News June 27th 2007

Daylight Robbery
The Banca March in San Antonio was the scene of a robbery on Tuesday, after a man entered the bank and threatened the cashier with a knife. The incident happened at midday in the central branch next to the popular restaurant, Grill San Antonio.
On entering the bank through the main entrance, the man quickly jumped over the counter, putting a knife to the throat of the cashier. He then proceeded to fill up a bag with the money from her drawer, as stunned customers looked on.
Hearing the commotion from his back office, the assistant manager then came out and confronted the perpetrator. He picked up a chair and hit the thief on the back several times, causing him to drop a large part of the money on the floor. The thief made his escape through the main door, pursued by the manager and a customer. However he managed to make it to a bicycle that he had left on the side of the road, on which he continued his escape.
In the end he got away with 24,000 euros. However after police had taken witness statements and studied video evidence of the incident (the man had not covered his face), they issued an arrest warrant for a local resident with previous convictions. They also warned the ports and airports to be on the look-out for the man.
The following day a man reported seeing the alleged thief in a phone-booth in Ibiza Town acting nervously. He explained that his attention had been drawn to the man because of the distressed state he was clearly in. On further observation, he realised that the man fitted the description of the thief that he had seen in the mornings´ paper. He immediately contacted the police who were investigating the claims.

AROUND THE ISLAND

Matas Quits
"I am going with a clear conscience, in the knowledge of a job well done. I will always do everything in my power to fight for these islands, because I have always loved them. I will always have the Balearics in my heart, and will always do what is best to make the island a better place." It was with these words that Jaume Matas, the former president of the PP party in the Govern Balear announced his retirement from the political stage. It was a decision that stunned the assembled crowd but Matas claimed that it was a logical decision. He had already decided not to run for office in 2011 and claimed that it would not be in the party's best interests if he continued in opposition for the next four years. Matas contacted the leader of the PP party in Madrid, Mariano Rajoy, to make him aware of his decision on Wednesday.
Matas has been the president of the Balearic Government for the last four years. It has been a term surrounded by controversy, especially where Ibiza is concerned, as his government were chiefly behind the road construction that has taken place over the last two years. However he was a popular figure and was expected to win the elections with a majority. Despite receiving the most votes, he did not gain the majority needed, handing over power to the UM (Union of Majorca) party who, after ten days of discussions with both the PP and PSOE, decided to form a coalition with Jose Blanco's PSOE party, making him the new president.
Matas was a well respected and popular figure within his own party, and the eulogies soon started after the announcement was made. The president of the PP party in Ibiza and Formentera, Jose Juan Cardona, was taken by surprise by the decision, but said that the party was strong and would survive the loss of a political giant. Pere Palau, the former president of the Consell, said that Ibiza had lost a great friend and added that Matas had always made Ibiza and Formentera priorities in his government.
Matas said that he would now enjoy a few months rest in Madrid before starting work with a company abroad, probably in the United States.

Umbilical Blood
Can Misses hospital will soon have the qualified staff to enable new mothers to donate blood from the umbilical cord. At the moment there are only three hospitals in the Balearics that are able to carry out the procedure, Son Llatzer, Manacor and Son Dureta. However Can Misses has recently put in a request to join the list and are currently teaching staff to carry out the procedure.
The donation occurs immediately after birth, while the umbilical cord is still attached. It is no way life threatening for either the mother or baby. The blood is then stored in a fridge before being transported to the Blood Bank in Barcelona.
The umbilical blood is special in the fact that it aids in the reproduction of new blood cells and has opened up hope for previously incurable diseases including leukaemia.

Tuna Ban
The European Government has at last unveiled new laws that they hope will protect tuna fish in the future. The fish has become desperately sparse over the last few years, as the fish has become more popular, especially in Japan.
The fishing of tuna using planes to spot schools of the fish has been banned. This is a method that is particularly common with Japanese fishermen. The tuna-fishing season has also been reduced drastically by several months. There are also restrictions on the weights of tuna caught. The limit for the fish (even if it being taken to a farm) is now 30 kilos. These new regulations will be effective immediately, and hope to encourage the re-population of a fish that is becoming less and less common.

