The Minister of the Environment of Castilla y León, Juan Carlos Suáres-Quiñones, signed in April 2024 the legalization of works in a livestock cabin converted into housing against the criteria of the City Council of Cabrillanes and of the Territorial Commission of Environment and Urbanism of the Board in León, which had rejected that legalization by being in rustic terrain, especially protected by being part of a natural park.
Both the City Council of Cabrillanes and the Territorial Commission of Environment and Urbanism of León rejected legalize some works carried out more than a decade ago for having converted a hut of shepherds into a residence, according to the criteria set forth in the documentation of the procedure. The mercantil company that owns the land, UKEMAC SL, claimed that it carried out an intervention based on the livestock uses of the space but the local administration considered that it was actually a recreational use of residence, which would not have a place in legalization according to its particular regulation.
With the signing of the counselor, judge in leave since his entry into policy in 2012, in documents to which he has had access elDiario.esthe politician estimates the appeal filed by a commercial company, UKEMAC SL, which was administered by the wife of the Macario Fernández businessman, against the denial of the legalization of the works in the so -called 'Cabaña de Emilio' in the Babia region. The resolution is right to the commercial when considering that the works do meet the original livestock uses, unique that can be approved according to the strict regulation of the natural park. It is a dispute that comes from afar and has even had a penalty, in a lawsuit that the businessman and his partner won.
The UKEMAC SL company was dissolved last June and its assets have been transferred to another new company, which includes Macario Fernández and his wife as administrators, Cuenllashidalgo SL, with a registered office in the business of the businessman.
Macario Fernández is the visible head of a holding with interest in the metallurgical sector and others who has obtained authorization for a macrovert in the province of León thanks to the signature of the Minister of the Environmentwhose youngest son was a manager in the company at least until 2024, although both the employer and the counselor try to reduce their responsibilities to those of a mere apprentice, despite appearing in official documents such as 'High Directive'. Despite the consultations made by this wording, no one has clarified when the son of the Minister of the Environment ceased as staff.
Suárez Quiñones has pointed out to this newspaper that “it has never signed any administrative decision that contravenes the ethical code of the high positions of the Junta de Castilla y León. The resolutions that it has issued with respect to any file promoted by whoever is issued in law, with the corresponding reports and are submitted to the possible judicial appeal that fits against them”. He has also denied any connection with the businessman Macario Fernández and has ruled out that having employed his son as a manager in his business conglomerate has influenced any of his decisions, which, he says, have obeyed the corresponding technical reports.
The businessman Macario Fernández has also denied this medium any intervention of the counselor in his favor. “I never talked to the counselor about that matter (the cabin) because that matter was resolved many more years ago that I know the counselor,” he explained, after pointing out that he has won two lawsuits on the works of the cabin, one contentious and another of a criminal nature.
Fernández has also indicated to this media that he does not know how the legal situation of the property is at this time. “I do not know how you are at this time. As you will understand, for me the cabin is very little importance and I have my hours and my days. And my nights almost dedicated to the important thing, which is Latem aluminium,” he says.
The decision of the Minister of the Environment to legalize the works of the cabin estimating an appeal of elevation has been appealed by the City Council of Cabrillanes before the courts, without the moment having issued a sentence.
A legal and administrative war of more than a decade
The battle for the legalization of the works of the so -called 'Cabaña de Emilio' dates back more than a decade. The dispute is about the conservation and expansion works of the construction of shepherds, of 55 square meters, have violated the municipal and protection urban planning regulations of the Babia y Luna Natural Park, where it is located.
The legality of this process has already been settled in two judicial procedures, one administrative and another criminal, favorable to the promoters. Now there is a third attempt, signed by the Minister of the Environment, Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, despite the family relationship with the businessman for the hiring of his son.
Between October 2013 and October 2015, the Ukemak Society, controlled by the wife of the businessman, carried out the rehabilitation and full reform of a livestock cabin. “It is declared proven that as of October 9, 2013, a minor work license was requested at the City Council of Cabillanes, which subsequently responded by ordering the immediate stoppage of the works, without the defendants fulfilling the order adopted by the City Council, continuing with the reform of the cabin until the complete completion of them as of October 2015,” says one of the sentences. Hence a contentious-administrative and a criminal procedure for disobedience.
The contentious-administrative denegating the license was initially won by the City Council of Cabrillanes, but the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León proved the promoter company for a technical issue, understanding that the final decision of the legalization corresponded to the Territorial Commission of Environment and Urbanism of León and not to the City Council.
That commission ruled posterioment in June 2023 that could not authorize these works because it was in 'Rustic soil of natural protection, grassland and scrub' and, therefore, the City Council of Cabrillanes could not authorize the works to the second attempt. The mercantile then filed an appeal of the counselor in August 2023, an organ to which it must be used, when the politician's son already worked for the husband's group of the company's administrator, that Suárez-Quiñones admitted in April 2024. A pending decision now of a new judicial resolution.
Discarded criminal slope with hard particular vote
The disobedience of the paralysis order of the works issued by the City Council of Cabillanes ended up in a trial at the Provincial Court of León after a complaint filed by the Prosecutor's Office at the Villablino City Council in 2015, which requested up to three years in prison. The trial took place in 2021 and both the company and the wife of the businessman, accused of disobedience and crime against territory, were acquitted.
The argument of two of the judges of the court was that “of the examination of the totality of the evidence practiced, it cannot be concluded that the work carried out in the livestock cabin located in Cabillanes, was not authorizable, nor could it be in any case in application of the urban regulations in force at the time of its realization. Nor can it be concluded that the works carried out would have violated the protected legal good”.
A third judge issued a hard private vote by betting on a conviction in which it expressed that “the sentence had to be convicted based on the fact typified in Art. 319 of the CP, since those accused when executing such works did not act in defense of a limited natural resource or adapted in its use to the general interest, forgetting that the management of the territory does not have a specific holder but that their injury harms the entire group. supra -individual, precisely for this reason it must be used rationally and always oriented to general interests. ” The Supreme Court inadmitted the appeal filed by the City Council of Cabillanes and the Prosecutor's Office, in which it was alleged that more importance was granted to the experts contributed by the company and accused than to the emanating of the administrative bodies.