The mayor of Salamanca, Carlos Garca Carbayo (PP), has dismissed the Councilor for Tourism, Fernando Castao (Cs), this Monday for the fiasco of the urban project to turn Salamanca into a “little Dubai”.
“Taking into account that Castao himself placed his position at the mayor’s disposal, García Carbayo has resolved to do without him within the government teamafter the controversy aroused around the hiring of the already ex-advisor of strategic projects, investments and internationalization”, the City Council indicated this Monday in a press release.
Castao had put his position at the mayor’s disposal after the frauds came to light. related to a project of which he was the main political promoter.
Castao was a friend of José María Fuentes, the external adviser who in 2020 won a municipal contract of 47,400 euros per year, VAT not included, to attract investment to the city with a false degree in Economics.
The mayor of Salamanca, Carlos García Carbayo (PP), publicly reproached the councilor for this relationship. The condition that he put to keep him in office after uncovering the situation was “absolute disassociation with that phony friend of his”, something that Castao did last Friday.
However, the mayor has decided to dismiss him: “Today I have asked the Councilor for Citizens Fernando Castao to present his resignation. Regardless of what he decides to do with his minutes, I withdraw the delegations of Tourism and Relations with Universities“, the mayor has announced on his Twitter account.
Consulted by Efe, Castao has preferred not to comment on the matter for the moment. He has not appeared in public events either and his assistance has even been canceled in some calls in which he was announced.
There is also no news from Fuentes, who has been denounced by both the City Council and the University of Salamanca (USAL) for presenting a false university degree. And it remains to be clarified if he was, as it seems, an adviser to the City Council and a representative of the British company Peace City World at once.
As Efe has been able to confirm, since 2020 Fuentes has been meeting with companies as a representative of Peace City World, the company born in 2019 that supposedly wanted to turn Salamanca into a “little Dubai” with millions of dollars from sheikhs and other investors.
The macro-project for Salamanca -with chair lift, tram and luxury hotels- continues to appear on the company’s website, despite the fact that the City Council has announced that it has broken the collaboration protocol that it had signed with the company less than fifteen days ago.
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