Verdemar considers the visit of the councilor to Carteia in San Roque "disappointing."
Verdemar-Ecologistas en Acción has criticized the visit of Arturo Bernal, the Culture Minister, to the archaeological site of Carteia in San Roque on Monday, calling it "disappointing for those of us who saw an opportunity in it." The group believes that the visit was merely "an act to silence the protests that the citizens of the Campo de Gibraltar have staged due to the clear neglect of the site by the responsible administration, the Junta de Andalucía, using arguments that do not convince anyone who looks beyond the surface."
Verdemar believes that "the situation of the former coordinator or coordinator, Francisco Alarcón, is not clear, as this point is poorly defined since he himself doubts what his role is at Carteia at present. However, the only thing he asserts is that the closure of the site that occurred a few weeks ago was due to the presence of branches and plant elements on the paths, when it is well known that this was a false excuse given by the Minister during his visit to Algeciras on the occasion of the inauguration of the Pérez Villalta exhibition on March 24, and has nothing to do with reality, which was the non-renewal of the contract of the guide of the site."
Verdemar also questions who will coordinate the hypothetical planning that the Minister mentioned, given that there is no one currently dedicated to the site's management, and whether it will be done remotely.
However, the group does celebrate the presence of the University of Cadiz, represented by José Ángel Expósito, who has illustrated their statements with the work they are carrying out in the pool area known as the Romantic Garden. Still, they note that, in their opinion, the University's presence is "testimonial," given that the intervention they refer to lasted only one week, an intervention that "obviously does not deal with the daily tasks of the site." They add that "tasks such as conservation, protection, prevention, dissemination, visits, as well as administrative tasks, are not part of any research project. That is to say, the security of the site is in no way guaranteed by research," they emphasize.
Verdemar also criticizes the Minister's comments regarding the local council, which they believe he was more interested in criticizing than in the future of the site. When asked about the possibility of changing the administrative classification of the site from an enclave to an archaeological complex, Verdemar believes that the Minister's response was confusing, and they do not agree with his statement that Carteia has a staff of seven people, as they believe that "a guard, a guide, and three workers (one of whom works part-time) only add up to five." In short, Verdemar considers the Minister's statements to be disheartening because they convey insecurity and a lack of knowledge about the reality of a site that involves all the problems of an area of nearly 30 hectares, which means constant activity in maintenance tasks, cleaning, prevention, consolidation, treatment of archaeological remains, etc., to speak only of conservation issues.
The Electoral Board dismisses the complaint by the PSOE about the technical visit of the councillor to Carteia.
The Provincial Electoral Board (JEP) has dismissed a complaint by the PSOE regarding the visit made by the Minister of Culture, Arturo Bernal, to the archaeological site of Carteia in the municipality of San Roque on April 24th, as they understand it to be a "technical visit" and the facts would not fall within the limits established in Article 50 of the Organic Law of the General Electoral Regime (Loreg).
In the resolution, which has been accessed by Europa Press, the PSOE recalls that during the visit, the councillor was accompanied by the delegate of the Junta in Cadiz, Mercedes Colombo, the sub-delegate in the Campo de Gibraltar, Javier Rodríguez, the territorial delegate of Culture, Jorge Vázquez, and the PP candidate for the Mayorship of San Roque, Daniel Rodríguez.
The PSOE requests "to require the authorities mentioned to refrain from attending events of an institutional nature in their capacity as councillors of the Junta and in particular to refrain from carrying out institutional acts in the company of members of electoral candidates. It also calls for the "removal of publications issued and the imposition of the corresponding fine."
Likewise, the Electoral Board has indicated that it understands that "the act corresponds to the ordinary functions of these political leaders who, during the electoral period, must continue with their political leadership duties." Additionally, it has added that "it may be considered a technical visit to the archaeological site, informing about objective data."
Regarding the publications on social media, the JEP has pointed out that they "belong to the PP candidate for the Mayorship of San Roque, to whom the complaint was not addressed, and who retweets what has already been published on the Government Delegation's website, adding some tags" to which JEP "cannot intervene ex officio".