A story I never wanted to write
As those of you who have followed my adventure know, I truly love this place and while it has its quirks at times they can be overlooked for the most part. However something started December 27, 2008 that couldn't be "overlooked" for many reasons and now it has to be written.
As it is NOB, MX has Federal lands which are preserved for the people of MX. However there seems to be a perverted custom here which is hard to explain. In a nutshell it could be said that if you take over some Federal land and manage to stay there long enough it's almost yours, to the point that in many cases the government actually eventually pays the squatter to leave and buy back their own land. I've seen it happen even since I've been here, some little booths and restaurants had occupied public space in Chapala for over 20 years and in the new push to clean up and make the water front tourist friendly, the City bought out the "owners" to clear them out.
On the pier in Ajijic there is a restaurant that was illegally built and at some point closed, but has reopened and speculation is that the squatter is looking for a buyout. It's also rumored that eventually the Carretera will be widened to 4 lanes and that will require tearing out a strip of business's in the village which are illegally built next to the road, but the "owners" will be paid to leave. Apparently private land owners also have to worry about vacant land being taken over without their permission.
There is one more factor that must be noted; all too often the "squatters" are not poor folks, they are rich and very rich folks who operate in MX under the Golden Rule - in brief, "he who has the gold makes the rules". I'm being introduced to this concept as I type this note. Bribes and corruption of government officials is almost "business as usual".
The house I rent was built many years ago on a street that borders lakeshore Federal land. Apparently about 3 years ago someone with money decided they wanted some "lake front" land and while the lake was much lower at that time, simply came in and built a rock wall around about 5 acres of dry lakeshore and topped it with chain link and barbed wire. Trees were planted and grass and it was actually an attractive area. Neighbors to the west of me built their home with the expectation they would have an unobstructed view of the lake and when the wall was being built they fought it with little success. In the summer of '07 a flood happened as water was diverted by more illegal activity to the west of their home and my pool was flooded with mud etc. As we are next to the lake all runoff from the mountains ends up here and by law drainage cannot be impaired for obvious reasons.
During the rainy season of '08 the lake level rose significantly and water breached the rock wall flooding the nursery as the lake reclaimed it's natural boundaries creating a wonderful wet lands, pics can be seen in Photo Projects 2009 Illegal Land Fill Lake Chapala. All was fine until December 27th when large dump trucks began arriving dumping what I would now estimate at over 10,000 cubic yards of dirt to fill the wetlands and natural lake bed. In essence someone with a lot of money has completely filled the entire 5 acres, built up the walls and continue to fill to this very moment even though shut down by "order of Closurado" several times. Apparently I am witnessing the "golden rule" as we can't even find out who is doing this. Additionally a short wall was built along the road which will prevent natural runoff. Using a laser level I estimate the water could be 6" deep in my pool area before it would flow over the new wall.
We have fought it every way we can think of including the newspaper, the slideshow and letters to President Calderon, environmental groups etc. - yet the illegal filling continues at times up to 12 hours a day until 8pm. The dust, diesel smoke, noise and general aggravation have turned my paradise in a living hell this past month. I confronted them yesterday and they assured me 3 times that yesterday was the final day and they always use the excuse "it's for the trees". I guess they think gringos are as dumb as we look. Their actions are totally illegal, morally bankrupt and in essence someone has stolen 5 acres of Federal land from the lake and from the people of Mexico - oh, the same people also assured me they were not going to build anything - yeah sure they're not, they just spent tens of thousands of dollars hauling and leveling dirt to raise more trees - and I have some prime swamp land for sale.
There is some hope for the future (not for me or this land) in the form of the Ramsar Convention for wetlands. It's an old treaty created in 1971 and apparently Lake Chapala will receive a designation for conservation next week. It may be the frantic actions by this unscrupulous squatter is with the knowledge that once that treaty designates the Lake for conservation he would lose his investment, who knows?
I shouldn't care, I don't own the house, but I find I can't walk away from this yet I'm totally frustrated by not speaking the language, not knowing how to legally fight this action. So, as I said, it's a story I never wanted to write, but it's a story that must be told and repeated to try to prevent this from happening again.
