The Guadalajara businessman who won a two-decade court battle allowing him to evict dozens of people living on a swath of land adjoining the Tenacatita beach in southern Jalisco said Wednesday that some foreigners were probably tricked into buying land there.
“It’s untrue that these people have titles to this land,” Andres Villalobos said in a press conference.
Villalobos claimed that federally certified titles issued since 2006, all bearing the signatures of either President Vicente Fox or President Felipe Calderon, pertain to other parts of the 900-hectare Rebalse de Apazulco ejido – not the beachfront land, which he said had been in his family for 38 years. Legal rulings in federal courts will soon clear up this issue, he maintained.
“The land adjoining the beach is not part of the ejido,” Villalobos said, referring to a Supreme Court ruling in 1977. “These people (ejidatorios) over the years in different processes have been changing things to be able to continue selling and developing the land.
“The (foreigners) bought badly and were badly advised,” Villalobos continued. “We can’t offer them indemnification but we would cover all the costs of legal action against the people who conned them and try and put them all in jail.”
Villalobos said he doubted many people had purchased land in good faith but nonetheless would assist those willing to make a formal criminal complaint.
Villalobos said his company, Rodenas, has already filed criminal charges against La Huerta Mayor Carlos Ramirez, as well as Jose Luis Gutierrez Miranda, the director general of the Environment Secretariat’s federal zone maritime-terrestrial area and the former Jalisco delegate of the National Immigration Institute (INM). Also named in the suit are the municipal delegate in the Tenacatita area, as well as the Rebalse de Apazulco ejido commissioners.
Villalobos said all were partners in a fraudulent project to sell and develop the beachfront land. “You can see on the internet that these people wanted to make a huge development on the estero (wetland) with hundreds of lots and where they have absolutely no permission.”
Villalobos said he had not seen documents showing that any land or property in the disputed area is held in a bank fideicomisio, but did not consider that would provide any greater weight to a land claim.
Villalobos said it took 38 years of fighting in the courts for him to get back his land. After such a long wait, he has no intention of giving it up cheaply.
Villalobos said he is paying 100 state auxiliary police officers – some heavily armed – to guard the land. Twenty-five locals have already joined his operation, he boasted.
“It’s untrue that we have blocked the road to the beach,” he said. “The road stops at the start of our property. After this point there is only our land.”
In an earlier interview, Villalobos’ lawyer Jorge Diaz Topete told the Reporter that the ejidatarios built the road on his client’s land, so it cannot be considered either a state or federal highway.
Earlier in the day, Mexican Environment Secretary Rafael Elvira said that by law the access to the Tenacatia beach should be open to the public. Fernando Guzman, the state government secretary, agreed the constitution demanded this, but believed the road should remain closed given the volatility in the area and the likelihood of violence, and potentially deaths.
Diaz Topete said anyone is free to disembark on the beach – federal land – from the ocean. Legally, he admitted, Rodenas cannot prevent them from landing.
Villalobos said that to his knowledge no one has actually tried to land, although one journalist said police threatened her and others when they tried to disembark on the beach. Other reports suggest that Mexican Navy officers were sent packing by state police and told to “mind their own business.”
The real estate developer insisted that not everyone has been denied access. Asked how the guards are determining who to let through, he said: “We’ll allow through families with children who want to use the beach.”
Villalobos indicated there were other “pathways” to reach the beach that do not pass through his land, in particular via a “cemetery where people used to bury their dead.”
He also said his staff have been in contact with the local fisherman’s cooperative and are ready to work with them. “We have nothing against them,” he said.
The businessman started out his press conference held at the plush headquarters of the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce by explaining how those carrying out the August 4 eviction order were the real victims of the aggression.
He showed photographs of injuries sustained by a human rights visitor during the eviction, as well as damage to police vehicles, including several bullet holes. He identified “agitators” among the protesters, some of whom he said were “armed with sticks.”
Images taken by Villalobos’ employes showed the how the wire fencing erected around the 80-hectare piece of land stops at the beach. Photos also showed previous constructions that have invaded the mangrove swamp.
“It’s a victory for the rule of law,” he said, after heaping praise on Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez for his courage in supporting the Tenacatita eviction. (Gonzalez, however, has tried to distance himself from the matter, saying it’s a judicial affair, and last week urged both sides to start negotiations.)
Continued Villalobos: “This country is never going to change unless we adhere to the rule of law. After 38 years we are getting justice. We are businessmen and we are going to make this a place that the country deserves. We will elevate the name of Jalisco.”
Villalobos said the new resort in Tenacatita would spearhead the entire development of the Costa Sur of Jalisco. He vowed it would “create many jobs.”
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