Anti-Pier Group Takes Protest to the Streets
(Acapulco, JG 16 December) The Front in Opposition to the Icacos Pier (or FOMI by its Spanish acronym) set up a protest with pickets yesterday on Acapulco’s Costera Alemán, in Costa Azul, intermittently blocking traffic and handing out informational leaflets.
The dispute is over plans by Mexico City-based JAR Estates to build a private yacht pier right off the Plaza Polonia in the center of Icacos beach. The group hopes that public outcry will persuade federal authorities not to permit the construction of a pier for private yachts at the expense of one of Acapulco bay’s most popular tourist beaches. They carried cards saying “We want open beaches” and “Predatory birds, Carrion-eating Vultures: No more looting of national assets.” The flyers distributed to passing motorists said, “We need the help of all citizens of Acapulco and of the nation to defend Acapulco’s beaches, which is the only treasure we still have, and which belongs to us all.” The flyer then explains about JAR Estates, calling them “voracious entrepreneurs who want to take our natural beaches from us to construct a privatized pier in front of the Palapa Hotel. We do not want these businessmen to take from us the little we have left for local, national and foreign tourism. To say that it will spawn more tourism is a lie. All they care about is money and power with which to buy the government officials.”
FOMI leader Marco Antonio Suástegui Muñoz expressed the worry that JAR Estates will bring in the tug with the construction platform right in the middle of the high tourist season, impairing the view and threatening the existence of those whose livelihoods depend on tourism. For that reason, FOMI took the decision to start protesting now. Suástegui said that he has appointments with environmental enforcement agencies (PROFEPA and SEMARNAT) to see if any permits already obtained by JAR Estates can be revoked.
FOMI intends to lead a march along the beach area in Icacos after Christmas, “the likes of which has not been seen.” The purpose of the protest is to raise public awareness and obtain petition signatures against the threatened extinction of Icacos as a tourist beach, just to accommodate yachts for the well-heeled condo owners nearby.
