• Despite the fact that the land is in agrarian litigation, entrepreneurs, owners of El Alquimista began to build bungalows, violating municipal and agrarian laws
• They remove seals of works closing twice and allied with Zipolite representative
• Municipal authorities initiate route Legal for contempt
• They remove seals of works closing twice and allied with Zipolite representative
• Municipal authorities initiate route Legal for contempt
With gangster methods, Zipolite's representative, Berenice Díaz, backed the contempt of El Alquimista's businessmen.
Patricia Pacheco
SAN PEDRO POCHUTLA .- In spite of there being an order of suspension of work on the part of the City council of San Pedro Pochutla and also an exhorto in the same sense on the part of Commissariat of Communal Goods; Businessman Daniel Gustavo Cohen Sabban, owner of restaurant El Alquimista, insists on violating the law and building a bungalow on a land in agrarian litigation owned by Gloria Johnson Ramirez, founder of Zipolite and owner of the legendary hostel Shambala.
Work begins on land in litigation
For several days, entrepreneurs owners of The Alchemist, insist on building on a property that is in agrarian litigation.
For several months there has been a dispute over an area of approximately 1,000 square meters, located on the shore of the beach, on the side of El Alquimista, on the southern part of Zipolite beach, which forms part of the land occupied by the hostel and ceremonial center Shambala, which was illegally sold to Daniel Cohen by the particular Juan Martinez Ramirez, a former collaborator of Gloria Johnson, who committed abuse of trust passed through as owner of the same through apocryphal documents.
After paying a millionaire sum to Juan Martinez, the businessman, who is a partner of the Argentine Marcelo Barbas Larrarte and Juan Carlos Malazzo Muti, decided to start building a luxury bungalow on the property, despite the fact that he is in a litigation Agrarian, which has been censored not only by authorities, but by the bulk of the community of Zipolite, who qualify the grievance to Gloria, a woman of advanced age, as an abuse on the part of employers.
The law "alchemists" and agent break
It was thus as the first communal organ of Pochutla extended a document the past 19 of August, in which Daniel Cohen is asked to stop the work, without that it took heed; But the dispute reached its climax when last Wednesday, after Pochutla authorities suspended the work for lack of construction license, and placed corresponding stamps, the brand new entrepreneurs, endorsed by the agent Berenice Díaz Gómez, broke the mandate And removed the stamps to continue with the works.
The fact put on alert to municipal officials, who described the fact as a disrespect to the authority, and determined to reject the owners of The Alchemist.
On Wednesday afternoon, in a new inspection of the work to reiterate the suspension, officials headed by the Public Works councilor, Heriberto Jacinto Juárez, were confronted by the agent herself and a group of shock subjects, who were haughtily Refused to abide by the suspension.
The property has great value for being on the beach, in the area of highest value in Zipolite.
Closing, preventive measure
According to the councilman of Public Works of Pochutla, the closing of the work is a preventive measure that must be complied with based on the Regulation of Construction and Structural Safety for the State of Oaxaca, since "while the property is in dispute and does not count With a building permit, no work can be carried out in it and it will have to be until the Agrarian Unitary Court issues its resolution that the building can be definitively resumed or canceled. "
This does not seem to matter to the members of El Alquimista - one of them, the most visible, Marcelo Barbas, now with a position in the municipal agency - or to the agent Berenice Diaz, who evades to comply with the law and they gain to pulse the repudiation Of the zipoliteños, acting of gangster form to strip of a land to one of the founders of the beach Zipolite and fighter for decades of the lands in the place.
Asked about this, Gloria Johnson, as affected, claimed to be baffled by the obstinacy of the group of businessmen to act outside the law in order to appropriate a land that does not belong to them, As part of a chain of illegalities initiated by his former collaborator, Juan Martínez.
"I am confident that the law will be applied and the Agrarian Court will do its part so that my rights will not be violated," he reiterated.
Commencement of proceedings against repeat offenders
It is expected that before the new contempt of the employers and the municipal representative, municipal authorities value the use of public forces, and as confirmed by Heriberto Jacinto, will initiate a criminal legal proceeding for the crime in which both the representative, The entrepreneurs or who is responsible for it.
With this, it is hoped that in the next few days the works will be definitively stopped, given the closeness of those who say that the villagers have appropriated other land on the beach not only in Zipolite but also in Mazunte.
By evading the law, the "businessmen" ignored the order of suspension of work issued by Communal Goods and by municipal authorities.
