The boardwalk’s open-air theater—located on the open beach in the Miramar neighborhood of Salina Cruz—was destroyed by the recent rains left in the wake of Storm Boris, as well as by the strong currents and high waves associated with the phenomenon known as mar de fondo (long-period ocean swells).
The project, which cost 54 million pesos, was built under the Urban Improvement Program (PMU); this program was authorized in 2023 by then-President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial, and Urban Development (SEDATU).
Three days of intense surf, beginning on Monday the 8th of this month, were enough to reveal that the project had been executed without reinforcing the foundations with stone gabions; furthermore, the viewing platform’s steps were merely filled with sand, which the sea washed away within 72 hours.
With the open-air theater and viewing platform destroyed and sitting amidst the Pacific waters—and lacking a source of funding—reconstruction seems unlikely; meanwhile, the 1,200-meter-long boardwalk remains standing but continues to be battered by the sea.
It is worth noting that the boardwalk and the theater—now consumed by the sea—were part of a package of seven projects executed by SEDATU in Salina Cruz using PMU funds. These included a 12,000-square-meter civic plaza that, lacking a drainage system, pools rainwater like a swimming pool.
Families in Salina Cruz have lost a recreational and leisure space with the disappearance of the Miramar neighborhood’s open-air theater and viewing platform, and walking along the boardwalk now poses a risk.
Source: oaxaca.eluniversal
