Tenerife protesters warn they’ll start a hunger strike if new tourist spots aren’t stopped.
People who don’t want too many tourists in the Canary Islands say they will not eat to make their point.
They’ve told the government there that they will stop eating on April 11th if two new places for tourists don’t stop being built in the next ten days.
The protesters say if anything bad happens because of their hunger strike, which at least ten people will do, it’s the politicians’ fault.
Big protests are planned for April 20th in Tenerife and other islands like Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.
The people protesting love tourists but think there are just too many visiting the islands. They will protest with signs saying “The Canary Islands have a limit”.
They really want the government to stop building a new hotel and another place called Cuna del Alma in Tenerife.
The group behind the protests, “Canarias se exhausta”, said about eight or ten of them will start the hunger strike on Thursday, April 11th.
The Canary Islands are on the brink of a hunger strike after protesters demanded the government halt construction of two hotels on the island of Tenerife.
The group, known as “Canarias se exhausta”, has given the government ten days to respond to their demands, which include setting up a working group to find “urgent solutions” and a commitment to stop work on the Hotel La Tejita and Cuna del Alma in Puertito de Adeje.
In a statement, the group said: “If we have reached this point it is because we have no other choice and because of the serious faults that our bad Government of the Canary Islands is committing.”
They warned that “the responsibility for what could ultimately happen” with the hunger strike “would be the same government that forced us to take this desperate measure.”
The group said the hunger strike and the April 20th protest were both motivated by “despair”.
“Why do we want rulers who do not want to see what kind of consumed and worn out, violated and torn islands we are going to leave to our daughters and sons?” they said. “We would put our lives at risk, but you risk our future and that of the new generations.”
The La Tejita hotel and Cuna del Alma projects were halted due to orders from the Government of the Canary Islands and the Coast department for various environmental issues and irregularities, but they have recently started building again.
Hotel bosses have also said that tourists planning to visit the Canary Islands have been calling to ask if it’s still safe to come because of the protests.
