Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
PP removes Ángel Vázquez as head of Lanzarote’s tourism centres
The PP has dismissed Ángel Vázquez as chief executive of Lanzarote’s Centres of Art, Culture and Tourism (CACT) after his son secured a permanent position as a cleaner at the facilities. In a press release, the party described the move as an “internal restructuring” and announced that María Jesús Tovar, vice-president of the island council (Cabildo), will take charge of the centres.
The PP acted in response to a request from the president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort (CC), with whom it governs in coalition. Betancort had demanded that his partners adopt “appropriate measures” regarding Ángel Vázquez following a legal report requested from the board of directors into the recruitment process through which the chief executive’s son obtained a job as a cleaner at the CACT.
Legal report finds chief executive should have stood aside
According to the Cabildo, the report concludes that Vázquez should “have recused himself at the moment the provisional list of admitted candidates was published, on which his son appears […] as he was subject to a cause for recusal given that a direct family member was taking part in the selection process”.
According to information published by La Provincia, Ángel Vázquez signed the terms of the selection process in January 2024 to fill 15 permanent cleaner posts at the tourist centres and, subsequently, on 12 November 2025, he also signed the final resolution listing the successful candidates. Among them was his son, Gabriel Vázquez Díaz, who secured one of the positions.
As a possible solution, the report proposes “declaring the selection process voidable, winding the procedure back to the point at which the chief executive should have recused himself, and validating all acts and proceedings of the selection panel if they are shown to be documented in minutes or other records […]”, since annulment must be applied only in specific and exceptional cases. According to the island authority, voiding the procedure would not affect the other workers “so as not to harm the rights of bona fide third parties, namely all those candidates who have passed the selection process”.
Betancort demands political accountability
After receiving the report’s conclusions, Betancort urged the PP to “assess the situation and assume whatever political responsibilities may arise”. Along these lines, María Jesús Tovar stressed that the decision to dismiss Ángel Vázquez was taken with “the utmost transparency and respect for internal procedures at the Cabildo of Lanzarote and La Graciosa”.
In its press release, the PP noted that Vázquez has been on sick leave since 9 October. After the events were reported in the media, Ángel Vázquez issued a statement insisting that “a red line” had been crossed by leaking a news story that was “biased and self-serving, aimed only at causing personal harm”. He also announced that he was considering legal action and maintained that he had “always remained on the sidelines” of staff selection and purchasing processes in order to “promote impartiality and transparency in all of the entity’s procedures”.
“My management at the helm of this entity can be judged, but there is no justification for dragging my family into a smear campaign orchestrated by someone who has gone too far,” he added.
PSOE calls for extraordinary plenary session
The PSOE in Lanzarote has asked Betancort to convene an extraordinary plenary session to explain the case and account for the actions he has taken. The socialists accuse the Cabildo president of hiding behind the PP and of trying to shift onto his government partner a political responsibility that he should assume as president.
Ariagona González, deputy spokesperson for the Socialist group at the Cabildo, recalls that it was the media that revealed that Vázquez’s son had obtained a permanent post at the tourist centres through a process whose final resolution was signed by the chief executive himself. After those reports emerged, the PSOE demanded his immediate dismissal on 1 October and called on Betancort for explanations.
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