Zihuatanejo's Neighbors Under Attack

Battle at La Barra de Potosí

In the photo above, Marines from the Mexican Armada are called upon to prevent a would-be developer's workers from blocking access to the federal zone as beachgoers look on.

Well, it's begun. Developers are trying to run off locals to build a megaproject and a marina at La Barra de Potosí, apparently with the collusion of corrupt officials, allegedly including Petatlán's mayor. They are using some dirty tactics indeed, twice destroying the house of the family who owns the land the developer is trying to steal. Marines and police were called to the site on August 7th of this year to prevent a violent confrontation between workers for the crooked developer (the same one who last year tried to pay Zihuatanejo fishermen to leave the Laguna Las Salinas in Zihuatanejo in order to build a marina) and ejiditarios of La Barra who were trying to unblock an access the workers were blocking along the federal zone. The police from Petatlán refused to assist the local residents to uphold the law and instead protected the lawbreakers so they could continue their work: the theft of land and the destruction of the ecology.

The developer allegedly acquired bogus land titles to the Cerro de Huamilule property that originated from a former employee of the Secretaría de la Reforma Agraria (SRA) named Raúl Mendoza Benalonso, now deceased, but apparently his son is carrying on with the fraud. It appears to be a complicated legal affair, but the attacks against the Garibo Vargas family and the determination of locals to protect their neighbors is fairly simple and straightforward. The developers have resorted to well-known tactics used by people who believe they are influential due to the collusion of corrupt "public servants". It's an old story but the same one that incited a revolution here almost 100 years ago.

This fight is far from over, but hopefully the crooked developers and corrupt officials will be exposed and punished before any more damage is done or anyone gets seriously hurt or worse. The folks at La Barra can certainly count on the support of their amigos here in Zihuatanejo!

Ecocide and Destruction of Mangroves

It's been reported that the construction crew for the business Desarrolladora Interad, SA de CV, whose lawyer is Pedro Olea Bracamontes and whose architect overseeing the workers is Roberto Mario Guala from Argentina, are in the process of destroying mangroves and filling in a section of the Laguna de Potosí to build a road to the property they are allegedly trying to steal from the Garibo Vargas family. The "authorities responsible" for upholding the federal environmental laws that are supposed to protect mangroves have remained notoriously absent and silent and have thus far allowed the destruction in spite of all the local publicity this issue has received. Quite to the contrary, the local Petatlán tourist police have allegedly been protecting the workers of the person trying to steal the land.

The inspector from PROFEPA (the federal environmental prosecutor) showed up on Monday, August 18th at La Barra and bore witness to the destruction of mangroves and other species as well as the filling in of an area of the lagoon that affects the natural flow of water. Sr. Justo Villa Villa said that, after the initial investigation and report by his office, it is probable that the case will be turned over to the PGR (the federal attorney general's office) for prosecution.

Here's a message from Barra de Potosí resident and lodging owner Laura Kelly that she posted on my Zihuatanejo Message Board

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Profepa has been contacted by the locals in La Barra and visited the site yesterday. They observed the damage and interviewed a worker confirming who the responsible parties are.

Profepa announced that their visit confirmed that the developers have in fact destroyed protected mangroves with the building of the tepetate road (500 meters done). They have also mentioned that apparently no Environmental Impact Report exists (necessary before such a road should be even begun even if they had legal possession of the land involved which they don't by the way) and that this would be difficult to obtain given the law protecting the mangroves.

As reported in El SUR de Acapulco, Profepa says they will initiate the corresponding administrative proceeding and that if this action reveals a criminal situation that they will denounce the development company (Pedro Olea Bracamontes as representative and Roberto Mario Guala known as the Architect [head] of the firm Desarrolladora Interad, SA de CV) to the PGR (corresponding to the Attorney General's office in the USA).

Let's hope this can produce some action quickly to stop them now from doing any more damage.

Meanwhile the community is working against this in various ways including forging contacts for help from the outside with environmental activists on Regional and Federal level.

Laura
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Since the government at all levels has so far failed to do their job and has instead allowed lawlessness to fill in the vacuum of their absence, local ejiditarios have taken machetes in hand in defense of their neighbor's property and have vowed that blood will flow if the government continues allowing this injustice to take place.

