The Mayor of Almuñécar, Trinidad Herrera, announced that they had come across a bill that had been paid by the previous administration under Sr. Benavides under doubtful circumstances.

The bill was for the legal services of a lawyer who had been hired by Mujeres Ecologistas Sexitanas, which has connections with Benavides’s party. The bill, which was paid out of the municipal coffers was for the sum of 6,000 euros (and just to annoy the Editor, this is exactly equivalent to one million pesetas…)

Now, the problem is that the bill should not have been paid with public funds, which is why the present administration considers that the previous Mayor might have committed malversacion de caudales publicos; i.e., the embezzlement of public monies.

This all goes back to 2006 when the said ecologist organization denounced the then Mayor, Juan Luis González Montoro before a judge. The denuncia was placed as a criminal case, rather than a civil one, over an urbanización of 51 dwellings in Los Pinos.

The present Mayor does not consider that it is the responsibility of the Town Hall to pay the legal fees of this ecologist organization, especially one that has ties with the Benavides’ party and against a mayor belonging to her own party.

To recap on the situation of that urbanización, in 2002 the Regional High Court backed the Junta de Andalucia in their opposition to a building licence issued by the then conservative-lead Town Council.

Editorial Comment: The sad thing is that it is always the municipal taxpayer who ends up footing the bill for the legal squabbles between local branches of political parties. The day that they have to pay for it from their own pockets we may see less money being squandered on legal expenses.