mouths shut in exchange for small subsidies. Very possibly the same local security forces and bodies are involved.
There are three “discos” in the island's capital, Valverde. Cocaine consumption is aberrant but at least in those frequented by adults they hide in the bathrooms and do it in a more discreet way. In the one frequented by minors, consumption takes place in the same bar of the establishment. In this way children feel “grown up”. Nobody does anything or says anything. Admission is for adults but the vast majority are children and also consume alcoholic beverages.
In the countless events and popular festivals, minors can purchase alcoholic beverages and neither the municipal police nor the civil guard prevent it.
An exhaustive investigation should be done on this island. The subsidies. There is no control and it is known that many of the people who receive them do not meet the requirements to be able to receive them. This is called corruption and clientelism.
The people of El Hierro are accustomed to this lifestyle. The motto is that 'what happens in El Hierro stays in El Hierro'. Many strange things happen here and the local media does not echo what happens, thus becoming direct and corrupt accomplices.
10% of the population of El Hierro works for the Cabildo and another good part for companies related to the island's government and illegalities. People know the truth about how the corrupt system works but remain silent for fear of being fired, losing subsidies and not being able to work again.
The level of inbreeding on this island is very high. The population is small, so previously citizens mixed with each other as families. There are four or five surnames. This is counterproductive for the island to become a place where legality, justice and equality for all prevail. Being family, no one talks among them and everything is covered. The day Pandora's box opens, a good part of the island will go to jail.
On February 15, 2024, something terrible happens. The hotel's cockatoo falls into the sea with waves of up to three meters. My employee Elizabeth Ramírez Villamizar jumps in to save her life, she quickly panics and I am forced to jump into the water and save her life. I am a very good swimmer and, although the waves are huge, I swim out to sea towards the area where the waves are not so strong but I have to fight against the strong current. The girl is terrified. We both assume that since there is no one around, we are going to die. After several minutes of enduring the strong tide, the only guests staying at the hotel look out the window and call 112, the emergency service, but they have great difficulty communicating what is happening because the telephone operator does not speak English. The helicopter comes to save us after more than 45 minutes. Elizabeth is exhausted. I'm tired but we're both safe and sound even though she has swallowed water. I hand my employee over to the rescuer without a scratch and they put her on the helicopter. A long time passes until he returns for my other rescuer and meanwhile the waves continue to drag me strongly towards the rocks and I am forced to dive underwater for several minutes to avoid impact. Finally, when I am going to get out on my own, the other rescuer arrives and lifts me up. I see Elizabeth convulsing and emitting a kind of white foam from her mouth. I ask and they tell me that he has hurt his hand but I don't realize the reality. Upon arriving at the Nuestra Señora de los Reyes de Valverde hospital and after several requests to the health personnel, I learned that during the rescue one finger on his hand had been severely amputated, two others had been broken, and that he was in a very serious condition for having also swallowed. water and lost a lot of blood. She is taken by the same helicopter to the Candelaria Hospital and there she undergoes surgery that lasts more than 6 hours. Fortunately they save his life. The next day I phone one of the rescuers to thank them for their work and ask them what happened to the hand. He tells me that he is going to put on the loudspeaker, that the five rescuers who were at the accident are listening and that they will declare to whoever is needed that Elizabeth came out of the water already injured. My patience is running out and I decided to start a war against the corruption of the island in general, the same one that allows a group of GES rescuers to deliberately lie and tell me something so aberrant to my face and after having risked my life. I feel like I'm in a real banana republic.
The same day of the accident, while my wife and I are waiting outside the hospital's emergency room for news about Elizabeth's health, the same civil guard patrol arrives that was watching what happened without doing anything. They come to us and I tell them that they are not doing their job well. While I was in the water they were not even able to throw out the life preserver that was tied to the steel railing on the dock in front of the hotel. They threaten to take me away in handcuffs, I tell them to stay away from me. A week later a fine of €200 arrives for my bad behavior towards them. I don't know who would think something like that is normal. Just half an hour ago I was in the middle of the ocean about to drown along with my employee and in a state of shock and they attack me again. Coincidentally, one of the agents was the one who once told me that I had to get used to the idiosyncrasy of El Hierro.