It saddens me immensely that this is happening to what should be such a peaceful community undisturbed by lawlessness, rapacious greed or corruption. When "progress" destroys communities and ruins lives then it is not the progress we seek, and in this region of Guerrero it will only foment more animosity against authority and the perceived members of the social class seen as responsible for the injustice.

Here is a video of part of the road that the developers are widening and building up so heavy equipment can pass as well as the area where mangroves are being destroyed before the destruction began.


For more background on this subject see the following articles:

Se vislumbra una tragedia por un predio - El Diario de Zihuatanejo, Viernes 4 de Julio del 2008 (apparently the article has been removed from the archives of this newspaper)

Denuncia una familia que pretenden quitarles un predio en Barra de Potosí, Petatlán - El Sur de Acapulco, Lunes 5 de Julio del 2008

Van a la SRA a protestar por amenazas de desalojo familias de Zihuatanejo y Petatlán - El Sur de Acapulco, Domingo 6 de Julio del 2008

Interviene la Armada en pleito ejidal en Petatlán - La Jornada de Guerrero, Viernes 8 de Agosto del 2008

Cumple la familia Garibo 24 horas de vigilancia en sus terrenos para evitar que los despojen - El Sur de Acapulco, Sábado 9 de Agosto del 2008

Destruyen el cercado particulares que les quieren quitar sus terrenos en Barra de Potosí, denuncia la familia Garibo - El Sur de Acapulco, Miércoles 13 de Agosto del 2008

Inspecciona el MP federal la zona del conflicto en el cerro del Huamilule, en Barra de Potosí - El Sur de Acapulco, Jueves 14 de Agosto del 2008

Azolvan con tepetate la laguna de Barra de Potosí y destruyen el mangle, denuncia la UCD - El Sur de Acapulco, Lunes 18 de Agosto del 2008

Scaring Zihuatanejo's Tourists?

It has been commented upon more than once (mostly by folks with an axe to grind or a personal agenda or who are trying to sell you something) that I am scaring away tourists from Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa by writing (or in their words "sensationalizing") about things like our crime and pollution problems as well as the recent discussion about the shark incidents. Some rather simple-minded folks actually blame me for the decline in local tourism, as if it were me, not the crime and pollution and other problems, that were causing concern and anxiety among our visitors, both nationals and foreigners. Well, I am certainly not trying to sell anyone anything, that's for sure, since I believe Zihuatanejo sells itself but that it also isn't for everyone. It is unfortunate that there are folks (mostly clueless wonder travel agents looking for their commission and public officials looking to create a favorable impression for their resumé) who attempt to mass market Zihuatanejo as if it were competing for the same tourists that go to Puerto Vallarta, Cancún or Acapulco, while ignoring our very real and growing problems. But the fact is that Zihuatanejo is nothing like those places and its inhabitants do not aspire for it to be so. Acapulco is everything Zihuatanejo doesn't want to be! Tourists who look for the experiences offered by those places would usually be most bored and unhappy in Zihuatanejo as well as make us unhappy here with their raucous and complaining presence. Zihuatanejo is still (though just barely) about enjoying peacefulness, communing with nature in a healthy environment and immersing oneself in the local culture. Unfortunately, the people responsible for ensuring that Zihuatanejo remains peaceful, safe and that its natural attractions as well as our town remain clean and pristine have let us down. It certainly isn't my fault there is crime and pollution, but some people would prefer our visitors came here completely unaware of these things, and if something unfortunate happens to them it should be played down, certainly not discussed in public forums or written up in the press. Well, I don't agree with that propagandistic paint-a-rosy-picture-at-all-costs thinking at all. I think our visitors have a right to make informed decisions based on honest and reliable information, and that it would be MUCH more productive for our community and our visitors if the "responsible authorities" actually attended to our numerous too-long-ignored problems instead of continually trying to cover up and ignore them while seeking votes and public appointments for the next elections.

