“We are talking about a trip by Oswaldo Betancort that has cost the citizens of Lanzarote nearly 300,000 euros”
The PSOE of Lanzarote has denounced that the trip to Texas by the president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, continues to inflate its cost to the public purse, following the revelation that the Lanzarote Society for External Promotion contributed an additional 30,000 euros to finance this trip. This comes after the initial outcry over the excessive spending of 254,000 euros, which included over 10,000 euros for a photographer and the travel expenses of five senior political officials. “We are talking about a trip by Oswaldo Betancort that has cost the citizens of Lanzarote nearly 300,000 euros,” stated socialist councillor, Benjamín Perdomo.
Perdomo described this new revelation as “a complete mockery” of the citizens of Lanzarote. “While towns suffer from water shortages, lack healthcare personnel, and public services deteriorate, Betancort continues to squander public funds as if the Cabildo were his private travel agency,” he denounced.
Perdomo reminded that the trip to Texas was arranged through a negotiated contract without public tender, circumventing any mechanisms for transparency and accountability. “This decision, coupled with the lack of justification for the cost and the real impact of the action, reflects alarming opacity.” Moreover, they warned that the president of the Cabildo has turned external promotion into “a recurring excuse to finance foreign trips with public money without accountability or providing tangible benefits to the island.”
“What is concerning is not just the expense, but what it reveals: priorities that are completely disconnected from the realities faced by Lanzarote,” the councillor added, reiterating that public money should be used to improve the lives of the people, not to feed the president’s delusions of grandeur.
“Trips like this are not only unnecessary, they are offensive to a populace witnessing the deterioration of basic services while lavish spending occurs on hotels, flights, translators, cameras, and unnecessary entourages,” concluded Perdomo.