Local television does not cover what happened that day. The news was written in a small newspaper with a whole series of errors. The Canarian and Spanish TV in El Hierro are also corrupt and manipulate information. They help ensure that what happens in El Hierro stays in El Hierro.
I contact the President of the Cabildo, the mayor of Frontera and no one seems to care what has happened. I have been asking the Frontera city council for six years to reform the Punta Grande pier and put in place the security measures that correspond by law to being a bathing area in summer. As always, on this island it is more important to take care of all the events, parties and other celebrations than what really matters.
I decide, as a demonstration and rejection, to display a series of banners that talk about the mafia of the Herreña idiosyncrasy, corruption and the banana republic in which we live. I hung one of the posters in the hotel. The Cabildo does not delay in fining me without indicating the amount. That's why they are in a hurry even though I am exercising my right to freedom of expression.
The Frontera city council writes on its social networks that legal measures, whether civil or criminal, are going to be taken against me because I have disrespected the entire people of El Hierro by telling nothing more and nothing less than the truth, also in My social networks. They are clientelists. They have never spoken out in that way when my family and I have been attacked and offended by the graffiti that I mentioned above. The same counselor from... told me one day that if the hotel had been his, none of what I describe here would have happened because I am Italian and he is from El Hierro.
I have filed numerous complaints in the Valverde Court that I do not know if they will come to fruition. Against those who receive subsidies illegally, those who build without any type of permit in places where it is not possible, the state of the island's animals and the mistreatment they receive, the carelessness and prevarication of the security forces and bodies since they are all family here and close their eyes to hundreds of illegalities that are carried out day after day.
It is the norm on this island that people do not have a driving license but still drive vehicles in daylight. Many do not have the ITV in order or accident insurance.
There are very numerous WhatsApp groups in which you are notified every time any type of control arrives. It can be from the civil traffic guard, labor inspections or anything that comes from outside.
There are no safety regulations at construction sites. Some people have already died but they are truly risking their lives.
Most workers do not have an employment contract. If they have it, they do not receive the amount of money that corresponds to them. They sign payrolls but receive less and work overtime that is not paid. If they have it, they do not receive the amount of money that corresponds to them. They sign payrolls but receive less and work overtime that is not paid.
Farmers receive numerous subsidies but if inspections were carried out to see the condition of the animals it would be found that they do not comply with any of the standards they should. Seprona does not do its job. Politicians buy votes in this way and this is called clientelism.
In front of the Puntagrande Hotel, in the ocean, there are numerous illegal anchorages that threaten the environment. The fishermen who from May to September carry out their duties here in front, do so illegally. I have emails from Costas in which they themselves admit the illegality of said anchoring but the mayor of Frontera ignores it and gives parking permits to professional fishermen who do not meet the health requirements to transport the fish.
The fishermen have made my life impossible from the beginning. They have thrown fish entrails on the hotel terrace, they have placed professional hooks for heavy fishing at the entrance to my home where my daughters, and another neighbor with his family, pass by very frequently. They have threatened to kill me. They have done it on social networks (not only the fishermen but many neighbors) and, seeking peace, I backed out on the day of the trial after having reported it. They did it recently in front of numerous witnesses and chasing me with their car. I have already reported it.
Finally, I make an APPEAL to anyone who believes that this is worthy of investigation and believes in justice. I have quite summarized everything that has happened during 6 very long years and nothing changes, it is getting worse and worse and we are in 2024. I have transformed the Hotel Puntagrande into a luxury place and I have placed it in the main positions of the most beautiful hotels in the world. Here it doesn't matter how much good you do, it matters that you enter their game and stay quiet. Your problem is that I do not work for the Cabildo or for any committed company. They are not going to silence me!!!!