I wonder how many garbage cans could have been placed on our beaches for the same amount of money our local government wasted to place a religious statue on the bottom of Zihuatanejo Bay and the accompanying trip by the mayor to the Vatican with friends and family to get a miniature version of the statue blessed? I wonder how beautiful our bay and beaches would be if instead of fomenting land invasions to accumulate enough votes to win elections and then spending scarce resources on "popular projects" trying to provide public services to those non-taxpaying land thieves our "responsible authorities" had spent their energies and our meager resources to improve our sewage treatment plants? I wonder how effective our police forces would be if instead of being underpaid, undertrained, under-equipped and often on the payroll of organized crime themselves, they were provided the necessary support to actually keep our streets safe for citizens and visitors? I wonder how attractive Zihuatanejo would be if people who threw garbage in streets and gullies were actually fined for littering, if our garbage trucks didn't leak fetid black ooze on their daily rounds so that our streets didn't smell like sewers, if construction regulations were actually enforced, if ecocide and building violations by developers were actually sanctioned, if city planning were based on ecological sustainability and aesthetics instead of corruption and personal ambitions, if traffic regulations and ecological laws were actually enforced? What a different community and vacation destination this would be!

I believe it's time for the folks who make the most money from our tourism (aka the lodging providers) to step up to the plate and light a fire under our responsible authorities' collective asses to deal with our problems instead of working so fervently to cover them up. It is an election year and now is when they can play an important role in improving the community where they make so much money by speaking out and making their own concerns known publically as well as by putting their money and support behind candidates who will actually attend to our community's problems instead of pandering to populism.

But as long as we have public servants more interested in serving themselves than simply doing the jobs they were elected and appointed to do, then Zihuatanejo will remain a lawless and dirty town with chaotic growth and all its accompanying problems, and nothing I write here will make a hoot of a difference since all our tourists are not deaf, dumb and blind (though a few pretend to be for the sake of argument), and one bad experience by a visitor means not only will they not return but they will also not recommend Zihuatanejo to their friends and family. Such comments by dissatisfied visitors increasingly make the papers every peak vacation season. Though it breaks my heart to read them as well as to be honest about our problems, I find it even more reprehensible that the people with the power and the authority and the resources to correct our problems prefer to cover up these problems instead of acknowledging them and dealing with them. For example, it is simply criminal and unacceptable that there are no warning signs on the beach near the Boquita Canal or Las Salinas Lagoon warning bathers of the potential risk to their health by swimming in the waters near these well-known sources of pollution. It clearly demonstrates that the health and well-being of our visitors is not the primary concern of our municipal authorities. That is unacceptable!

So if tourism is down, perhaps it would be more constructive to blame it on a slumping economy or the increase in prices for everything from transportation to lodging to food (why would anyone raise their prices if tourism is down?, but they do!) or the concern about escalating crime and violence (who wants to vacation in a country whose daily violent death count rivals Iraq's war zone?!) or our deteriorating environment than to blame it on me for acknowledging our problems and providing reliable info about them so that our visitors can make informed decisions about where to seek peace and relaxation in a safe and healthy environment for their vacations. (Whew! That was a mouthful!)

Once again I find myself referring to a most right-on quote by Phil in Toronto: "Garbage cans on the beaches would at least be symbolic!"

Water Shortage in Zihuatanejo

Zihuatanejo's water company uses the acronym CAPAZ (Comisión de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado de Zihuatanejo), which in Spanish also means "capable". I doubt there's a Zihuatanejo resident who isn't aware of the tragi-comic irony of their name since most of us refer to them as INCAPAZ.

Some sectors of town have not received water for weeks and months. At least one neighborhood says it has been without water for two years. Most residents have gone without water repeatedly for days at a time since before Semana Santa this year. The annual water shortage before the rainy season has never been this bad nor lasted this long.

Water service has noticeably deteriorated during the last 5 years or so, becoming an acute problem under the administration of our "current" ex-mayor who literally left us dry before resigning his post to campaign for a post as diputado federal in upcoming elections. Seems to be a pattern being set by the past two mayors from the same political party: screwitup beyond all repair or neglect it to death then resign before finishing their elected term to run for another post. "No re-election" doesn't mean our politicians can't jump from one post to another like a grasshopper, which is why we call such a politician a chapulín.