Water Contamination
Bail has been set at 3.7 million euros for the four people accused of contaminating water wells in the Santa Gertrudis area. The case concerns the petrol station that used to be open on the Santa Gertrudis road. It was closed several years ago after a leak caused the contamination of several local wells.
The four who are due to stand trial are the administrator of the company, the representative of the firm in Spain, the employee in charge of the petrol station and the director of the builders, who changed the original design of the project. The deposits were also made out of fibre glass and not steel, as had originally been discussed. When these tanks cracked, the tanks leaked hydrocarbon into the local water supply.
The prosecution, as well as asking for compensation for the owners of the well, are seeking to recover the 1.7 million euros that the Govern Balear spent at the time, to purify the water supply.

New Consulate
Denise Holt, the British ambassador in Spain, opened the new offices of the Consulate building in Palma, which have been built at a cost of one million euros. Holt confirmed that British tourists and residents in the Balearics spend around 3,000 million euros per year. She continued by revealing that 3,400,000 British tourists arrive on the Islands every year, of which 2,200,000 go to Majorca, 600,000 to Ibiza and 600,000 to Minorca. This is in addition to the 40,000 Brits that are resident in Majorca, 6,000 in Ibiza and 6,000 in Minorca.

New Hospital Plea
The director general of Can Misses has urged the new government to go ahead with plans for a new hospital on the island. Nacho Martinez admitted that the situation was extremely worrying, and a solution had to be found very soon. He claimed that the normal construction period for a hospital would be between three to four years, including projects and paperwork. He claimed that in four years, Can Misses would be on the verge of collapse. He added that he supported the building of a completely new hospital, and to change Can Misses into a back-up hospital. He said that Ibiza deserved five-star medical service but that would soon be impossible.
Medical cards have increased by 22.3 per cent over the last four years to 131,447. The occupancy is also up 18 per cent to 91. This is far higher than the recommended maximum of 85 per cent. Martinez explained that it is when occupancy is at 85 per cent that serious problems start to emerge.
Although the average length of stay has decreased to 5.9 days, from a high of 6.5, the amount of emergencies have increased by 23.6 per cent with the department registering an average of 171 cases per day.
A new hospital was top of the agenda for both of the political parties in their election promises. It is now hoped that these promises will be made a reality.

Caribbean Investment
While the future for hoteliers looks a little bleak in Ibiza, the larger chains are not wasting any time in investing in foreign climes, where they get a much higher return for their investment.
The two companies at the head of the exodus to places including the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and Jamaica are the Sirenis group run by Pedro Matutes and the Fiesta Group run by the ex-foreign minister Abel Matutes. The two groups have long since seen the investment potential of these areas, and both started to build in these areas during the 90's. They have, however, assimilated these costs by selling specific properties on the island.
In a recent press conference the commercial director for the Sirenis Hotel Group in the Caribbean, Juan Perez Sosa, said that there were plans over the next five years for heavy investment in both Cost Rica and Columbia. The announcement came on the eve of the grand opening of what will become the new jewel of the Sirenis chain, the La Salina Varadero. This new hotel is due to be open on 15th July and, with a capacity for over one thousand guests, is set to become the biggest in Cuba. The hotel which includes five restaurants, will primarily cater to the North American market.
The Fiesta hotel chain has always been the market leader and has been increasing its portfolio heavily over the last ten years. Although not primarily in the Caribbean and South America, (it has hotels in Spain, Portugal and Italy), its main investment has always been in the Caribbean, including a new 1,800 bedroom resort in Jamaica.
However both companies were keen to express that their hotels here would remain key elements to their global portfolio. Pedro Matutes said that while individual hotels may, from time to time, be sold to help with the huge costs of investment, he rubbished claims that all their hotels in Ibiza were up for sale.

Case Closed
The case of the two German men found drowned last month in San Miguel has been officially closed by the police, after they could not find evidence of any criminal involvement. The two bodies were found four days apart floating in the water off San Miguel. Autopsies found that the two men had both died from drowning.
The older man was immediately identified, but it took several weeks to reveal the identity of the second man. It was finally disclosed that the two men were in fact related, uncle and nephew. They were wearing identical clothing at the time. The case has now been officially closed after police came up against "a brick wall" as far as the investigation was concerned.

