Colombia-Island War
8-14-1995
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BARU, Colombia (AP) _ For centuries, the waters off the beautiful Spanish-colonial city of Cartagena have brought invaders.
Pirates hunted treasure-laden Spanish galleons setting sail from Cartagena into the Caribbean. The British navy laid siege to the walled city in the 18th century and was repelled by Spanish cannons, yellow fever and malaria. A 19th-century Spanish invasion aimed at crushing an independence movement had better luck, succeeding after a 106-day siege.
Now, new invaders are arriving. Armed with money instead of muskets, they are taking land and ruining pristine beaches on long-ignored islands offshore, and throwing into question the future of the islands' natives. The conflict has even turned bloody.
Inhabited mostly by descendants of slaves brought from Africa, the islands are a stark contrast to Cartagena's high-rise hotels, casinos and discos. They have no running water, maintained roads, sewage systems or telephones.
But after centuries of neglect, there is sudden intense interest in the islands, particularly Baru (pronounced bah-ROO) because of plans to build a $500 million resort on that isle about eight miles from Cartagena.
For a half-century, Baru did not have a single police officer to patrol its 15-mile length. Now a dozen, armed with assault rifles and wearing combat fatigues, are stationed in the island's principal town, also named Baru.
"Land invaders" _ people who swoop onto the beach, build a rough shelter and claim the patch as their own _ have been coming, hoping to cash in on land values that are expected to soar because of the resort.
Ownership of many plots is clouded by the loss of land titles through the generations. Some invaders have reportedly obtained bogus titles by bribing officials.
Police Inspector Casto Villareal's job is to keep order.
"For more than 50 years there were no government authorities here _ until April 11, 1995, when we arrived," Villareal said in an interview in his office in a cement building.
A typewriter clacked away as an aide took a lawyer's statement about a land dispute, one of dozens the police station has handled.
"We've had many problems with land ownership here recently," Villareal, a Baru native, noted drily.
It all began when two Colombian companies and the government's National Tourism Corporation, which own land surrounding a white-sand beach on Baru, decided to develop the parcel into a resort with four luxury hotels, a golf course, a yacht club, a marina, discos and restaurants.
Carmen Arevalo, project manager for the planned resort, said the partners tried to keep the deal under wraps but word spread and triggered the land invasions.
White-collar criminals from Cartagena are paying Baru natives to invade the land where the resort will be built, in order to lay claim to it and seek settlements with the corporations, Arevalo said.
Private security guards now patrol the site, known as Playa Blanca, to chase off squatters as soon as they arrive, she said.
The conflicts are escalating. A few days after an Associated Press reporter and photographer visited Baru, four men who said they were island natives were shot and wounded. They said private security guards shot them, the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo reported. Eight other people were arrested for allegedly buying and selling government land illegally, El Tiempo said.
Land outside the resort boundaries is also being invaded. Outsiders _ knowing land values will skyrocket with construction of the resort _ are building homes and taking sand from existing beaches to build private ones. Villareal is trying to put a stop to it.
So much sand has been taken from Playa de Los Muertos, a beach next to Baru town, that its name in Spanish _ Beach of the Dead _ seems wierdly prescient. The beach now really is dead. Where before there was an expanse of white sand, the sea now reaches a tangle of mangroves.
Local residents are divided over the resort. Construction is planned to begin in about a year.
Ruben Salas, a 55-year-old fisherman, says the resort will mean jobs.
It will hire locals for the construction, he said. And when it is finished, he added, residents will be able to sell their fish, fruits and vegetables to the restaurants instead of taking them by boat all the way to Cartagena, a trip of more than an hour.
But Villareal, even though he is bringing the rule of law that will ultimately help the resort's construction, fears that development eventually will drive the natives off the island because of high prices and land ownership disputes.
"I think that someday we will all be expelled from here," he said. "When you have those with no money going against those with money, the ones with money always win."