What both of them did was allow tens of thousands of squatters to invade our ecological zones, thus condemning Zihuatanejo to a very different and difficult future than it might have had otherwise. Of course, the municipal administration run by the party who fomented these invasions now finds itself unable to supply water, among other services, to the community at large. However, one of those politicians recently stated publically that tourist developments should have preference over the general community, which of course was met with indignation and outrage by the general public.

Many of us think that the community should come first over the tourists. Imagine that! Putting our daily needs over tourists' luxuries! If we're not happy then we certainly aren't going to be happily welcoming visitors here, you can bet on that.

The tourists that originally put Zihuatanejo on the map certainly put up with more hardships than not being able to shower off their suntan oil at the end of the day. Of course, the "modern" hotels couldn't operate or survive the way hotels had to back in the pre-Ixtapa days. Many of Zihuatanejo's longtime visitors remember making do with spotty water and electricity services. It was all part of the attraction spending evenings sitting around candles and kerosene lamps and playing backgammon and dominos and having conversations uninterrupted by anything louder than a battery-powered radio or cassette player. People today who visit Troncones and Barra de Potosí put up with similar hardships as our original repeat visitors, yet more and more people want to visit those places, which tells me that Zihuatanejo's original adventuresome and down-to-earth type of tourist market is still out there, though many have actually been chased away by our irrational overdevelopment.

But our current water shortage isn't a problem caused by tourism. It's been caused by promoting the theft of our ecological zones by political parties seeking votes, leading to irrational development and unsustainable growth. We've always had water problems, but we've never had so many people go without water for such long periods of time. Downtown usually gets some water every day, but for years the service has steadily worsened, and it seems every month or so there's another excuse why the service is interrupted for days if not weeks.

Zihuatanejo needs to get its house in order and update its infrastructure before allowing any more developments to be built. I don't expect the "responsible authorities" to be wise or altruistic enough to implement a building moratorium, but I keep hoping they'll surprise me and follow the example of many now-successful Florida communities that were facing similar problems decades ago and responsibly addressed them by imposing building moratoriums to allow their infrastructure to catch up to the demands of their growth. Unfortunately, it appears we are instead following to the letter the failings of Acapulco (which uncoincidentally has also been suffering a severe water shortage); right down to the sunken religious statue in the bay that nobody visits or cares about.

Of course what's done is done and now we must deal with it the best we can, which is why it is more urgent now than ever that we elect responsible politicians and hold them, their parties and our government to account. Fortunately, it's an election year and we're working on it.

And hopefully our visitors will give us a hand in the meantime by helping us to conserve water.

¡Viva Zihuatanejo!

Artificial Reefs in Zihuatanejo

On my Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa, Troncones and Barra de Potosí Message Board the other day someone asked what the government might be trying to sneak by us while diverting attention with the pier project that was never likely to succeed. How about the purchase of 1,500 cones measuring 1.5 meters tall by 1.7 meters wide at the base made of a special cement mixture for the purpose of creating "artificial reefs"? That'll probably stuff a few pesos in some "public servants'" offshore bank account. Does that qualify? Never mind that we're already killing, damaging and polluting the few reefs we already have. Why bother saving the reefs at Playa Las Gatas, Playa Manzanillo and Isla Grande de Ixtapa? Just build more!

From the April 8, 2008 edition of Despertar de la Costa:

Aprobó Ecología crear arrecifes artificiales en Zihuatanejo

*Especialista expone las ventajas de estos criaderos de vida marítima

GILBERTO GUZMÁN CARRANZA

Los arrecifes artificiales no son un peligro para la bahía de Zihuatanejo, pues no se construirán en ella, aclaró Jorge Alberto Terrazas, de la Fundación Arrecifes Artificiales Pura Vida, ante la inconformidad de ambientalistas para con dicho proyecto.

Después de la queja de los ambientalistas con respecto a los arrecifes artificiales, por la cual manifestaron que se alterará el hábitat de la bahía de Zihuatanejo, el integrante de esta organización dijo que es necesario crear ecosistemas, porque están dañados en la costa, están sobreexplotados y se acaban las especies marinas, como los corales.

