Puerto Rico: Anti-privatization struggle won't go away

Very early on July 29, five activists from the organization Amigos del MAR, led by Tito Kayak, climbed upon and occupied four giant cranes at the construction site of the “Fortín San Jerónimo” in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

They were protesting the government, developer and politicians for privatizing public lands and denying the people access to the small fort and the beach, which is a constitutional right.

Under the Puerto Rican Constitution, the beaches are public domain, thus they are to be used and enjoyed by all. Therefore, there cannot be any obstruction of or obstruction of the access to the beaches.

In reality, this constitutional right has been violated by previous government administrations which have sold off rights to the beaches illegally to corrupt politicians and to appease the rich.

During ex-governor Pedro Rosselló’s term he further implemented Washington’s neo-liberal policies and privatized all government-run entities, including water, telephone, health care, insurance, etc., all while pushing for statehood.

The following administration run by the pro-colonial party under Sila Calderón deepened the crisis on the island by allowing the resale of public land entities to private developers at low costs. The current pro-colonial party under Acevedo Vilá is being forced to act on these policies.

In all actuality and in the time span of the last decade the Fortín San Jerónimo’s access became private and the beaches surrounding the small fort became off-limits as well, without the public’s knowledge or consent.

Amigos del MAR demand that the access be opened and that an official investigation begin into the legality of the construction. Allies of Amigos del MAR have called for the demolition of the buildings. The activists in Puerto Rico are looking at what other activists are doing around the world on this issue and cited a number of demolitions brought about by the struggle in Spain.

On Aug. 9, an EFE (Spanish news agency) report with the headline, “Hotel constructed on the beach is expropriated” stated that “like the central government as well as that of the region of Andalucía, the one that belongs to Almería, the plans of demolition of the hotel complex and the return of these lands to the natural park will go on as scheduled” in the southwest part of Spain on the Mediterranean side.

The Vilá administration and the police did not allow water or food to be brought to the five activists occupying the cranes.

On Aug. 2 the lawyers association had a press conference in defense of the right of the five activists to receive nourishment and a picket was called for 5 p.m. the same day.

This writer participated in the action to take five backpacks to the activists on four cranes of which only one occupier became the recipient of the humanitarian aid. Five other activists in the attempt were detained by the police, but were later released without charges.

On Aug. 5, the first people’s tribunal ever held in Puerto Rico attracted more than 1,000 supporters. It exposed the illegality of the construction by the developer Arturo Madero, the violation of sovereignty by foreign capital—in this case Hilton International—and the violation of national law by the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DRNA), the Zoning Commission (La Junta de Planificación) and the government itself.

The eight judges denounced the continuation of the construction and called for an official investigation and the demolition of such structures.

On Aug. 6, the participants of the people’s tribunal demanded of the government that they be part of the official investigation of the “Paseo Caribe,” where the Fortín San Jerónimo is located.

As the tribunal was winding down and the last activist descended from the giant crane, the people amassed by the gated entrance waiting to greet him and the others. When he appeared the people demanded to be let into the site.

After the conclusion of the press conference with all the activists that occupied the cranes, there was a spontaneous march to the Fortín San Jerónimo led by Amigos del MAR. The people poured in and took over the Paseo chanting “¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!” and “¡Lucha, Sí! ¡Privatización, No!”

Since then revelations in the press of corruption, of violations of state statutes, of the denial on the part of the developer and others of any illegality, etc., are being viewed by many as tactics to pacify the movement.

Yet, resistance to privatization of the beaches is building and it is not restricted to Paseo Caribe. On the morning of Aug. 5, hundreds of people in support of the Pro-defense Coalition of the Beach of Puerto Nuevo of Vega Baja took over the township and the streets demanding that the mayor stop the privatization project of the public beach.

On a phone interview with Ismael Guadalupe from Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques (Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques), he told WW that “This struggle is not only about protecting our national heritage, our beaches, but in reality it is a struggle of the poor and the working people against capital, the transnational corporations and the rich.”

Yet the struggle for the end to detonations of Navy bombs by the U.S. agents, the decontamination and the return of the occupied lands (more than 52 percent of the island) by the U.S. government, so that the people of Vieques can control and have a say in the development of Vieques, continues.

The struggle has taught people that united they can kick out the colonizing force as they did in Vieques. It is just a matter of time before a united struggle will also kick out foreign capital.

For more information on this development, go to Amigos del MAR’s Web site, which is www.tuplayaenreja.com.