The holder of Plaza number 20 of the Instruction section of Seville has decided to close the case opened at the end of June against the former Health counselors of the Junta de Andalucía, Rocío Hernández and her predecessor and current Environment counselor, Catalina García, for their alleged inaction regarding the exposure of the 4,000 residents of the Guadalquivir neighborhood of Coria del Río (Seville) to the inhalation of toxic gases emanating from the grounds where a gas station is installed. The association representing the affected residents then filed a complaint, understanding that the lack of response from the main officials of the regional administration could constitute crimes of omission prevarication, injuries, degrading treatment, and environmental crimes. The judge considers that the “commission of any crime has not been duly justified.”
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The judge’s decision, which will be appealed by the Association of neighbors affected by the toxins of Coria del Río, was made without the two former counselors, as well as three other former senior officials of the Junta under investigation, having appeared to testify in court, after their appearance, scheduled for last February 25, was suspended. The magistrate bases his decision on reports from the Ministry of Health about the relationship of the activity and measures taken regarding the reported facts, individualizing the participation of the investigated. “The reports state that there is no significant risk and that at the time of the emission of the toxins it cannot be concluded that there is a health risk.” He considers that the fact that they did not accede to the requests of the neighbors, insofar as they made their decisions “based on said reports,” “does not automatically constitute a crime of omission prevarication since it has not been proven that they “acted knowingly outside the legal system causing an unjust result.” The judge’s non-existence of that prevarication crime nullifies the causal relationship of that inactivity with the claimed injury crime.
Rogelia Gómez, the president of the association, has expressed her surprise at the mention of reports prepared by the Ministry that they have been requesting since they started the legal battle in 2017 and of which they have never had knowledge. “There is no epidemiological study, which we have also requested, no specific study has been done, nor have forensic reports been delivered or made… Why haven’t they presented them? If they have been drafted, why don’t we know anything?” Rogelia wonders.
The neighborhood residents have been fighting for almost two decades to clarify the origin of the spills, their responsible parties, and the true effects on the health of the residents so that they can obtain compensation. The residents of the neighborhood are exposed to abnormal levels of toxic hydrocarbons such as toluene, benzene, xylene… and up to a dozen harmful gases to health, emanating from the ground of a neighboring gas station. The toxicity and its consequences of inhalation: headaches, nausea, dizziness, disorientation, respiratory depression, respiratory irritation, leukemia, palpitations, dizziness… have been documented in various official reports, the latest being the opinion of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, incorporated into the criminal instruction in January 2025. These are the diseases suffered by a good part of the neighborhood residents, to which Rogelia adds several deaths from heart attacks, respiratory conditions, or cancer. In the absence of an epidemiological study that the Junta committed to carrying out, she has everything documented street by street.
“We are going to appeal. Before the Supreme Court and then to the European justice and wherever necessary. There are small children affected, neighbors with cancerous tumors,” warns Rogelia, accustomed to overcoming all the setbacks she has received from the administrations responsible for the situation or that should look after their health, from the Junta de Andalucía to the Coria City Council. In that fight, besides keeping the process alive, she has managed to get the Institute of Legal Medicine to review the cases of the affected neighbors, although it has not been a smooth path either.
The team of forensic experts has analyzed only the medical records of 12 of the 40 neighbors involved in the case, only those who had positive reports regarding inhalation of toxic substances above legal limits. The association has demanded that the professionals review all the affected and especially about a dozen minors exposed to the gases – one of them, a two-year-old child born in the Canary Islands, but whose gestation took place in the neighborhood and who has a medical report linking his health conditions to the toxins -. The judge instructing the case in Coria has just forwarded her request to the IML and has asked them to send the reports of the people who have already been attended to “as soon as possible.” This step is essential to close the instruction phase. “We are not going to let this go in any way,” warns Rogelia.