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hopakca

May 23, 2008, 8:39 AM

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Tulum landgrab?

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Came across this news item today:

--- [ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ] ---

Illegal Tulum land grab underlines need for stricter anti-corruption stance in Mexico

TULUM, Riviera Maya (May 21, 2008) - Tulum boutique hotel owner John Kendall never thought he'd be stuck in the middle of a civil war.

But a tense land battle took a turn for the worst last Wednesday when Kendall found himself with a group of 60 local supporters helping defend his titled beachfront land that had been illegally invaded by men allegedly under the orders of a corrupt local politician and radio station owner, Gaston Alegre Lopez.

"I am an honest businessman who loves Mexico with a passion," said Australian-born Kendall. "I provide the local Mexican community with jobs and conduct all my dealings in a professional, legal manner. It saddens and infuriates me to see such an obvious abuse of power, and resulting miscarriage of justice and misrepresentation of Mexico occur."

Kendall, a U.S. citizen, considers Mexico his adopted home and already owns several widely acclaimed properties in Tulum: Mezzanine features an authentic Thai restaurant, sleek contemporary hotel, and is known for Friday night DJ parties; La Zebra is a newer beachfront property boasting a traditional Mexican restaurant and hotel with rustic yet stylish cabanas.

"This guy Gaston Alegre still thinks he's in 1930s Mexico. But the country is changing for the better and there are a lot of people who are opposed to this rampant, wild-west style of 'snatch and grab' corruption," explains Kendall. "He's one person stuck in the past and creating such an unfortunate drama and bad impression by abusing his power when most of the Mayan Riviera operates above board."

The conflict started more than six years ago when Kendall purchased four pieces of beautiful, beachfront titled land in Punta Piedra. Alegre, a one time politician and owner of local station, Radio Turquesa, sent squatters to live in shacks on the land, because in Mexico physically occupying a property can often trump owning an official, legal land title.

However, last December Kendall won possession of the titled land through a federal court order and built a seafood restaurant called El Pez that employs 20 local staff. According to Kendall, Alegre then retaliated by paying off local press and using his radio station to slander and attack Kendall as a land predator and the "Devil of Tulum." Things escalated last week when Alegre allegedly called in political favors and bribed officials including the judicial police to take Kendall's land by brute force.

At 5 pm on Wednesday, May 14, while customers were dining in El Pez, a group of local police followed by 30 private security guards carrying batons and wielding side arms stormed into the restaurant without showing any identification or presenting formal charges. They proceeded to roughly toss out employees and customers onto the street, before building a barricade of barbed wire to prevent any attempts from Kendall's staff to reenter. Power lines were ripped out, a generator and inverter were wrecked, and alcohol was looted. Even plasma TVs were stolen along with expensive stereo equipment and computers.

Meanwhile, Kendall rallied his staff to defend the land. Two hours later he had 60 men ready with steel pipes and home made batons as their only defense. Outnumbering the invaders, Kendall and his group retook the property peacefully only to face police from the neighboring town, Playa del Carmen, who ended up taking possession once again. Now Kendall is awaiting a formal judicial hearing next week that he hopes will clear up, once and for all, his case.
So far, the standoff has gained national media coverage on Mexico's news station, TV Azteca, and Kendall has hopes that international media will pick up the story of old-school corruption at the hands of powerful politicians that still runs deep in parts Mexico.

"If local authorities want foreign investors to remain on the Riviera Maya they need to do more to protect the rule of law, stand up to these old-time Mexican gangsters and not allow these bloody battles to happen," Kendall said. "I have millions and millions of dollars invested down here. I employ 150 local people and don't want to be the one standing on the street corner with 60 locals and a steel pipe," he continued. "If they want more people like me to come and do business they have to make it safe to do business."

ABOUT LA ZEBRA
La Zebra Beach Cantina & Cabanas has nine renovated rooms that capture the rustic, jungle chic charm and true energy of Tulum. A Mexican-style cantina dishes up traditional home cooking and an outdoor charcoal grill sets the scene for all-day pit roasts every Sunday. The tequila bar features dozens of spirits and fresh fruit margaritas that are the talk of the town. Onsite adventure sports activities include kiteboarding, kayaking and riding sand bikes on the beach right on La Zebra's doorstep.

ABOUT MEZZANINE
Mezzanine is an intimate boutique hotel that embodies clean, contemporary design, cutting-edge cool and rustic elegance with a hip live DJ lounge and pan-Asian restaurant featuring café style beach fare and authentic Thai cuisine. Mezzanine brings a Euro-chic vibe to quiet Tulum offering cool beats and hot fiestas on the beach with local and guest DJs, a retro lounge serving crisp cocktails, and four minimalist suites on a sweeping stone terrace overlooking the Caribbean Sea along Mexico's Mayan Riviera.