ClickAir
Iberia is set to increase their presence within the Balearic Islands over the next six months, according to sources close to the company. The increase in flights will come courtesy of their new low-cost airline, ClickAir, which will completely take over their programme from Barcelona to the Islands. It is an attempt by the company to try and compete with the low cost airlines, which have been slowly eating away at their market share in recent years.
The company, which is owned equally by Iberia, Nefinsa (part owners of Iberia's other low cost airline, Air Nostrum) and the Majorcan hotel chain Iberostar, has a fleet of thirty planes that they hope to increase to fifty over the next three years. They hope to have their programme fully up and running by October of this year. The news further underlines Iberia's commitment to the Islands, which they consider to be of great strategic importance.
Air Nostrum has increased its service to Ibiza for this summer dramatically and during the high season now flies from new destinations including Bolonia, Paris, Turin, Alicante, Malaga, Seville and Zaragoza.
News of the additional routes came on the back of figures released by Air Nostrum showing that the average occupancy on the new Ibiza-Mao (Minorca) route was just fifty-five per cent. Since the first flight started, 2,125 passengers have used the service. The managing director of the company, Miguel Angel Falcon, said that the results had so far been disappointing, and that the figures meant that the service would result in an economic loss for the company. The service which is at the moment run on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will become daily from 20th July until 2nd September. Falcon underlined the commitment of Air Nostrum to the Islands, and said that for the moment the service would continue.

Maths and English
The new education curriculum was released last week, with both mathematics and languages at the top of the list of priorities. The two primary subjects have each received a great deal more lesson time through the entire school system. To make way for the increase in both of these subjects, physical education, art and environmental studies have been tapered somewhat. Children will now start to study one foreign language as soon as they enter the education system (five-years old). As they pass through their schooling, the hours will be increased and they will be given the opportunity to learn another language.
New education laws brought into place for 2008 will insist on thirty-two periods over the course of a week in senior schools, a period lasting fifty-five minutes. This is reduced to twenty-five periods for primary schools.
It is hoped that the changes will prepare school children slightly better for the outside world, and encourage them to continue their education further.

Kick the Habit
Under the banner of "Your health is in the air", the Consell Insular and Govern Balear launched a joint project to try and raise awareness to the risks of smoking. The project consists of a bus, the aptly named "Fresh Air Planet", which is due to tour the main towns of the island trying to underline to people the dangers of smoking. The bus will show various videos on several large television screens in its 70 square metre interior.
Just over 56,000 people die every year in Spain due to the effects of smoking, the single highest cause of premature deaths. Cigarettes contain over four thousand toxic substances including nicotine, which is said to be more addictive than cocaine or heroin. Medical experts have especially warned of the dangers to women smokers, as new diseases, previously not common in females, start to increase. In the United States and Canada, lung cancer has now become the number one disease amongst women.
It is estimated that there are around twelve million smokers in Spain at present.

New Service
The Grupo Policlinica that owns both the private hospital Vilas and the new La Residencia complex announced last week the introduction of a new post-accident neural treatment on the island. The initial care of people who have been involved in any type of accident can always be done on the island. However the second stage of treatment often sees many patients being sent to Barcelona. The second stage is crucial and, while the life-saving part has been done, is vital to the long-term recovery of the patient.
The treatment is mainly physical with injury massage treatments given and also a great deal of social care. The process can be a very long one and is usually very un-rewarding as progress is very slow. However the launching of this service in Ibiza is a huge boost to physically damaged patients.
The centre will be aided by the constant help of the Barcelona based physiotherapist Daniel Jimenez, a leader in the neuro-rehabilitation field.

Emergency Service
The helicopter service of the accident and emergency department carried out over three hundred evacuations, to and from Ibiza, in 2006. The majority of the cases were incidents in Formentera, that required victims to be brought to Can Misses hospital. A spokesman for the emergency services said that the aim of the helicopter was to transport patients on Ibiza and Formentera, to the hospital that could best suit their needs.

