The former councilor of Ciutat Vella Itziar González and the municipal official Lourdes Conesa will receive this Friday at the Barcelona municipal plenary session a recognition as alerters of a case of corruption, that of the irregular granting of licenses for tourist flats in Ciutat Vella, judged in March. González and Conesa have suffered threats for 14 years and not a few personal problems as a result of their complaints. The city council, emphasizes González, left them alone even though they defended the institution.
With the sentence that condemned the corrupt plot that you denounced in Ciutat Vella and with the recognition of the plenary, a 14-year process now ends
The sentences imposed can be reviewed. But that Lourdes and I were harmed has been proven in the sentence, it is no longer something questionable. We were seen as victims. The change is that we vindicate ourselves as whistleblowers and not just as victims.
“As a neighbor, I saw that two floors were raised in buildings in Ciutat Vella where they could not be raised”
How did all this start?
I was a neighbor and an architect. She lived and worked in Ciutat Vella. And he had already detected an irregular functioning of the technical services of the district. I saw that two floors were raised in buildings where they could not be raised.
And then she saw him as a councilwoman.
When I entered the district, an excellent licensed architect, Lourdes Conesa, with whom I had studied, had just joined the council. I told her I was glad to find her because she was worried. From the beginning I knew that Heliodoro Lozano (head of technical services for Ciutat Vella and one of the convicted) was not to be trusted, because she had seen him act as her neighbor. The previous councilor, Carles Martí, tried to limit the phenomenon of tourist flats with a use plan, and the sector hired an engineer, Joaquim Quílez (one of those convicted, identified as the author of threats received by the then councilor), to quickly process the licences. I found myself with 600 records of tourist apartments to sign and I said no, let’s see what would happen. The municipal manager, Andreu Puig, an excellent manager, who suggested that I do an internet search, where I found 2,000 flats operating as tourist apartments in Ciutat Vella. We asked the Tax Agency if they were paying taxes.
“From the beginning I knew that Heliodoro Lozano was not to be trusted”
Result?
They all worked in black. I spoke with Carme Trilla to introduce the concept of tourist housing in the 2007 housing law. That comes from Ciutat Vella, from my time. I am proud of it. The law provides that each municipality can regulate tourist flats. That allowed me to start my own use plan: the previous one had been done by Heliodoro Lozano, tailored to him. He regulated the framework and he decided everything.
When did the threats arrive?
I started having problems when I created a protocol to catch illegal tourist flats red-handed. The first attack was after sealing off a tourist flat after Easter 2008. Four days later they entered my house. They broke down my door, they removed everything, they took the computers. It might seem like a robbery, but he had a bad milk. The impact was very strong. They spread personal information about me that they found on the floor. It was clear to me that it was related to the seal on the flat. I felt in danger. I denounced the facts, I asked the then mayor, Jordi Hereu, for an escort, who granted me one. My life got complicated.
“They entered my house. They broke down my door, they removed everything, they took the computers. I felt in danger. I asked Mayor Hereu for an escort, who granted it to me”
And Heliodoro Lozano?
I fired Lozano. I told him to go away. They took him to central services and then made him director of licenses for Nou Barris. And I was outraged by it. My manager suffered because I had to make all these decisions, act as an architect and not as a councillor. He told me that he needed a technical figure of reference, and he confided in the one from legal services, Elena Ariza, that she was actually Lozano’s partner in all these operations.
A mafia plot.
Lourdes Conesa warned me that the protocol for granting licenses in a regulated manner was not being well designed. Here they began to threaten her, because they saw that she influenced me, that she had the courage to tell the manager that things were not going well, to stand up to Ariza. The manager, seeing that Lourdes was threatened, thought it best to move her. Lourdes experienced it very badly, she did not understand why she had to leave.
“They made Lourdes Conesa telephone threats, they received letters. They tampered with her motorcycle: it broke in two. The district manager, Mercè Massa, also received threats”
What threats did Conesa receive?
Telephone threats, letters. They tampered with his motorcycle: it broke in two. She denounced him. There was an investigation by the Guàrdia Urbana and he had an escort for a short time. And they took it away. She could have been the head of technical services and instead she was switched and doing lower level jobs. The district manager, Mercè Massa, also received threats. She did not file a complaint. I received a letter threatening me with death, messing with me and my family. They said that they had promoted the search of my apartment and that now they were going to get the wooden box, to put me inside, to kill me.
“Confronting the mafias without the city council accompanying us to present our complaints of threats meant that they remained in the deadlock”
And the lack of accompaniment weighed.
Confronting the mafias without the city council accompanying us to present our complaints of threats meant that they remained in the deadlock. Then the anti-corruption prosecutor recovered them.
And one day he decided to leave.
I started having health problems. Lourdes and I were holding on. I felt mistreated by the socialist councilors of the neighborhood, who did not understand why I had removed Heliodoro Lozano. I told my family that I was alone, that I had to go. Before that, the use plan had to be finished. I held out as long as I could. I was going to daily migraine. With stress and paranoia. I would sit at a table and see who was nearby. From my fellow councilors I had the feeling that they thought why these things were happening to me. What would he have done wrong?
When you resigned, did the threats end?
Nerd. I have received letters for years. When I have made statements about irregularities. When I was a witness at the Palau de la Música trial, I suffered follow-ups that were proven. And every time something related to the case happens, like when the trial came, I get calls from people who don’t talk and hang up. Lourdes too. It’s been like this for 12 years of my life.
“For the high officials, admitting that a mafia had sneaked into Ciutat Vella was so serious that they preferred to cover it up than help us”
And do you think that the origin of everything has been the mafia of tourist flats?
No. It is a sum of bad practices with other elements. For example, does the head of technical services for Ciutat Vella, who will then say yes or no, have to regulate a use plan? The way in which Ciutat Vella has been regulated has been irregular. And so in everything. When Lourdes and I warned that something was wrong, the technocracy of the city council took it personally. For the high officials, admitting that a mafia had sneaked into Ciutat Vella was so serious that they preferred to cover it up than help us. We have a very serious pathology in the house: dehumanization. There is an arbitrary application of the law. I have seen it often.
“Who are top managers accountable to? Mayors don’t control those positions of power in the city hall”
How to remedy it?
High levels of management need to be reviewed. What follow-up is made of their decisions. To whom are senior managers accountable? The mayors do not control those positions of power in the city council.
Did you feel that some critics questioned whether they were even sane?
Whistleblowers around the world are always demoted. That is why what will happen this Friday is also the restitution of my dignity. Because I was treated as enlightened, as problematic. I do not want thanks, but if I have been defamed I want a gesture from the machinery itself, a file that says: these women will charge this because we did not accompany them to the game, because we did this and that.
In her case, the salary for the time she was not a councillor, for her resignation at the end of her term. In the case of Conesa, the income that she did not have when she lost category.
Yes, but not only that. How can you assess the health problems that she has had or the post-traumatic stress that I still have?
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He met with Colau a little over a week ago. How are you?
Very well. I entered that office on April 14, 2010 to tell Hereu that I couldn’t take it anymore, that my nervous system had reached the limit, that I had to quit. And I returned this September 21 with Lourdes to explain to her what we had gone through. Her listening attitude was great. It was very restful for me.