For more information and interview requests please contact:

Mexican Pacific Marketing
press@mexicanpacific.com
(949) 340-2602 (US)
+52 (314) 335-3207 (MX)

La Zebra Beach Cantina & Cabanas
info@lazebratulum.com
New Reservation +52-998-112-3260
Reception +52-984-115-4726
www.lazebratulum.com

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Hopakca

sandangel

Jun 9, 2008, 5:52 PM

Post #2 of 13 (3711 views)

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Re: [hopakco] Tulum landgrab?

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WOW, what a story!! I will soon be moving to Chemuyil, so reading this really hit home. My husband and I have personally been to Mezzanine and it is a beautiful establishment. I wish Kendall the best that this will soon be settled once and for all!

Shelly
www.chemuyil-tulum.com

Geos

Sep 30, 2009, 7:54 AM

Post #3 of 13 (3107 views)

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Re: [hopakco] Tulum landgrab?

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I wonder how this turned out. Not well I assume since the website is defunct.

Hound Dog

Sep 30, 2009, 2:53 PM

Post #4 of 13 (3068 views)

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Re: [hopakco] Tulum landgrab?

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Meanwhile, Kendall rallied his staff to defend the land. Two hours later he had 60 men ready with steel pipes and home made batons as their only defense. Outnumbering the invaders, Kendall and his group retook the property peacefully only to face police from the neighboring town, Playa del Carmen, who ended up taking possession once again.

What am I missing here? Are not both Playa del Carmen and Tulum part of the same municipality of Solidaridad? That would make the Playa del Carmen delegacion a community under the same jurisdiction as the delegacion of Tulum if Tulum even deserves that distiction of delegacion. Therefore, if I am right, Playa del Carmen is a neighboring town to Tulum technically but subject to the same municipal ordinances. If law enforcement agents were sent into Tulum from Playa del Carmen, the seat of law enforcement in the Solidaridad Municipality, it would be like the sheriff of Alameda County California headquartered in Oakland sending deputies into nearby Berkeley to enforce county land ordinances - a typical county law enforcement function both in Mexico and the United States.

All up and down the coast in this part of Quintana Roo, developers and business owners have been exploiting the ignorance of poorly informed local indigenous communities and buying up beach lands for relative peanuts while indigenous folks have been forced by economic circumstance to move into the miserable and vermin infested adjacent jungles while rich foreigners build their fancy restaurants and hotels and mansions and bulldoze one of the most precious remaining underdeveloped coastal lands in North America. What a pity that foeign pleasure seekers are interrupted in mid-margarita by people who used to reside in their paradise and are now subsisting in leaky thatched huts in the jungle on tortillas. Now, there is a cause for you. Both the indigenous and the developers and successful foreign entrepreneurs with their fancy beach bars and restaurants were, perhaps, exploited by unscrupulous politicians but the real question is where they will each lick their wounds. My heart goes out to the campesinos swatting mosquitos and scorpions in their new lean-tos in the forest.

I don´t know if that is the case here but I do know this. Never believe anything at first sight in Quintana Roo.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Sep 30, 2009, 3:44 PM)

Hound Dog

Oct 2, 2009, 1:29 PM

Post #5 of 13 (2989 views)

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Re: [hopakco] Tulum landgrab?

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"If local authorities want foreign investors to remain on the Riviera Maya they need to do more to protect the rule of law, stand up to these old-time Mexican gangsters and not allow these bloody battles to happen," Kendall said. "I have millions and millions of dollars invested down here. I employ 150 local people and don't want to be the one standing on the street corner with 60 locals and a steel pipe," he continued. "If they want more people like me to come and do business they have to make it safe to do business."

Well, hear this Mr. Kendall. I don´t know you and you may be a fine and decent fellow but why did you bring your "millions and millions of dollars " down to Quintana Roo to steal the land of peasants living on corn muffins and lard whose ancestors have been there for a thousand years before you disgraced them with filthy lucre presented to corrupt politicians who then kicked them off of their ancestral lands for bogus rewards and then found their own actions unconscionable when someone else came up with even more money or a fortuitous counterargument? Why do the readers of this Southern Mexico Forum find this disgraceful land grab by rich foreigners so uninteresting?

