World Of Tourism

Spain's two main political parties, normally fierce and bitter rivals, have presented a joint front in the face of condemnation in a draft report by Margrete Auken, a Danish MEP from the Greens, commissioned by the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament to report on property and environmental abuse in Spain.Her report includes harsh criticism of 'Spain’s urban planning practices, weak

As I wrote last week the mayor of Mazarron and two other officials have been indicted on charges of alleged misappropriation of public money for which sentences are being sought by the prosecution of 6 years for the mayor and 5 years and 5 months for the other two, with disqualification from the holding of public office for 10 years for all three.The recipient of the allegedly fraudulent payments

(Please see UPDATE at end)The public prosecutor is calling for a prison sentence of 6 years for the Mayor of Mazarrón, Francisco Blaya in a case to be heard on 4th December in the Provincial Court involving the alleged misappropriation of public money in the form of prepayments made to council member Domingo Valera. Also charged under the same offences are Domingo Valera himself and municipal

You really couldn't make it up, could you? The leader of an organisation calling itself Manos Limpias ('clean hands'), Miguel Bernard, a body dedicated to denouncing corruption, is himself implicated in the Totana 'TOTEM' property scandal.If your shtick is to be cleaner than clean, rather in the tradition of some US evangelical preachers, it ill-behooves you to be caught with your hands in the

Apparently raffle tickets are being sold in Aguilas by scam artists pretending to be acting on behalf of the Spanish Red Cross; their story is that the funds are being raised to help buy a new ambulance to replace an older one. It is sad that people will exploit people's goodwill in this way; unfortunately Spain is in no way unique, though, as I recall there were similar frauds by people

The Superior Court of Justice of Murcia has issued its judgement in the property corruption scandal in Totana against former Mayor Juan Morales; he must pay a fine of €200,000 to avoid prison. The fine amount must be lodged with the court by 2pm next Monday and must surrender his passport. I have written previously about the fine of €70,000 imposed on the current Mayor of Totana, José Martínez

I haven't been writing much about local news here in the past couple of weeks as I have been too busy moving into my house and getting it organised. However, this morning I have begun again to look at some of the local news and came across developments in the corruption cases affecting various of the cities in Murcia.The Mayor of Totana, José Martínez Andreo, has now been released on €70,000-

Juan Escudero, the ex-Mayor of Los Alcázares has been released Monday on bail of €60,000-, however the ex municipal architect Mariano Ayuso has been remanded in custody , joining the three (including his brother) who were remanded in custody on Saturday.The other person granted bail (of €27,000-) today was Diego Sánchez Gómez, recently-retired Town Hall secretary.

After the recent scandals uncovered in Totana and Los Alcázares, La Verdad newspaper asks a simple question: ¿Cuál es el siguiente municipio?. From what it is reporting, the fiscal and planning records of the municipalities of Torre Pacheco and Fuente Álamo will be the next to come under scrutiny.

Three of the original six arrested earlier this week in connection with the misappropriation of public funds and money-laundering in 'Operation Ninette' in Los Alcázares have been ordered to be held in provisional detention without bail in a hearing on Saturday before Eva María Algar, a judge at the Court of First Instance in San Javier. Those being held in detention are the brother of the

It's hard to keep up with the spped of what is going on in Los Alcázares and Murcia generally at present (specially when you're trying to follow it, as I am, from the north of Scotland)! After my post yesterday about 6 people having been arrested, including the former Mayor, now it seems that 20 more have been taken in for questionning in what is being called "Operation Ninette". Amongst those

in Los Alcázares this time. The ex-mayor of Los Alcázares and five others have been arrested on charges of misappropriating public funds and money-laundering. On this occasion the ex-mayor, Juan Escudero, was a member of the governing Socialist party until his expulsion yesterday when he was arrested. In the other recent case of town-hall corruption in Murcia Region (in Totana), the Mayor on that

The chief of police in Conil de la Frontera, Cádiz Province, Francisco Luis González Fernández, has been arrested because his unconventional method of dealing with recovered stolen cars has finally caught up with him - he was selling them on as a second-hand car business, rather than returning them to their rightful owners by forging the paperwork. The local town hall have denied all knowledge of

The mayor of Totana, José Martínez Andreo, is being held in custody without bail after a marathon preliminary court hearing over the weekend. Two others arrested at the same time have been released on bail of €20,000 each. The case relates to allegations of corruption in the granting of licences for property developments in the Totana area, involving the expropriation of 2.2mio sq m of farmland

I wrote a couple of days ago about the six arrests in connection with alleged corruption in the granting of building licences for building projects in Totana and that more arrests were expected in coming days.Well, now we have more arrests; the present mayor of Totana, José Martínez Andreo of the PP (Partido Popular), the former national governing Party and the local chief of police have been

Amongst six people arrested yesterday in connection with alleged corruption in the granting of property licences in Totana, three were arrested in Murcia and the others elsewhere. It seems there are likely to be more arrests in Murcia in coming days.UPDATE: (Tuesday 27NOV07 12.30 GMT / 13.30 RST) The local political hierarchy in Totana reacts, as reported in the local Murcian press.