Crows caw over this cemetery of asphalt and cobblestones. The rabbits run around without caring about the zebra crossings, since neither cars nor humans travel over them. There is even parking for people with disabilities. The streetlights do not give light but shade to the weeds between the tiles typical of any urbanization. Birds rest on them, scrutinizing a vacant lot of 3.5 million square meters conceived as an industrial macropolygon between Cigales, Cabezón de Pisuerga and Corcos del Valle (Valladolid). The Junta de Castilla y León (PP) invested 53.4 million euros for the largest business park in the community; Annual security costs more than 150,000 euros. The idea emerged in 2006 and gave hope to these towns due to the large sums promised by the expropriations of agricultural land, in addition to the associated employment. Promised sums. The financial crisis arrived, companies went bankrupt and only some owners were paid for their plots. Many lost fertile land and only gained speeches: quarrels grew even between families. Some still don't speak to each other.
More information
The industrial megapark of Galicia that cost 250 million and only houses one warehouse
The autonomous plan along the A-62 highway, between Valladolid and Palencia, sowed illusions even in the most barren lands of the affected towns. An ironic smile appears on Alberto Camazón, 86, walking through the center of Cigales, when he remembers that “everything was going to be brick and we were going to become New York, but the bubble burst and took him away.” The man thanks the conversation and releases reel while in the background some cumbias liven up the work of some workers with sidewalks, an activity that will not be seen in that ghost industrial estate. “It only served to make all the families uncomfortable,” he exclaims, firmly grabbing the visitor's arm, because Caja Segovia did pay the soil but the company Fincagest, one of the main parties involved, collapsed and never released the money, causing still latent burns.
Almost half of the owners were left without those soils where they planted wheat, barley and the always profitable irrigation and they did not achieve anything in return. “My sister, 96 years old, had some land and she doesn't even remember; My brother is 92 and when she remembers it, her stomach churns and he asks me: 'They took my land, right?'” Camazón recalls. “If they had paid everyone, I would have been the Virgin of Glory,” he laments, without those demonstrations, with pioneer tractor units repressed by the Civil Guard when they rushed onto the highway, being of no use.
-"If you find a buyer...", the old man says goodbye, resigned by the lost opportunity. Many of the injured, he adds, are in the cemetery.
The expropriations affected about 180 farmers and the pending payment was around 12 million euros. “The general economic crisis and the financial situation in particular” of the public company involved, ADE, “forced the cessation of work and made us rethink the development of the actions,” indicates a document from the Board. The Ministry of Economy and Finance, responsible for the “Canal de Castilla Activities Area industrial estate” macro-park, signed in 2022 the commitment of 615,354 euros over four years for the security of that space, defined as a “business area in the development phase” and which “provides for the provision of 187 industrial plots in its 3,515,274 square meters” in a “strategic axis for the industrial development of the community” due to its proximity to Valladolid, Palencia and Burgos. The recent reparcelling and refurbishment works have not attracted investors either.
So many pompous words awaken ironies in the bars of Cigales, of course with the native claret wine triumphing in the glasses as it did between 1810 and 1813, when Napoleon Bonaparte settled in the great church of Santiago as the shelter of his armies. The temple was nicknamed “the cathedral of wine” and legend says that
Pepe Botella
was coined by the Corsican taste for Cigales broth, still savored in the bars with sarcastic allusions to another old emperor, this ill-loved one, from Castile. and León: Tomás Villanueva. The powerful deceased politician was the Minister of Economy when the macropolygon entered regional politics, a name also linked to the currently being judged
Black Pearl
case for cost overruns of 20 million euros in the purchase of a public building in Arroyo de la Encomienda ( Valladolid).
“Villanueva died of disappointment!” exclaims a local in a bar, requesting anonymity, since he did not charge for his land either and has already had enough of fighting. Another colleague jokes: “He died hit by the blade of a wind turbine!” Villanueva also appeared in the so-called
Wind Plot
, where favorable deals by the Board for the granting of licenses for wind farms are still being investigated without trial. The former vice president of Castilla y León died of natural causes in 2017 at the age of 64, peppered by these cases and the day after the Treasury investigated 83 bank accounts. The farmers comment tiredly on the “destroys between families, with cousins or neighbors who no longer even speak to each other because some got paid and others didn't, the rough edges have not been smoothed over in all these years.” Each hectare cost 5,000 euros in 2006 and was purchased for 34,000, they say, a sweet but tricky business, as revealed by the passage of time. Even the Cigales City Council declines to take a position on the delicate issue.
“Whoever got paid washed his hands,” criticize the injured, without feeling the support of the lucky ones. The years have passed mercilessly for the farmers and one of them comments that his father, the owner of those lands, has recently died. His heirs are debating how to manage the assets, including that cursed legacy: “Let's see what happens to whoever gets it.”
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_