“Front opposition” of the mayor of Vigo, Abel Caballero, to the possibility of establishing a tourist tax to access the Cíes Islands, in the Ría de Vigo. The possible charge has been put on the table as a result of a survey carried out by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), attached to the Ministry of Science and Innovation, to visitors to this natural space belonging to the National Park of the Atlantic Islands.

The survey raises the possibility of charging between 2.5 and 5 euros to all visitors to finance various recovery programs for the flora and fauna of the national park, which is currently managed by the Xunta de Galicia. After having knowledge of the content, the councilor from Vigo has opposed “frontally”.

“It was what we were missing,” said the socialist mayor yesterday. “That we bring people from the City Council to the city and that when they go to the Cíes the Xunta charges them,” he protested, although the survey comes from an agency attached to the Government. Despite this, he reiterated the City Council's rejection of this type of supplements for visitors that are being implemented in other Spanish cities, and that in Galicia, so far, is only being studied in Santiago.

Abel Caballero appreciated, however, that it is only a survey. “I understand that this survey is only informative, for the purpose of making an assessment of what the environment means,” he indicated, immediately clarifying forcefully that “if the survey is for a tax, let them know that the Vigo City Council they are completely opposed to any tourist tax in the city and to any tourist tax in the Cíes Islands».

In Vigo, he insists, “we want tourism to mean people who come and capacity for employment and economic life in the tourism sector”, and they are not in favor of charging.

The mayor of Vigo focuses his criticism on the Xunta de Galicia despite the fact that the survey comes from a body dependent on the central government. “If it is for the Cíes, the park is managed by the Xunta,” he explains.

The Ministry of the Environment of the Xunta de Galicia clarifies that the survey is carried out by the central government through the CSIC and the Park staff only provides “collaboration”. This is a survey of users of maritime transport to Cíes.

In any case, this survey is part of the studies that are carried out periodically in all national parks by different organizations such as the Illas Atlánticas park itself, the Galician universities or the National Parks organization with the aim of «finding out the assessment of citizens regarding the conservation of natural heritage, including the economic cost it entails». Since 2004, the Illas Atlánticas National Park has carried out some 2,000 surveys every year “to find out the perception that visitors have of this natural space”.

Regarding the possible fee, the Galician Government stated that “the implementation of any type of supplement to access” the Cíes is not being studied. In addition, he insists that “admission is free by law.”

To visit the Cíes Islands, a free administrative authorization from the Xunta de Galicia is required.. In 2022, the archipelago received 330,000 visitors, 12% more than in 2021 and 58% more than in 2020, marked by the pandemic.

The Constitutional Court (TC) has inadmissible for processing the appeal filed by the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont and the former Catalan councilor Toni Comín against the arrest warrants issued by the Supreme Court for the crimes of disobedience and embezzlement.

The decision was adopted by the Vacation Chamber of the guarantee body by two votes in favor -those of the magistrates of the conservative wing César Tolosa and Concepción Espejel- and one against -that of the magistrate of the progressive sector Laura Díez-.

As was foreseeable, the reactions of Junts per Catalunya to the Constitutional decision on Puigdemont and Comín have pointed once again to the message about the repression of sovereignism, at a time when nationalist formations are demanding an amnesty to support an investiture of Pedro Sánchez after the elections last july. Thus, the general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull, has assured through social networks that “for many years the work of the TC has been to decorate a State strategy against the independence movement” and that “this strategy does not close for holidays”.

The president of Junts, Laura Borràs, also stated that “the judicial apparatus acted in the electoral campaign and now it acts thinking about the investiture. they don't fail. They solve in record time, in August.. In Spain there is no separation of powers; in fact, some try to have a synchronization of powers”.

Both Puigdemont and Comín had asked the Constitutional Court to suspend the arrest warrants issued against them in June by Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena.. This magistrate decided to prosecute them for the crimes of disobedience and aggravated embezzlement in the framework of the review that he carried out after the entry into force of the reform of the Penal Code that repealed the crime of sedition. For this reason, he reactivated the arrest warrants in Spain.

