The Gates are down

LIBERAN ACCESO A PLAYA DE TENACATITA TRAS DOS AÑOS Y 10 MESES DE BLOQUEO

3 junio, 2013 

• El ex gobernador Emilio González despojó a los ejidatarios en beneficio del empresario José María Andrés Villalobos

Momento en el que los efectivos de la Fiscalía General retiraron la valla que impedía la circulación en la carretera federal 200. Foto La Jornada Jalisco

Analy S. Nuño y Sergio Hernández.-

Este domingo, autoridades estatales liberaron el acceso a la playa de Tenacatita, luego de dos años y 10 meses en los que estuvo bloqueado el paso –tomando un tramo de la carretera federal 200– por parte del empresario José María Andrés Villalobos y apoyado en su momento por la administración de Emilio González Márquez.

A las 10 horas de ayer, el gobierno estatal concentró a su personal en Melaque, lugar desde donde se trasladaron por tierra hasta la playa de Tenacatita, en el municipio de La Huerta. Ahí procedieron a liberar el ingreso de la carretera número 200, Barra de Navidad-Puerto Vallarta, en el kilómetro 7 del ramal Tenacatita.

De acuerdo con información del gobierno del estado, el operativo transcurrió sin incidentes.

“Los agentes notificaron al personal de seguridad que se encontraba en la garita de acceso que a partir de ese momento se liberaba el acceso carretero, con independencia de los procedimientos legales que existen”, señala el comunicado del gobierno de Jalisco. “Los agentes procedieron a quitar la garita, las barreras y alambrado del lugar”.

A las 15:30 horas, el ingreso y el derecho de paso quedaron liberados, luego de la obstrucción impuesta el 4 de agosto de 2010.

El comunicado añade que el alcalde de La Huerta, Jesús Julián de Niz Sánchez, firmó un documento compromiso en el que se establece que no otorgará ningun tipo de licencia, autorización o permiso en la zona federal marítima terrestre.

La playa, un bien de la nación

Hasta la noche de ayer, el gobierno del estado no informó sobre las repercusiones jurídicas para Andrés Villalobos, quien, con apoyo del ex gobernador Emilio González Márquez, además de mantener la obstrucción de la vía federal –lo cual es calificado como delito–, cometió una serie de desacatos a resoluciones del Tribunal de lo Administrativo del Estado (TAE), hecho que también se debe sancionar.

En campaña, el gobernador Aristóteles Sandoval Díaz prometió resolver el problema de Tenacatita y liberar la bahía el primer día de su gobierno. Fue hasta el 24 de mayo cuando Sandoval Díaz regresó a la zona para realizar la instalación de la Junta Intermunicipal de Medio Ambiente de la Costa Sur, en La Huerta. Ahí prometió que se instalarían mesas de diálogo para abrir la playa, lo que no agradó a vecinos desalojados por Andrés Villalobos y derivó en una serie de reclamos.

Al finalizar el evento se acercó un lugareño, Fausto Robles, quien le recordó al mandatario su promesa de abrir la playa en los primeros días de su gobierno, habiendo pasado ya tres meses. El gobernador argumentó que elementos jurídicos obstaculizaban la resolución del problema.

“Yo le contesté que no, que era una playa pública, un bien de la nación y que debe estar abierta y no secuestrada, y está secuestrada y eso es un delito federal. Esto es un tema político”, declaró ese día Fausto Robles a medios de comunicación.

En reacción a estos reclamos y a fin de cumplir su promesa, Sandoval Díaz ordenó al secretario general de Gobierno, Arturo Zamora Jiménez, y a uno de sus colaboradores más cercanos, Alberto Lamas, sostener una reunión con los afectados por el cierre de la playa.

Ésta se concreto el miércoles pasado, durante la cual, según Zamora Jiménez, los pobladores sólo exigieron la liberación de la bahía. La contraparte no estuvo presente en dicha reunión; aunque el 14 de marzo de este año, durante el cambio de la Mesa Directiva de la Cámara Nacional de Comercio (Canaco) de Guadalajara, se encontraron Sandoval Díaz y Andrés Villalobos, quienes estuvieron juntos todo el evento.

La bahía de Tenacatita fue “secuestrada” luego de que la madrugada del 4 de agosto de 2010, 150 policías estatales arribaran de manera sorpresiva a la zona para expulsar violentamente a los habitantes del lugar con base en una orden de desalojo emitida por el juez de Cihuatlán, Victoriano González

Tenacatita Update 5/13/13

Posted by Dobie on May 14, 2013, 7:18 am

After months with no news, there has finally been some forward movement. On May 8, 2 members of the Rebalsito ejido and fishing cooperative, along with several lawyers and associates, went to Mexico City and filed a denuncia (formal complaint) with the Attorney General’s office relating to the events that took place on August 4, 2010 when the beach was taken over and everyone was forced to leave their homes and businesses. It also included events that happened later that night, when drunk security police came into town and terrorized people, shooting guns into the air as well as firing rubber bullets, storming into houses and roughing people up (including minors and an elderly man). Other federal offences, like cutting the mangroves, were also noted. 