^By ANDREW SELSKY=
^Associated Press Writer=
BARU, Colombia (AP) _ For centuries, the waters off the beautiful Spanish-colonial city of Cartagena have brought invaders.
Pirates hunted treasure-laden Spanish galleons setting sail from Cartagena into the Caribbean. The British navy laid siege to the walled city in the 18th century and was repelled by Spanish cannons, yellow fever and malaria. A 19th-century Spanish invasion aimed at crushing an independence movement had better luck, succeeding after a 106-day siege.
Now, new invaders are arriving. Armed with money instead of muskets, they are taking land and ruining pristine beaches on long-ignored islands offshore, and throwing into question the future of the islands' natives. The conflict has even turned bloody.
Inhabited mostly by descendants of slaves brought from Africa, the islands are a stark contrast to Cartagena's high-rise hotels, casinos and discos. They have no running water, maintained roads, sewage systems or telephones.
But after centuries of neglect, there is sudden intense interest in the islands, particularly Baru (pronounced bah-ROO) because of plans to build a $500 million resort on that isle about eight miles from Cartagena.
For a half-century, Baru did not have a single police officer to patrol its 15-mile length. Now a dozen, armed with assault rifles and wearing combat fatigues, are stationed in the island's principal town, also named Baru.
"Land invaders" _ people who swoop onto the beach, build a rough shelter and claim the patch as their own _ have been coming, hoping to cash in on land values that are expected to soar because of the resort.
Ownership of many plots is clouded by the loss of land titles through the generations. Some invaders have reportedly obtained bogus titles by bribing officials.
Police Inspector Casto Villareal's job is to keep order.
"For more than 50 years there were no government authorities here _ until April 11, 1995, when we arrived," Villareal said in an interview in his office in a cement building.
A typewriter clacked away as an aide took a lawyer's statement about a land dispute, one of dozens the police station has handled.
"We've had many problems with land ownership here recently," Villareal, a Baru native, noted drily.
It all began when two Colombian companies and the government's National Tourism Corporation, which own land surrounding a white-sand beach on Baru, decided to develop the parcel into a resort with four luxury hotels, a golf course, a yacht club, a marina, discos and restaurants.
Carmen Arevalo, project manager for the planned resort, said the partners tried to keep the deal under wraps but word spread and triggered the land invasions.
White-collar criminals from Cartagena are paying Baru natives to invade the land where the resort will be built, in order to lay claim to it and seek settlements with the corporations, Arevalo said.
Private security guards now patrol the site, known as Playa Blanca, to chase off squatters as soon as they arrive, she said.
The conflicts are escalating. A few days after an Associated Press reporter and photographer visited Baru, four men who said they were island natives were shot and wounded. They said private security guards shot them, the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo reported. Eight other people were arrested for allegedly buying and selling government land illegally, El Tiempo said.
Land outside the resort boundaries is also being invaded. Outsiders _ knowing land values will skyrocket with construction of the resort _ are building homes and taking sand from existing beaches to build private ones. Villareal is trying to put a stop to it.
So much sand has been taken from Playa de Los Muertos, a beach next to Baru town, that its name in Spanish _ Beach of the Dead _ seems wierdly prescient. The beach now really is dead. Where before there was an expanse of white sand, the sea now reaches a tangle of mangroves.
Local residents are divided over the resort. Construction is planned to begin in about a year.
Ruben Salas, a 55-year-old fisherman, says the resort will mean jobs.
It will hire locals for the construction, he said. And when it is finished, he added, residents will be able to sell their fish, fruits and vegetables to the restaurants instead of taking them by boat all the way to Cartagena, a trip of more than an hour.
But Villareal, even though he is bringing the rule of law that will ultimately help the resort's construction, fears that development eventually will drive the natives off the island because of high prices and land ownership disputes.
"I think that someday we will all be expelled from here," he said. "When you have those with no money going against those with money, the ones with money always win."
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