In the 1990s and 2000s, the municipality of Los Cabos experienced a phenomenon of invasions on private land and in streams, which revealed the housing crisis facing the main tourist destination in Baja California Sur.
Although for more than 10 years there had not been another attempt at irregular settlement, in recent weeks it has been documented that invasions have returned to San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas.
One of the cases was reported in the vicinity of Puerto Nuevo Boulevard, where around 100 people arrived to settle on a piece of land.
With wires and sticks they began an attempt to subdivide the land and set up organized guards day and night to prevent eviction by the authorities. Although the presence of Public Security units was observed, the invaders remained in the place, according to neighbors in the area.
Days later, the Security Board recorded another invasion on communal lands located near the Chulavista subdivision in Cabo San Lucas.
Another group of approximately 35 people arrived at the property belonging to the Ejido of Cabo San Lucas, which is located on Nicolás Tamaral Street.
“This morning we woke up to an attempted invasion of property owned by Ejido CSL in the Av. Tamaral area; we acted in accordance with the protocol of the Baja California Sur State Security Board…”, reported Karen Zumaya, legal representative of the ejido, on August 17.
The leader stressed that they demonstrated that they had the documentation that supports them as legitimate owners, such as public deeds.
“We explained to the people and warned them that we would proceed to put them at the disposal of the authorities if they continued to occupy private property, incurring in the crime of dispossession and invasion,” she specified.
They say that they have identified the leader of this attempt at irregular settlement and urged people not to fall for promises that cannot be kept.
Following these reports, the Baja California Sur Security Board was activated and shortly before the closing of this edition it was confirmed that the invaders of Chulavista and Puerto Nuevo were evicted.
However, the owners of these properties emphasize that there is no guarantee that this will happen again in a scenario in which the administration of the mayor, Oscar Leggs Castro, is closing, who is about to pass the baton of the Municipal Government to Christian Agúndez Gómez.
For his part, the municipal president regretted the situation, assuring that they are already investigating the leaders of these invasions.
“At the moment it occurred, the General Directorate of Public Security appeared to stop this invasion, however, it is an invasion well orchestrated by corrupt leaders and the investigation is already being carried out,” he commented.
“The owners of those stretches have been asked to file a complaint for those spaces, the ejido has already done the same, it already has people watching there to prevent them from appropriating what is not theirs,” he added.
However, Leggs Castro stated that he is unable to intervene if there is no complaint because, in his own words, “the law sometimes does not allow them to act.”
“In the municipal issue, we do our own thing: we are watching. The truth is that they are well organized according to what they have said in the Security Board, they are only waiting for the owners of those lands to file the complaint, they have already been notified so they can act accordingly,” he mentioned.
It should be remembered that Los Cabos is the municipality with the highest number of people living in irregular settlements in Baja California Sur, largely due to the invasions that were reported in the 90s and in 2000, according to state authorities.
According to the Undersecretary of Civil Protection, it is estimated that there are 68 thousand people living in risk and high risk areas in the state: 45 thousand in Los Cabos, eight thousand 500 in Mulegé, six thousand in La Paz, five thousand in Loreto; and three thousand in Comondú.
The Secretary General of the State Government, Saúl González Núñez, warned that they will apply the law without exception and that there will be zero tolerance for any attempt at invasion, whether in Los Cabos or in the rest of Baja California Sur.
They activated the Security Roundtable to work in a coordinated manner with the three levels of government, emphasizing that they will contain and sanction those who direct or take advantage of the need for housing of the citizens.
He explained that there are those who offer spaces with deception, illegally, regardless of whether they are irregular areas, without failing to recognize that there is a problem in Los Cabos where families seek decent and safe property.
Finally, the Secretary urged the population not to be fooled and to go to government institutions to obtain information before purchasing a property.
Source: zetatijuana
