As Gran Canaria went into Level 4 restrictions on Friday night, over 100 sanctions were issued by the police on the first to venues and individuals not complying with Covid restrictions by not wearing masks, breach of new capacity regulations, not requesting the mandatory Covid certificate, and not closing at midnight.
The one that made the headlines is called Bar la Florida, located on Calle de La Pelota in the Vegueta neighbourhood, after images and videos were posted on social media showing dozens of people drinking outside, seriously breaching Covid regulations by having more than 200 people without masks, without social distancing, and dancing, as well as staying open beyond the midnight closing time.
The police report also says that they identified at least four minors (underage drinkers) in the bar, but the owner of the business, Carolina Palacios, has denied that any of this is true on the television program Buenas Tardes Canarias (BTC), declaring that "the police records are not true and absolutely lack and proof."
She had no qualms of appearing on the television program yesterday (Monday), accusing the Local Police of lying in the sanctions drawn up for non-compliance with Covid measures and the regulations that govern the activity of nightlife venues.
According to municipal sources and numerous eye witnesses, the police made two visits on Friday night and another on Saturday night. In the first of them, they found that even though the venue seemed to have complied with closing at midnight, there were more than 200 people inside the bar that has an official maximum capacity of 90, which is much less in Level 4, without masks, dancing, and no social distancing, who had to be evicted.
Later on at 2am, police were called back to Calle de La Pelota after noise complaints, but when they arrived everything again looked shut. However, after knocking on the door for several minutes, a person came out into the street and agents were able to go in and found almost 70 people inside, for the second time in the same night.
On Saturday night history repeated itself again, when a team from the Local Police went to Vegueta to ensure compliance with the Level 4 regulations, and again encountered the same scenario at La Florida as the night before with more than 200 people inside breaking the rules.
Palacios surprised everyone who had seen the images and videos by directly denying all the breaches that, according to the authorities, had been committed in her business over the weekend, which were even ratified by the residents of Calle de La Pelota.
“On this strip we have always been extra careful to comply with anti-Covid measures, with both staff and customers. There have been no evictions from our premises and unfortunately, we have had the police around every day from Thursday to Saturday. We comply with the rules, we have permits, claim forms, everything is legal. There is the insistence that there be no nightlife venues in this area and that is why they are declaring war on us, with this persecution, intimidation, and coercion.”
In addition, she added that they had "closed at twelve as the rules establish, but a minute later the police came to the door of my premises and they saw that we did not break any rules, on the contrary, they are the ones who are doing it with intimidation and prevarication they commit," she claimed.
Finally, she stated that “it is a public street and people hang around there. I don't agree with the alert levels, but people continue to have ‘botellons’ (drinking) in the street as usual. They park two vans at the entrance to the strip and if there was a fire or an emergency in my bar, this makes it dangerous.”
“If they are saying that my venue was evicted, show me the evidence. If people are out drinking in the street, it's the police's problem, not mine, they are not my clients. They are implying that there is a crime that I have not committed. The police records are not true and lack substance”, she concluded to the surprise of the local residents who reported the events and took pictures and videos, as well as the agents who carried out their duty according to the Level 4 regulations.
The City Council has confirmed that the Bar La Florida does have the correct opening licence, but also that it has accumulated more than fifteen police sanctions for continually ignoring health measures and restrictions due to Covid.
