CAE CHO VITO

The headline says it all - CHO VITO FALLS.

I blogged about this Tenerife hamlet a few days ago, when nine residents of Cho Vito - an area of Candelaria in Tenerife - were still holding out against the might of the Spanish authorities, some of them on hunger strike.

They were evicted yesterday by Guardia Civil and their homes demolished. The hunger strikers are in hospital. The residents claim that the Guardia "acted like a brutal gang of gorillas."

Now, instead of a fishing village, we can have another beach.

The residents have been offered money - enough to pay two years' rent on an apartment. They say they will camp on the steps of the Town Hall until they are offered the equal of what they had - their own freehold homes in Candelaria.

Further words fail me.

You can look it up online - www.diariodeavisos.es

MORE DEMOLITION

This notice appeared in Las Galletas last week beside the houses scheduled for demolition.
It translates as:
PLAN OF THE COASTS
Maintenance and Conservation of the Coasts of the Province of Tenerife.
PROJECT CO-FINANCED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
Many people believe "Co-financed" means "Dictated by" and I think they could well be right.

A fortnight ago a solitary villa was pulled down and the blocks hauled away.

On Tuesday the pink block of flats was reduced to rubble. Today we could almost have parked where it had been.

The white building with the concave un-plastered wall to its upper storey is still there, keeping the wind off the Italian restaurant next door. Will that be standing next week? Your guess is as good as mine - there was a Spanish restaurant by the promenade two months ago on what is now empty beach.

You might not consider the loss of a few houses in Las Galletas to be a big deal, but it's happening along the entire coastline in all Spanish territories.

It isn't only the big hotels or modern blocks of ugly apartments, some of which we wouldn't mourn if they went.

It's not even the foreign pensioners who built their villas in all good faith only to have them torn down.

Every fishing village could be affected. Every family who have lived near to the sea for generations, and who take their living from it, could be affected by the draconian law that has taken away their rights.

Look up this site for the story of CHO VITO, one such village in Tenerife http://elespritudechovito.blogspot.com.es/

CHO VITO BEFORE






AFTER

and the Policia having to hold back the homeless.

Yesterday nine of the remaining residents were on hunger strike - let's hope someone listens.




....and on another note - if you want cheering up, look at the new addition to my "Verses" page.