The pro-independence leaders appealed Llarena's decision and asked as a precautionary measure that he suspend the orders. However, the TC decided to reject the appeals by justifying the magistrates Concepción Espejel and César Tolosa, from the conservative area, that the request for a precautionary measure caused a certain “hurry” in making the decision, unlike the magistrate, Laura Díez, from the area progressive, who has filed a dissenting vote insisting that the resolution could have come in September. Last June, the Supreme Court of Appeals confirmed Llarena's decision by dismissing the arguments of the defenses -which asked to annul the prosecution- and the popular accusation exercised by Vox -which claimed to apply the crime of aggravated public disorder-.

On that occasion, the high court also endorsed that the examining magistrate issue a national arrest warrant against Puigdemont, considering that if the pro-independence leader did not adopt a “collaborative position with Justice” he should “assume the consequences that failure to appear with him”. Thus, he stressed that the arrest warrants did not imply an “arbitrary action” by the instructor.

Challenge of the Prosecutor's Office

The Prosecutor's Office of the Constitutional Court (TC) will appeal in September the decision of the conservative majority of the Holiday Chamber to reject the amparo appeal filed by the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, against the national arrest warrant issued by the Supreme Court .

This was confirmed by sources from the Public Ministry to Europa Press since they consider that there was no urgency to decide on this appeal request. Thus, they believe that the request by Puigdemont and Comín could have been dealt with in the Constitutional Plenary, which has had a progressive majority since last January, unlike the Holiday Chamber, which has a conservative majority of magistrates.

Precisely, these two judges, César Tolosa and Concepción Espejel, decided to reject the appeal of Puigdemont and Comín regarding the arrest warrant, while the progressive magistrate Laura Díez issued a dissenting opinion, considering that there was no rush to respond to the request of the pro-independence leaders. .

It has happened again, and for the first time in history, the phenomenon is repeated for the second consecutive summer. These days, the existing zacayones – sinkholes that reach the aquifer – are being excavated and cleaned, as an emergency solution for the fauna to drink.

At the beginning of September 2022, news broke that had not occurred since 1995: the Santa Olalla lagoon, deep and very emblematic in the Doñana Natural Area, had completely lost its water. Today, three weeks before last year, the same event is repeated due to a drought that does not give respite to this World Heritage Site, which has accumulated a decade with below-average rainfall.

Díaz Paniagua has been in Doñana for several days and has verified the situation in situ. “There is a trickle of water left in the southern zone, which comes out of the aquifer, but which does not produce a sheet of water larger than the palm of my hand,” he explains.. “There is mud and there are turtles inside it to take advantage of the humidity,” he adds.. The situation in Santa Olalla can be seen live thanks to the cameras installed by the EBD.

Of course, the rest of the Doñana wetlands are also dry, like the Dulce lagoon, also considered permanent. Faced with this crisis, measures have been applied for the survival of part of the fauna. For the domestic – the cattle authorized to graze inside – troughs have been placed, although some were already fixed. For the wild we use the zacayones. Paniagua yesterday supervised the work of a tractor that cleaned and deepened one of the 200 existing zacayones in Doñana. When this water emerges, fauna – of all kinds, from wings to amphibians or mammals – are offered a place to quench their thirst.

The EBD – an entity dependent on the CSIC – carries out this task on the portion of Doñana under its responsibility, the Biological Reserve. «Last year a few were cleaned and there are 3 or 4 available near Santa Olalla, and in the middle of the mountain about 10. The water is drinkable, since what was left in the lagoon was very salty,” says the biologist. «The result is very beautiful, because immediately the animals approach. Even wild boars and foxes dig a hole to get to the water if it hasn't surfaced.

In the northern part of the reserve, “which has no water, we have had to dig to get to the groundwater, so that large mammals can drink it.”. What is tremendous is how deep one has to dig; We have even seen cork oaks on top of some zacayón that have remained dry ».

According to Paniagua, other administrations apply themselves to the same task, such as the case of the State in the Marismillas farm, owned by it. The Board also did the same last year on its farms north of the reserve. In any case, the Board, manager of the Doñana Natural Area, must authorize the cleaning or deepening. In the case of wanting to open new zacayones, you must have permission from the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation.

