Mayra Marichal leaves AMF but will remain a Puerto del Rosario councillor

Mayra Marichal has left Asambleas Municipales de Fuerteventura (AMF), citing a loss of confidence in the party leadership and its internal procedures. She says she will remain a councillor in Puerto del Rosario.

She has also left the party’s island executive and given up all other organisational responsibilities. Marichal has told the council that she wants to remain in the Mixed Group and retain her role as its spokesperson, with her municipal position preserved in accordance with the applicable rules.

She says family, friends, party members and supporters encouraged her to continue representing residents. Her departure from AMF does not mean she accepts the conduct she has challenged or gives up any complaints or actions available to her, she adds.

Dispute over the Cabildo candidacy

Marichal’s departure follows disagreements within AMF over its candidacy for the Cabildo, Fuerteventura’s island council. She argues that the leadership of party president Juan Nicolás Cabrera has been incompatible with democratic participation, transparency and respect for differing views.

She says Cabrera had invited her several times to take on the Cabildo candidacy, but that when she requested a process in which others could also stand, she was told there was no time. She maintains that she was never given an opportunity to submit a candidacy and rejects suggestions that she sought it through a “back door”.

Marichal says the disagreement began after Sergio Lloret ruled out heading the AMF list for the Cabildo. She maintains that the leadership then chose between candidacies headed by Juan Cabrera and Juan Nicolás Cabrera without her or other party members knowing about the process.

Unanswered complaints

The councillor says she received no formal response to five submissions sent to the party presidency. These covered her challenge to the backing of the Cabildo candidacy and a subsequent addition to it, requests for financial documents and meeting minutes, legal assistance and services, and the handling of personal data and internal information.

She disputes the suggestion that her appeal was late. She says it challenged the later backing of Juan Nicolás Cabrera’s candidacy after Juan Cabrera Peña withdrew. Marichal says she learned of the new candidacy through the press on 15 October and submitted her appeal on 22 October. She says the president subsequently said the party body’s decision had been made at a meeting on 12 October, to which she had not been invited.

Marichal also alleges that restrictions on executive members’ WhatsApp discussions, a new group in which only the president could post, a lack of documents and the absence of further executive meetings hindered internal debate and scrutiny.

She says AMF should take a clear position on housing and social policy and defend its proposals for Fuerteventura. In Puerto del Rosario, she says she will continue listening to residents and bringing their concerns to the council.