Protests broke out in Holbox, Yucatan Island on June 1st. A Coca-Cola bottler and entrepreneur from the mainland is trying to build in paradise but local residents say he stole their property titles. Peninsula Maya Developments aims to build a mega tourism project on disputed land.
Ejido – In Mexican system of government, an ejido is an area of communal land used for agriculture, on which community members individually possess and farm a specific parcel. Ejidos are registered with Mexico’s National Agrarian Registry (Registro Agrario Nacional).
CANCUN, MX -. At an assembly denounced as illegal which only lasted an hour and ten minutes and was protected by riot police of the Government of Quintana Roo, on Sunday the theft of ejido land Holbox began. Located within the natural protected sands of Yum Balam, the decision was unanimously approved to divide the island into four suburbs as part of a strategy to marginalize the original ejidatarios (owners of ejidos) and facilitate the development of a tourism megaproject driven by Fernando Ponce, Yucatecan entrepreneur, bottler of Coca-Cola in the Yucatan Peninsula.
As approved by the controversial assembly, Holbox, in the municipality of Lázaro Cárdenas, would be divided into four suburbs: Holbox, Isla Holbox, Holbox Peninsula and Punta Holbox, which would open the doors to the company Maya Peninsula Developments in Ara partnership with the realtor for plans for a resort that involves building 875 villas and condos, three hotels, commercial area, and port channels, among other works.
While the illegal assembly was carried out dozens of villagers and ejidatarios, including representatives of ejidos such as Solferino, La Esperanza and Los Tres Reyes who came to the island in solidarity, demonstrated against the dispossession of the true owners of the lands coveted Holbox Island. The ejido Holbox Nirvardo Villanueva Mena, reported that the meeting was illegal and proceeded to challenge it. Meanwhile, Armando Miranda, a lawyer for the ejido, said the meeting violated a provisional suspension so it was illegal and will seek to demonstrate their invalidity in court.
An AVAAZ Petition has gathered almost 43,000 signatures to save Holbox.
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Background:
According to the group “Yo Defiendo a Holbox” (I defend to Holbox or YDH), in an interview with the weekly Proceso, 70 ejidatarios who attended the meeting are not native or living on the island. These are entrepreneurs or Yucatecan straw men realtors that illegally obtained ejido certificates (land titles).
They explained that since “11 or 12 years ago” Fernando Ponce and Castilla Ermilo suggested the ejido of Holbox build a society in order to “lift” the island with a mega resort. Entrepreneurs, the Ara group and the ejido of Holbox integrated Mega Peninsula Development, but months later offered the ejidatarios to buy their beachfront plots. Only 70 of the 117 owners agreed to sell their plots at five million pesos. The rest decided to wait.
After the sale, García Ponce, Castile and Ara Roche Group took over almost the entire coastal strip known as La Ensenada, in the center of the island, according to the villagers.
They also demanded agricultural certificates and promised the ejidatarios that they would remain under guard while conducting studies and obtaining permits for tourism development on the island. Then Castilla Roche told the people they had lost certificates.
“There was a loss, actually Castilla Roche seized these documents,” said YDH.
The villagers then realized they had been scammed twice, because the real price of their land was 99 million pesos, and they never recovered their ejido certificates.
So, they were left without land rights and were replaced by 70 Yucatan “ejidatarios”, who conducted the meeting on June 1 to oust the current board, headed Nivardo Mena Villanueva, and divided the Holbox ejido, inhabited by about 2000 people.
Today, with the approval of the division of the island into four ejidos, dispossession started, but still needs to materialize and agreements applied.