Carraca Gets to Work
Antoni Mari Carraca, the re-elected mayor of San Juan with a majority of 78 per cent,started his third term in office in the normal way, arriving at his office at 08.30 a.m. and working for the entire day. The mayor said that he was heavily involved in organising the towns "fiestas", which get underway this week. He said that there were still a few issues to be dealt with, but that he was very excited.
Carraca revealed that his party would continue to build up San Juan "without exaggeration", and promised to start the building of a public swimming pool.

Grants Agreed
The outgoing PP run Consell was heavily criticised last week after agreeing grants and building work totalling 1.2 million euros, in its last official meeting before the change of government. The spokesman for the PSOE party, who officially took over the Consell on Saturday, Pilar Costa, said that the move was illegal and that an acting government could not sign agreements. She said that it was all part of a PP plan to leave the Consell with as little money as possible, making their life far more difficult when they take over.
A spokesman for the PP party said that the agreements had already been signed a long time ago, but that the money had not been paid.
The money includes 137,500 euros for the Red Cross, for transporting people to and from the social centre at Cas Serres, as well as 30,000 euros they have agreed for the renting of two apartments in Barcelona and Palma, used by cancer sufferers on the island who have to stay in the cities for radiotherapy treatment. They also signed an agreement with all the private transport companies on the island, worth 165,600 euros, to ensure free travel to all retired people.
Nearly 350,000 euros was handed out to 131 sports clubs on the island, to help with their running costs, and also to organise national and international sports events.

Round-About Problems
The Consell has asked the Govern Balear to revise the banking and the gradients of all the roundabouts on the San Antonio-Ibiza road. The roundabouts have been the cause of three accidents over recent weeks in which lorries have overturned. The minister in charge of the roads for the Consell, Stella Matutes, confirmed that instead of preventing this type of accident, the current setup seemed to enhance the possibility of it happening. She asked the Govern to study the case and to take the necessary action.

IBIZA TOWN

Costa Waits
The recently elected mayor of Ibiza Town, Lurdes Costa, spent her first day in office meeting her new staff and getting accustomed to her new surroundings. Costa was sworn in on Saturday as the 1st lady mayor in Ibiza.
She revealed that she was eagerly awaiting the day Xico Tarres took over the Consell Insular, in order that she could unblock several key projects of the General Urban Plan, initiated by Tarres over the last four years. In the meantime she would start to organise her team from within, in order to better serve the public.

Lifeguard Contract
The company, Sport & Salvament, has won the contract to provide the lifeguard service in the municipal of Ibiza Town. The contract is worth 94,000 euros, 6,000 euros less than the Town Hall paid last year. The other advantage is that the company will offer the services of a total of fourteen lifeguards, instead of the ten planned, as well as a 4x4 jeep. They will offer a daily service from 11a.m. - 7p.m. during the summer.

Explosion!!
Gases from cleaning materials were said to have caused the explosion which ripped through a third floor apartment on Thursday. The incident occurred just after 3p.m., in a central apartment in Ibiza Town. The balcony area was completely destroyed but fortunately there were no injuries. The owners of the apartment were at home at the time, but fortunately were far from the incident. The balcony doors and shutters were blown clear off and fell three floors, landing on two parked cars below. Initial investigations revealed that the spark of an electrical appliance combined with the build-up of gases from cleaning products, caused the explosion.

Fire Alarm
Two police officers were injured as they rescued a man from a burning building on Wednesday. The incident occurred in Calle Vicente Serra in Ibiza Town. Police were called to the scene shortly after 6.30a.m. after receiving a call from a neighbour, who spotted smoke coming out of a window of the building. They arrived within minutes, and due to the amount of smoke now billowing out, decided to evacuate the entire building. It was during the evacuation that a neighbour advised them that there was still someone in the flat that was on fire. After knocking on the door several times, they eventually broke the door down. They were met with heavy smoke, and had to crawl through the apartment on their hands and knees. They found a man in a semi-conscious state in the room affected. They moved him to another room, where he regained consciousness and got dressed. He later left the building unaided, with the two officers. They were all treated outside the building for smoke inhalation, and one for slight burns.
Police were still investigating the cause of the fire, but suspect that it may have been caused by a cigarette that was not extinguished properly.

