The Neighborhood Association of Reatillo, the village affected by the DANA disaster and located next to the property of Marquise María de Borbón y de Rojas, cousin of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, denounced the letter sent by the owners of the estate deprived of hunting during which they emphasized that they did not allow people affected by the flood to pass through their roads, despite the fact that the bridge that connects the CV-395 highway to the small population center has been seriously damaged. “What the Marquis indicates in his writings seems pathetic, surprising and very unsupportive in these times when we are busy removing mud from our homes, recovering our gardens, our garages, our cars and our belongings and that the only thing that we have wanted since “First minute This is precisely that, to find our normality”, indicates a press release from the neighborhood association.
It is a village with a dozen houses, with neighbors who live all year round and others who spend long periods or on weekends there, and who are between 22 and 75 years old. On the day of the DANA disaster, October 29, there were five residents in the village.
The neighbors criticize the fact that the letter, signed by the sole administrator of Borcier SA (the company that owns the property), Marquis Ramón José de la Cierva García-Bermúdez, husband of María de Borbón and Rojas, describes the situation in the region “erroneous”, with “inaccuracies and statements that are not true”.
“We do not understand the attitude of the king’s cousin and his wife,” say the neighbors, who regret being subjected, in the midst of the DANA disaster, to a “situation of pressure and tension” that they consider “unfair.” “The only thing we want is to have a pedestrian crossing next to the current road bridge, to be able to continue supplying the neighbors who are there normally until the bridge is permanently repaired and the road returns normal,” he said. the association’s declaration. “We are asking absolutely nothing more,” they add.
Although the owner of the property described the alleged “obstinacy” of neighbors to cross his property “with two public roads”, the press release reminds that “they are not passable, neither for people nor for vehicles”. “Much less now, after the river bed destroyed everything in its path,” they explain.
The inhabitants of Reatillo recall that “for many years, there has been no other road in good condition for the village other than the current one whose bridge was destroyed by DANA”.
The letter from the marquis indicates that the inhabitants of the village “repeatedly” ignored the alleged instructions of the Civil Guard and that they remained “obstinate in passing through” the private property of the relatives of the emeritus king. On the contrary, the neighborhood association emphasizes that the agents of the armed institute went there in case they needed medicine or food and offered them to leave the village “if necessary”.
“They also told us that if we could continue here, this is where we would be better off, provided they could give us access, since it was our usual home. “They fully understood that we wanted to stay at home if possible, trying to clean up the mud and gradually repair the damage,” the statement said.
Neighbors reveal that a village representative spoke with the daughter of the Marquis of Mairena to offer her the opportunity to sign a document to assume responsibility for roaming her property, thus “exonerating” them from any possible claims. “They did not want to accept,” the statement said.
The husband of María de Borbón y de Rojas, Marquise de Mairena, also said in the letter published by elDiario.es that neighbors crossed their private hunting reserve “with vehicles or on foot.” However, the village press release denies this assertion and assures that the only vehicles that entered were those that helped the neighbors.
They also deny that they are located in a flood-prone area, as the Marquis claimed. “The village has been located in the same place for a few hundred years and is far enough from the river not to be a flood zone,” say the neighbors, who try to keep the ravines clean and recall that “the houses in the village do not have never been flooded.
Ramón José de la Cierva García-Bermúdez said he lends his satellite communications to “all the residents of Chera and Requena who want to communicate with their loved ones.” Village residents say all their homes have solar power, cell phones and signal boosters, as well as internet and television. “We don’t know who he claims to have helped, but he certainly didn’t help us,” they conclude.
