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Campaign to back proposed Law 132 goes slightly awry

by Eric Jackson

Proposed Law 132, covering concessions on beach and island lands, is out of committee and before the plenary of the Legislative Assembly, apparently en route to easy passage. This bill is substantially modified from the original draft in many small ways and one big one. The major revision is a grandfather clause that protects those with rights of possession that existed at the time of the law's passage from being dispossessed in favor of tourism concessionaires.

There are still objections from farmers and fishers who mistrust the guarantees in the amended version, and from environmentalists and others who object to the best beaches in this country being privatized by way of tourism development concessions. Now the backers of the proposals, who have never really been willing to identify themselves, their companies and their specific ambitions, are striking back via a propaganda campaign waged by corporate lawyers and local politicians.

But there have been some embarrassing problems.

Among the outspoken critics of Law 132 are biologist Ariel Rodríguez, who was one of the leaders of efforts to block Mireya Moscoso's road through the Volcan Baru National Park and the more recent attempt to develop a subdivision over one of the few remaining intact pieces of the colonial-era Las Cruces Trail; and environmental activist Rina Stella Barba. Then legislator Benicio Robinson (PRD-Bocas del Toro) also remains one of several skeptical members of his party's caucus.

Thus, a publicity offensive has been waged, with Catastro director Benjamín Colomarco going around to communities where opposition is strong to make explanations, a series of columns supporting the law in La Prensa, and newspaper ads backing Law 132 in the names of local officials in the Perlas Islands and coastal Colon province.

One of these ads purports to be a resolution of the Colon Provincial Council, signed by the coastal circuit's mayors and others. But there was a problem. Yira Itzel Molinar, the mayor of Santa Isabel, was listed as a signer and protested that not only did she not sign the ad, but she's strongly opposed to Law 132. She said she'd file a complaint for fraudulent use of her name and office.

So a few days later, the same full-page ad appeared, without Molinar's signature and with a notation that her name had appeared in the previous version by mistake.

But that ad included Cuango's PRD representante and secretary of the provincial council, Ginés Góndola, as a signatory. Now, he, too says he's against Law 132 and his name was affixed to the document without his knowledge or permission.

These matters came to a head when Colomarco and various legislators went to Palenque to answer citizens' questions about the proposal. In response to the reassurances given to the residents of that small town on Colon's Costa Arriba, Benicio Robinson noted that Colomarco's reassurances are not reflected in the text of Law 132, and that once the law's passed, assurances that were not put down in writing in the law will be worthless.

Meanwhile on November 8, La Prensa featured columns opposing Law 132 by Ariel Rodríguez and supporting it by “social communicator” Gonzalo Delgado Q. The latter went heavy on the personal attack, alleging “an orchestrated and paid campaign, directed at distorting the letter and the spirit of this, to set island property owners against it.”

This latter allegation, in turn, set off a furious response from Rina Stella Barba, who said that “we aren't being paid by anybody, nor are we part of any campaign. Nor do we belong to any political party in particular.”

And in fact, while Law 132 came to the legislator out of the Torrijos cabinet, many of the strongest voices against it are coming from members of the PRD. This is particularly the case in coastal Colon, which is a PRD stronghold but apparently not very receptive to the prospect of local beaches being given to big resort developers.
>br>Editor's note: In the original version of this story I incorrectly identified environmental activist Rina Stella Barba as a beachfront property owner. Actually, she isn't.