Individual denuncias were filed with the county shortly after August 4, but never went anywhere. It was obvious what side the government was on. Meetings with state and federal officials (when they happened) were a sham. The fact that the denuncia filed last week was accepted is a good thing. Hopefully this time the charges will be investigated and the papers won’t languish in the desk of some bureaucrat. 

The other positive news is that SEMARNAT (the environmental agency) won the amparo filed by Rodenas regarding the concession. To briefly review, Rodenas’ concession (the right to use federal property, in this case, Tenacatita beach) came up for renewal in 2012 and SEMARNAT refused to renew their permit. Then SEMARNAT gave the concession to the municipality of La Huerta. Rodenas filed an amparo (similar to an injunction) against La Huerta and SEMARNAT which has prevented La Huerta from taking possession. Although SEMARNAT won, the case still has to go through a review, and then a final decision is made. Usually whoever wins the case, wins the review because the decision can only change if new information is introduced, but this is not always the case. 

A little history while we wait

Here's an excerpt from the book The Magic of Careyes which is basically a coffee table foto album but does have some info on the history of Careyes and the Costalegre:

The Jalisco coast had remained pristine until 1944, halfway through the twentieth century, when the state governor, General Marcelino García Barragán, introduced an initiative called Marcha hacia el mar (“March to the Sea”). García Barragán had a road built from Guadalajara to Melaque, to allow ranchers to settle that part of Jalisco. He himself claimed ownership of a beach called El Tecuán. The story of the coastal colonization he initiated would later become the subject of Agustín Yáñez’s novel La tierra pródiga (“The Prodigal Land”), written in the late 1950s, during the years that Yáñez himself served as governor of Jalisco.

In his novel, Yáñez reflected on the natural resources of the state’s coastal regions, which had been monopolized by lumber companies, land usurpers, cattle thieves and horse thieves. He was very skeptical about colonization, after seeing the destruction that the March to the Sea had caused in Melaque: “Heavy equipment kept arriving […] advancing heavily, slowly, inexorably. They tore down trees, broke down mountains, filled abysses. […] Monstrous tractors, gigantic bulldozers, colossal scrapers and enormous dump trucks. They came from the East, the North, the South, marching toward the sea.” Yáñez’s world was peopled with fascinating, crooked caciques (land owners) such as El Amarillo, the novel’s main character, based on Rodolfo Paz Vizcaíno, owner of Tenacatita ranch. Guillermo Gargollo knew him well. “The legend (of his own fabrication) has it that he was a brutal man, who had killed many people. Later, I realized it wasn’t true, but still, we were scared of him.”

On one of Gargollo’s trips to the coast, he discovered that Paz Vizcaíno had stolen their equipment in Cuixmala in order to build access roads to the beaches in Tenacatita. He built a hotel there and named it Los Ángeles Locos . Paz Vizcaíno had always been a fortunate man, but he never had the chance to stay at that hotel, and ended up losing it along with the rest of his properties, which were repossessed after he was charged with fraud involving the Banco Regional de Crédito de Occidente. The story did not end well: he was sent to prison, and then to a mental hospital, or so they say.

Latest from Dobie

In a nutshell, the amparo was lost because the judges said the plaintiffs weren't able to prove possession before 1999 when possession was given to la Sra. Paz Gotazar after she won the amparo against the ejido. She never took possession. Although the lawyers submitted documents proving possession (in some cases) before that date the judge ruled that the ejido had no legal right to transfer properties since they never owned the land, therefore the papers of cesion de derechos from the ejido weren't valid.

The lawyer said, "It is illegal for the District Court to raise the validity of the documents that supported the legitimacy of the possession, because that is not the subject matter of our amparo claims. The validity of such documents must be discussed in a civil court, where the parties would be able to produce arguments and evidence to support the validity of the same".

Three of the plaintiffs have titles or fidecomiso for their properties. The titles were granted starting in 2006, signed by the President of Mexico. These 3 can go through another process to demand from the federal government indemnification for their losses, since the it was the federal government that gave them the titles.

The lawyer says, "We disagree with the court ruling. We believe it creates an absurd, and that it leaves defenseless bona fide acquirers. We are really frustrated and disappointed of our courts". (He writes in English for the benefit of the non-Spanish speakers. As you can tell, English is not his native language.

Oddly enough, some members of the ejido have won their amparos, however their lots are not in the 42 hectares.They have a judges order saying that Rodenas has to allow them to take possession of their lot and fence it. But so far no judge has showed up on the assigned dates to enforce the judicial order. There are many different lawyers and individual amparos involved in this case. Also the ejido as a whole has an amparo which would affect all properties that were on ejido lands.

El Registro Agraria Nacional (RAN), that expedites the titles, says the titles are valid. By studying the original documents, they have finally delineated the 42 hectares that Rodenas bought. It's a rectangle with 4 points, N,E,S,W. The papers have been falsified to show more than double that amount of land, and now there are over 50 different reference points.

Meanwhile the amparo that Rodenas filed against the municipio of La Huerta and SEMARNAT regarding the concession of the beach, has yet to be resolved.

This is surely the long and winding road.....as we approach our 3rd holiday season with no beach. However, there are excellent restaurants at the boca del rio (La Mosca and Chely) and the river is delightful for cooling off; but please don't go in the ocean there - it's dangerous.

dobie

Tenacatita Cerrada

Caricaturista: Gerardo Gómez Jiménez