Paniagua believes that placing troughs for wildlife is not a solution because of the operation that would involve filling them, and because the troughs provide better benefits. “We went the next day and some offered half a meter of water.”

The desiccation of Santa Olalla is due to the lack of rainfall and the extraction of water from the underground aquifer to supply Matalascañas, the tourist center that in summer reaches 160,000 residents and a consumption of around 2 cubic hectometres.. The Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation announced that it will eliminate the wells near Santa Olalla to reopen others further away.

Doñana has some 2,000 temporary lagoons on the margin of the marsh, but today they are considered missing, and even in some the basin is completely full of mountain vegetation.

The situation of the World Heritage Park is under controversy due to the decision of the Junta de Andalucía to classify as irrigable between 1,000 and 1,500 hectares -depending on the source- of strawberry crops.

This law is being processed in an accelerated manner by Parliament despite the forceful opposition of the European Commission -which threatens Spain with million-dollar fines-, the Ministry for Ecological Transition, Unesco, half of the farmers in the area – in particular from Almonte-, 25 scientific societies and 1,109 scientists. The PP plans have the support of Vox and the strawberry farmers who would benefit from the expectation of a water that does not exist. Miguel Delibes, president of the Doñana Participation Council, compared it in Parliament to “selling AVE tickets from Seville to Huelva.”

She entered the Fontcalent prison in Alicante as a man and, once inside, already serving her sentence, she declared that she perceived herself as a woman and requested her transfer to the women's unit, a request that was granted.. Already admitted to the women's ward, there he began a relationship with another inmate and she became pregnant.

The facts, advanced yesterday by Ok Diario, have been confirmed to this newspaper by prison union sources. The transsexual inmate in question, of Bulgarian origin, was well known at the Alicante Culmplimiento Penitentiary Center – as the Fontcalent prison is officially called – since she was a repeat offender. She had a long history of robbery and crimes against public health, fundamentally, and had been imprisoned in Fontcalent several times before, always as a man and always occupying a cell in the male module.

She was also assigned there after her last admission, until she stated that she wanted to transition gender, that she felt like a woman -specifically, a woman with a lesbian sexual tendency- and asked that she be called internally by a feminine name.. She also requested to be sent to the women's module. The transfer took place but, after learning in prison that she had impregnated one of the companions with whom she shared a pavilion -the aforementioned sources say-, the prison management returned her back to the men's pavilion.

The pregnant inmate, of Spanish nationality, initially considered terminating the pregnancy but finally went ahead with the pregnancy in prison. The trans dam, however, is currently outside of Fontcalent. “We do not know if he has made the registry change [of sex] or not,” says a source, who asks to remain anonymous due to “the delicate and complex nature of the case.”

The events, he says, occurred in “January or February” last, before the so-called Trans Law came into force on March 2, which allows the change of name and sex in the Civil Registry from the age of 16. without the need to provide a medical report indicating that they suffer from gender dysphoria and without having previously started a hormone treatment, as required before its application.

In Spanish prisons, however, the issues that affect transsexual people, such as the module they must occupy, the change of name or who can carry out the pat-downs, have been regulated since 2006 by instruction 7/2006 on “Prison Integration of Persons Transsexuals».

“The instruction includes that, regardless of whether there has been a change in registration or not, when a person is perceived to be of a different sex from that indicated by their physical attributes, they must go through a psychological study to see which module they are assigned to, even if there is no started the sex change process, whether or not it is being hormonal. But with the Law [Trans], this instruction has declined, “explains the source, well acquainted with the norm.

As when the Fontcalent case occurred, the law was in its final process and this does not require any psychological report, he adds, the transfer to the female module occurred before this person who declared that he perceived himself as a woman was evaluated.

“In prisons we need a regulation so as not to be in legal limbo and know how to act,” he claims. “On the one hand, we have the 2006 instruction that says that we must act according to the inmate's self-perception, but the Trans Law prevents us from making psychological reports.. Where do we enter that person, who caches them? It is a very complex issue,” he argues. “Currently, each case is being viewed individually and according to the management criteria of each prison.”

Penitentiary Institutions has not wanted to rule on the matter because it affects “the data protection of an inmate.”