SAN ANTONIO

Market Complaints
The Association for local businesses in San Antonio has made an official complaint to the Town Hall, after it was revealed that the mayor, Jose Sala, was going to create a market for locally-made goods. Sala spoke of the market as part of his election policies, and the idea had good support from most people at the time. However, local businesses are now worried that the market, which in theory is to be set up in the square next to the church, will affect their business. They claim that the market sellers will be selling very similar products to those which they already sell. This, coupled with "the worst start to a tourist season in history", could very well cripple a number of businesses.

Round-About Fears
A resident of San Antonio has made an official complaint to the Govern Balear, after he arrived home last week to find specialists in his driveway with plans for the new roundabout. The plans were originally drawn up in 2005, and will be part of the link from San Antonio to the main Ibiza road. The man claimed that he had originally been shown plans which did not affect his land, and claims that if the building does go through, then he will be forced to move. He said that, at some point, the plans had been changed without him being advised.
He gained support from the newly elected PSOE Consell, who backed his claims that the plans had been changed without any notification.
The Town Hall of San Antonio claimed that it knew nothing about the previous plan, but promised to get to the bottom of the incident, offering to mediate with the Govern Balear.

SAN JOSE

Lack of Help
The new mayor of San Jose took office on Monday, and told reporters that the first thing that he was going to do was order a computer for his office. He explained that he assumed that his predecessor had never had one, as he had found the office bereft of a computer and any type of paperwork, a worrying culmination of over twenty years of work.
Jose Mari Ribas Agustinet said that the first job of his team would be to update the urban plan of the municipality. The mayor admitted that since the last regulation came into effect in 1986, there had been twenty-one years of little regulation and lax control. He said that he hoped that everything was legal, but insisted that what was not, would be uncovered.
He also promised to speed up the everyday service that the Town Hall offered, promising to take a personal interest in everything, in order to give a better service to the public.
Agustinet said that the mobile water purifiers in San Jordi would stay for the moment, but that the situation would be investigated further.
He also criticised the outgoing Councillors, saying that very few had shown any genuine interest in explaining the exact state of affairs within their areas, and that they had failed to offer any help whatsoever to the new team. He did however make a special mention of Antoni Cardona Pujolet, Jose Torres Tomas, and the former Councillor for Cala de Bou, Manuel Pulido, who he said had all helped in the transition.

DC-10 Opens
The "after hours" club DC-10, which was closed by the Interior Department along with Amnesia and Bora-Bora, has had its sentence suspended. The club was ordered to close after flagrantly allowing the sale and consumption of drugs on their premises. At last year's closing party alone' there were 234 reports by undercover police of drug use' and nine arrests were made.
However, the club has managed to get the closure suspended for the time being' while their appeal is heard. Lawyers for the club are claiming that they served their two-month ban during November and December 2006. The prosecution has ridiculed this, saying that the club is always closed during those months. The club was opened again to the public last weekend, while a decision is made in the appeal courts.
Amnesia also revealed that they are close to having their ban suspended. Their lawyers revealed that it would become official within a few days.
Jose Manuel Bar, the interior minister, who ordered the closures, said that the public prosecutor was preparing his own appeal against the latest decision, claiming that it was detrimental to public health.

SANTA EULALIA

Countryside Alliance
The new mayor of Santa Eulalia announced in his first speech as head of the municipality, that he would invest heavily in the countryside and its products, to try and create an alternative to tourism. He said that he recognised the importance of tourism, and admitted that it would always be the most important sector for the municipality. However, he said that this reliance was not healthy, and that other alternative markets for creating employment, and supporting the economy, should be found. He believes that the countryside is just that.
He announced that he would invest heavily in the sector, to try and encourage young people to work in the countryside, giving them an alternative to tourism. He said that he believed the workers of this sector deserved his support, as they were the natural ecologists of the area, and that they had also loved and looked after the countryside. It was now time for the Town Hall to pay back this loyalty.
He added that he would create a quality brand that would identify products grown within the municipality. Local residents would then be able to support homegrown products.