As it is NOB, MX has Federal lands which are preserved for the people of MX. However there seems to be a perverted custom here which is hard to explain. In a nutshell it could be said that if you take over some Federal land and manage to stay there long enough it's almost yours, to the point that in many cases the government actually eventually pays the squatter to leave and buy back their own land. I've seen it happen even since I've been here, some little booths and restaurants had occupied public space in Chapala for over 20 years and in the new push to clean up and make the water front tourist friendly, the City bought out the "owners" to clear them out.
On the pier in Ajijic there is a restaurant that was illegally built and at some point closed, but has reopened and speculation is that the squatter is looking for a buyout. It's also rumored that eventually the Carretera will be widened to 4 lanes and that will require tearing out a strip of business's in the village which are illegally built next to the road, but the "owners" will be paid to leave. Apparently private land owners also have to worry about vacant land being taken over without their permission.
There is one more factor that must be noted; all too often the "squatters" are not poor folks, they are rich and very rich folks who operate in MX under the Golden Rule - in brief, "he who has the gold makes the rules". I'm being introduced to this concept as I type this note. Bribes and corruption of government officials is almost "business as usual".
The house I rent was built many years ago on a street that borders lakeshore Federal land. Apparently about 3 years ago someone with money decided they wanted some "lake front" land and while the lake was much lower at that time, simply came in and built a rock wall around about 5 acres of dry lakeshore and topped it with chain link and barbed wire. Trees were planted and grass and it was actually an attractive area. Neighbors to the west of me built their home with the expectation they would have an unobstructed view of the lake and when the wall was being built they fought it with little success. In the summer of '07 a flood happened as water was diverted by more illegal activity to the west of their home and my pool was flooded with mud etc. As we are next to the lake all runoff from the mountains ends up here and by law drainage cannot be impaired for obvious reasons.
During the rainy season of '08 the lake level rose significantly and water breached the rock wall flooding the nursery as the lake reclaimed it's natural boundaries creating a wonderful wet lands, pics can be seen in Photo Projects 2009 Illegal Land Fill Lake Chapala. All was fine until December 27th when large dump trucks began arriving dumping what I would now estimate at over 10,000 cubic yards of dirt to fill the wetlands and natural lake bed. In essence someone with a lot of money has completely filled the entire 5 acres, built up the walls and continue to fill to this very moment even though shut down by "order of Closurado" several times. Apparently I am witnessing the "golden rule" as we can't even find out who is doing this. Additionally a short wall was built along the road which will prevent natural runoff. Using a laser level I estimate the water could be 6" deep in my pool area before it would flow over the new wall.
We have fought it every way we can think of including the newspaper, the slideshow and letters to President Calderon, environmental groups etc. - yet the illegal filling continues at times up to 12 hours a day until 8pm. The dust, diesel smoke, noise and general aggravation have turned my paradise in a living hell this past month. I confronted them yesterday and they assured me 3 times that yesterday was the final day and they always use the excuse "it's for the trees". I guess they think gringos are as dumb as we look. Their actions are totally illegal, morally bankrupt and in essence someone has stolen 5 acres of Federal land from the lake and from the people of Mexico - oh, the same people also assured me they were not going to build anything - yeah sure they're not, they just spent tens of thousands of dollars hauling and leveling dirt to raise more trees - and I have some prime swamp land for sale.
There is some hope for the future (not for me or this land) in the form of the Ramsar Convention for wetlands. It's an old treaty created in 1971 and apparently Lake Chapala will receive a designation for conservation next week. It may be the frantic actions by this unscrupulous squatter is with the knowledge that once that treaty designates the Lake for conservation he would lose his investment, who knows?
I shouldn't care, I don't own the house, but I find I can't walk away from this yet I'm totally frustrated by not speaking the language, not knowing how to legally fight this action. So, as I said, it's a story I never wanted to write, but it's a story that must be told and repeated to try to prevent this from happening again.
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