San Carlos beach wars, episode ∞

San Carlos beach wars, episode ∞
photos and captions by Eric Jackson

The argument has been going on for years. A wealthy developer with powerful political connections wants to more or less appropriate the public beach for his private project. That sort of thing has been going on all over Panama, in each instance with its local twist.

In San Carlos it's Gabriel Diez, the former housing minister from the Torrijos administration, whose PRD allies include San Carlos Mayor Víctor López. His family company, Desarrollo Turistico de San Carlos SA, came into possession of the failed public Turicentro on Playa Ensenada, plus a lot of adjacent beachfront land. In the Torrijos administration Diez became vice minister of housing, under Balbina Herrera, and when Balbina left to run for president he was promoted to be minister. He wants to build a series of high-rise condos along the beach, and his company got many of the permits for these from the Housing Ministry (MIVI) while he was a top official there. But wait --- no conflict of interest here, because he put the company in his son's name, so the tale went.

The Diez family also cut down a bunch of mangroves and fenced off access to much of the public beach, and were challenged in court and in administrative proceedings by some of the neighbors. But they got various offices in the Torrijos administration to find that it really couldn't be proven who bulldozed the mangroves, and it's fine to appropriate the beach. As the former PRD government looked to be on its way out, the real estate bubble had burst and the condo project was apparently put on hold, but work on reopening the old tourist center as a private business accelerated.

The club is now open as a $25 per person per day all-included operation, and it's both a popular attraction and a source of jobs in the town of San Carlos.

However, although López retained his job as mayor last May, the political balances have shifted on both national and local levels. Plus, opponents of the fencing of public access to Playa Ensenada have won in court.

And so the corregidor, Rolando Samaniego, ordered the opening of a public right-of-way to where there used to be an old road to the beach. (It may have been only six years since that beach access was fenced at this point, but a large tree in the middle of the path says that it has been decades since this was used as a road.)

A survey was done, a crew got to work, and the town's representante, Rubén Muñoz, provided the signs. Access to that part of the beach sometimes called Puerto Escondido is now open to the public. But the Diezes are appealing.

Assuming that it's correct that the Diezes unlawfully blocked public access to too long of a stretch of beach --- and that does appear to be the case --- then the issue of just where to put the public access right-of-way becomes a relevant public planning decision. Where it was placed, on the continuation of the old Camino de los Muertos, might not be the best place. However, this battle has been fought with private actions, insider politics and litigation rather than by democratic processes, and that has prevented sound public planning after complete and transparent public debate. Public access is where it is, for now.

Or is it? Right after the right-of-way was opened, the mayor declared that only coaster buses, not the diablo rojo buses from the city, can go down the road to the beach. There are people who are annoyed with the Diezes who also don't especially like the large crowds coming in by the busload, but that's a public access issue as well, which will affect not only the beach near the recently opened right-of-way, but also the popular public bathing spot just past the fishing village at the end of the road, beyond the Diez property.

Some argue that the new access needed to be open because the rest of the beach is either privatized or dirty.

This reporter walked the beach in front of the new private resort and was not stopped from doing so. There was a substantial crowd using that part of the beach, with the people wearing plastic wrist bands indicating that they had paid for admission. Desarrollo Turistico doesn't let people bring in bottles, cans or such throw-aways, and they have people paid to keep the place reasonably clean.

Get past the Diezes' property to the fishing village and beyond, and the beach has a lot of litter. The resources and priorities are not such that people are hired by the local government to collect it on a regular basis. It would be reasonable to expect that the part of the beach around the new public access will be trash-strewn in short order. But maybe those who would fight to make sure that public beaches remain public might get so radical as to fight on to make sure that they remain in a natural state as well.

The public entrance is not far from the private one

That's a leaf blowing in the wind, not a flying saucer, giant manta ray or PRD drone

Note the orange surveyor's marks

An uncrowded public beach

Down at the other end of the Diez's property, by the fishing village, you can see the physical evidence of how the public beach has been partially appropriated. Under Panamanian law the public beach is measured inland from the high-water line. But see what the high water has done to the fence at the private beach resort.

Also in this section:
Schedule for Panama's big week of jazz
San Carlos beach wars, episode ∞
Architects and engineers pan 70-story tower on old US Embassy site
Embera architectural details
A Dutch visitor's take on Panama
Doing lunch at Rincon Aleman
Some Veraguas architectural details

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