FORMENTERA

Ferrer Trial Suspended
The long-awaited trial began on Tuesday, of the ex-partner of Bartomeu Ferrer, the former mayor of Formentera. She is accused of murder, after an argument between the couple in February 2005. Both the prosecution and the defence have been fighting to get the trial started over the past few months and, although the trial did eventually begin last week, it was suspended after only a day, after two doctors called as witnesses did not show up in court. The judge decided to suspend the case until the doctors could be located.
However the defendant was able to take the stand and she gave her side of events. She claims that the couple went out for a meal on the evening in question with some friends. They were at this point not together as a couple but had good relations and were in fact living together with the daughter of the couple. After returning from dinner, where she claims Ferrer had drunk considerably, he started to make sexual advances towards the defendant. She pushed him away and said that that was not the agreement they had. He insisted and the argument escalated. She hit him twice in the face to ward off his advances. She claimed that he had taken a Viagra pill and when he asked her what he was supposed to do, she threw her mobile phone at him and told him to call a whore. The mobile phone hit Ferrer in the head, causing a cut just under his eyebrow. He grew angrier and the defendant insisted that she had to hit and bite his hand to eventually free herself.
She eventually did and after things had calmed down, she went to bed. He, in the meantime, went to the bathroom and was sick. He later fell asleep on the toilet. According to her version of events, Ferrer hit his head much later while trying to get up, firstly on the bath and then on the door, after he twice fell down. She claimed that he had been drunk and had been dizzy since dinner.
A friend of the couple, whose apartment it was, later took the stand and told how the defendant had arrived at his apartment the following morning and asked him to take her and the couple's daughter to the port to get the return ferry to Formentera. When he asked why Ferrer was not with them, she explained that they had had a fight and she had slapped him twice. After taking the two to the port, the worried friend then went to the flat where he found Ferrer semi-conscious on the bed surrounded by vomit. He claims that Ferrer admitted to him that the defendant had hit him twice and thrown a mobile phone at him, causing all the marks on his face. The friend urged Ferrer to go to hospital and to make an official complaint about the incident. He refused and the friend left. Police officers later entered the apartment and found Ferrer unconscious. He was rushed to Can Misses where he spent a month in a coma, before eventually he died on 10th February 2005.
The doctor who carried out the forensic report on the body said that he could not conclude anything, due to the time Ferrer had spent in a coma. He had to rely on the report from the hospital when he was first taken in, and said that it was inconclusive.
The prosecution is asking for the defendant to serve a four year jail sentence for manslaughter. The trial is set to continue soon.

Cleaning Improvements
Jaume Ferrer, the new mayor of Formentera, started work on Monday with various meetings involving different Councillors, and the chief of police. He revealed that he had met with the treasurer of the Town Hall to calculate their financial state. He claimed that the situation was not yet completely clear, but that it did not look too positive. He also said that he had met with CESPA, the company in charge of waste collection and public cleaning, to try and organise a better service during the summer months.

More Guardia
The representative of the Madrid central government, Jose Manuel Bar, started his week of meetings with the newly elected mayors by promising to double the amount of "Guardia Civil" officers in Formentera. The promise was made after his meeting with the new mayor, Jaume Ferrer. He could not reveal the exact amount of officers that were at present employed on the island as they were on "manoeuvres" and "it was difficult to say". However he did add that there would be enough this summer to cope with the influx of tourists.

CRIME & INCIDENTS

Man Arrested
The fight against drugs continued last week after a man was arrested in the port of Denia over the weekend, after a police search uncovered 2.5 kilos of hashish in his suitcase. Authorities decided to question the man while he was boarding the boat because of his excessively nervous behaviour. After opening the suitcase, they discovered that it was empty. However, the excessive weight caused them to rip open the lining of the case, where they discovered 28 packages containing the drug. The man was immediately taken into custody.

Man Jailed
A man was jailed for six months last week, after images were found on his computer of child pornography. The arrest, in 2005, came after a nationwide investigation that ended with the arrest of eighteen people, including that of Tom Kooning, in his house in San Jose. His two flatmates were also arrested but have so far not been charged. The national investigation had far-reaching consequences, with arrests later being made in Finland, Holland and Russia.

Ibiza News powerd by Ibiza Sun

By modern day standards Ibiza is an extremely safe place to holiday. This is a weeks worth of news and so its effect is magnified. Please do not fret while you are here - you are quite safe!!

If you have any stories for our incidents section then call or fax 971-348-271 or e-mail on: editor@theibizasun.com