Aseguró que por esta razón no se realizarán en la bahía, pero que se harán en playas de mar abierto, y que la bahía seguirá como hasta el momento, contaminada, pues la función de estos arrecifes artificiales es en gran parte limpiar y oxigenar el agua del mar.

Dijo que hay personas que no entendieron el concepto de los arrecifes, pero que la Dirección de Ecología ya dio la autorización de seguir adelante con el proyecto, pues está bien fundamentado, porque está avalado por maestros en ciencia, gente profesional que se dedica al mar, que son los que revisaron el proyecto.

En ese sentido, informó que ya se está llegando al sector pesquero, quienes lo están pidiendo, porque se dan cuenta de cómo funcionan los arrecifes, y que la directora de Pesca del estado de Guerrero está muy interesada con el proyecto, por lo que ya están en contacto para trabajar al respecto.

En Zihuatanejo ya hay tres módulos que fueron de prueba, los cuales, asegura, funcionaron correctamente y cumplieron lo previsto, que se ubican en la playa Varadero, playa las Gatas y playa la Ropa , “los cuales se encuentran llenos de vida, completamente, y están evolucionando y produciendo”.

El proyecto consiste en mil 500 unidades, para pesca sustentable de producción de peces. Explicó que no se tiene que hacer ningún tipo de excavación, pues son del tipo de cono o pirámide, se construyen afuera, para posteriormente depositarlos en el lecho marino.

Dichos conos miden un metro 70 centímetros de ancho, por un metro 50 centímetros de alto, con aproximadamente 15 centímetros de grosor, y con resistencia de 300 toneladas por centímetro cuadrado, “es como una piedra, se mete bajo el agua, los pedazos de coral que se ven en las playas, rotos por la gente o por las olas, son recolectados y se siembran en estos arrecifes”, precisó. Y son construidos con conchas de ostión, cemento, mineral microcílico que reduce el PH y lo hace más parecido al del agua.

“Los módulos aztecas —así los nombran—, están diseñados específicamente para que el agua atraviese por enmedio de ellos, cuentan con una cámara reproductiva, donde los peces entran para desovar y reproducirse, en el mar hay pocos lugares donde se puedan establecer”, explicó. Con esto, aseguró, se les ofrece un hábitat nuevo.

Dijo que todos los problemas, como el calentamiento global, afectan el mar, donde están todos los ecosistemas más viejos del planeta, y que los arrecifes las 24 horas del día producen oxigeno, a diferencia de las plantas; con los arrecifes se ayudará a crear más vida, y tener bancos de pesca nuevos, frescos, y los que ya están sobreexplotados se van a recuperar.

“Los arrecifes naturales con los que cuenta Zihuatanejo se recuperarán, van a volver a tener su belleza natural, como cuando no estaban explotados, y esto es muy notorio en el mercado, pues el pescado que se comercializa es de una sola especie, ya casi no hay de cuál elegir, porque estamos sobre explotando todos los recursos”, concluyó.

Best Time To Be In Zihuatanejo

The tourist crowds have thinned out in Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa since "high season" became "low season" after an early Semana Santa this year. Once again the pace of life in our seaside community has slowed considerably. Once again people in our community can take the time to have fiestas, take vacations, visit with friends, go to the beach, and catch a sunset. And ahhhh... what sunsets!

Click on the photo to enlarge it. Maybe you'd like to save it as your desktop background. ;~)

It's been almost a week since el horario de verano began, and most of us are still not used to the time change. The almost sacrosanct and favorite daily ritual of siesta is based on the position of the sun and the heat of the day, not on an arbitrary and variable man-made hour on a clock in England, so adjusting to the time change is problematic.

The nights are still refreshingly cool while the daytime temps have risen notably within the past month, but a heat wave is predicted from now until the rains begin possibly in June. Already our state of Guerrero has registered temperatures over 40°C in some places and fires are starting to break out as the burning season comes upon us and the skies grow a little hazier with smoke each day.

Nevertheless, the air still is fragrant with Pacific Ocean breeze and night-blooming jasmine, and more importantly: mangos are in season! ¡Auuuuaaaa!

¡Viva Zihuatanejo!

¡Viva México!