Preservationists target Fort Randolph

by Eric Jackson

The very first US military installation to revert to Panamanian hands when the Carter-Torrijos Treaties went into effect was the former Fort Randolph, on Colon province's Isla Margarita between Coco Solo and Galeta Island. Some years later, a part of the island was conceded by ARI to a Taiwanese firm, which first proposed a hotel project and upscale residential development, and then an industrial park. At the time, the concession was the object of bitter allegations of corruption (never proven, nor, so it seems, even investigated). The years have gone by and none of the developers' plans have come to pass - problems with fresh water, which it seems was wrongly presumed to have been available from the Panama Canal, may have something to do with that - and though the concessionaires still post guards on their part of the old fort, the only economic activity that seems to be ongoing is the excavation of fill dirt.

Now an alliance of historic preservationists, environmentalists and public officials wants to correct what they see as an old mistake, oust the concessionaire, cancel ARI land use plans that color Isla Margarita and the remaining adjacent mangroves pink for industrial urban sprawl, and restore the old fortifications as a national historic site. They have launched their campaign with biologist Gloria Batista de Vega's glossy 48-page booklet, "Defendamos Isla Margarita," which makes both the ecological and historical cases and includes appeals by Colon province's governor, Luciana P. de Policani, and by the Refineria Panama's Gordon Smith. On July 4 they took their campaign to the regular monthly meeting of the Panama Historical Society at Niko's in Balboa, which was attended by, in addition to the speakers and the usual history buffs, a number of government officials from the municipal, provincial and national levels.

Mrs. Batista de Vega, who has her biology degree from the University of Panama and a master's in coastal management from Berkeley, where she is now a doctoral candidate, set her arguments in the context of "Colon's struggle for economic development." Noting that from Portobelo to Fort San Lorenzo, Colon province has five centuries of old coastal defenses, she pointed out that Randolph's batteries, though they were never tested in battle, are rare examples of American military architecture, whose only close counterpart is fast disappearing in the Philippines. She said that in the United States, there are historical preservation groups working very hard to save much less impressive old coastal fortifications for posterity.

Moreover, Batista de Vega pointed to Isla Margarita's lagoon and surrounding mangroves, in which 95 species live and breed, including crabs, lobsters, shrimp, fish and octopi that feed many Colon residents who have few other sources of sustenance. "The blue land crab is now threatened with extinction in the area, and this is one of its last strongholds," she said.

Lamenting "illegal developments" and "badly thought industrial projects" that would be carried out without proper environmental impact studies, the night's main speaker denounced an "incredible threat to the fortifications, which we would lose" if the concessionaires ever carried out their plans, she said that her book is to "raise consciousness that this is a jewel that can be saved."

The night's second speaker, history professor Eyra Reyes, started by reading from an early 20th century American poem:

Heavy guns at Fort Randolph
Keep the trade winds blowing free

She followed with details of the fort's four batteries, Webb, Weed, Tidball and Zalinski, and the area's military history. "We're worried that something valuable might be destroyed," she said. "They're digging up the site, destroying it. This was the first military installation that passed to Panama, and it's a shame what has happened."

In the discussion, Colon city planner Daniel Chen opined that since the concessionaires haven't complied with the plans for which their project had been granted, the deal is now legally voidable and the property should belong to the municipal government. Though he noted that it seems that the National Environmental Authority granted a permit for the concessionaire to excavate somewhere along the line, others argued out that this activity illegally damages a national historical site, without the required permit to do so from the National Cultural Institute.

And thus it seems that a political fight is brewing over old Fort Randolph.

"Defendamos Isla Margarita," available now in Spanish and soon to be released in an English version, is available from Gloria Batista de Vega and can be ordered by email at batistag@tivoli.si.edu.

 

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