Well, folks, you will face lots of moral issues before you die but here is one worth your attention. Maybe ancestral grounds can be converted into the Eternal Lamp Perpetual Happiness Memorial Cemetary where they can store your ashes next to the new Trump Tower 10,000 Suite Maya Presidential Hotel and Memorial World Championship Golf Course and Casino where the bones of Maya peasants used to lie but now are awash in the Caribbean Sea nearby having been bulldozed there by these developers seeking our allegiance.

Explain to me the alternative position. I await your response.

By the way, I saw first hand what developers and their snowbird clients did to my native Alabama Gulf Coast that was quaint and beautiful prior to Hurricane Frederick in 1979. You would not recognize that coast characterized in the past by beach cottages and beautiful, deserted pure white sandy broad beaches as far as the eye could see and today walled off by ugly highrise wall-to-wall concrete condominiums filled with Minnesotans trying to escape the Land of 10,000 Lakes for the "Redneck Riviera". When I think of this short-sighted destruction that destroyed the land of my youth I am sick to my stomach.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 2, 2009, 1:39 PM)

chicois8

Oct 2, 2009, 1:42 PM

Post #6 of 13 (2982 views)

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Re: [Geos] Tulum landgrab?

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I love these boards where someone answers a post 15 months after the fact and it gets more action in a couple days then it did since posted...

Hound Dog

Oct 2, 2009, 2:07 PM

Post #7 of 13 (2978 views)

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Re: [chicois8] Tulum landgrab?

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Good point chicoise8:

While I did not revive the ancient thread I did fail to note its ancient roots after it was revived by another. As far as I´m concerned these issues regarding the rape of the Costa Maya are as relevant today as they were in 2008. Perhaps more relevant than ever.

arbon

Oct 2, 2009, 2:26 PM

Post #8 of 13 (2972 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Tulum landgrab?

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"the land of peasants living on corn muffins and lard whose ancestors have been there for a thousand years"

as compared to [Hound Dog's] ancestors who had sheep's offal once a year, rolled oats every day, and invented the golf.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hound Dog

Oct 2, 2009, 2:44 PM

Post #9 of 13 (2963 views)

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Re: [arbon] Tulum landgrab?

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Replying to: Re: [Hound Dog] Tulum landgrab? by arbon Post:
"the land of peasants living on corn muffins and lard whose ancestors have been there for a thousand years"

as compared to [Hound Dog's] ancestors who had sheep's offal once a year, rolled oats every day, and invented the golf.

The difference, Arbon my dear is that, unlike the Mayas in what is now Quintana Roo, my ancestrors from Scotland had boats conveniently provided by the Brits colonizing Scotland and sailed those boats directly to Alabama from Scotland where they subsequently rejected the annual sheep´s offal and daily rolled oats for the new world´s prized corn muffins and lard until Dawg moved to Mexico and hired a doctor in Jocotepec who insisted that he reject corn muffins and lard for a wholesome diet of rolled oats but without the sheep´s offal. Dawg still has to figure out how to squeeze in there an at least weekly large bottle of RC Cola and a Moon Pie without informing his Nurse Cratchet doctor of this necessary dietary modification. A six pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon and some cracklins might also help ease the pain.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 2, 2009, 2:47 PM)

wendy devlin

Oct 3, 2009, 3:34 PM

Post #10 of 13 (2888 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] Tulum landgrab?

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Land issues, are often, of local interest and concern.

Perhaps. This thread will serve to suggest.
Foreigners thinking to buy land in Mexico.
Consider the national/state/municipio/familiar interest and especially background experience regarding title of ownership. Caveat emptor siempre: buyer beware.

Hound Dog

Oct 3, 2009, 4:42 PM

Post #11 of 13 (2876 views)

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Re: [wendy devlin] Tulum landgrab?

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Thank you, Wendy.

You go down on that beach and you buy your dream home and you have displaced maybe 400 Mayas and you come crying to me, Lardass, about the unfortunate result of your opportunistic land grab from the poor whose ancestors occupied that land thousands of years before your yahoo ass showed up and I´ll tell you this. There are not enough tears on the planet sufficient to wash away the tears of the indigenous whose women were raped and and lands confiscated and in a thousand years you will not wash that sin away.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 3, 2009, 4:46 PM)

arbon

Oct 3, 2009, 4:48 PM

Post #12 of 13 (2872 views)

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Re: [wendy devlin] Tulum landgrab?

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"Land issues, are often, of local interest and concern.

Perhaps. This thread will serve to suggest.
Foreigners thinking to buy land in Mexico.
Consider the national/state/municipio/familiar interest and especially background experience regarding title of ownership. Caveat emptor siempre: buyer beware." But perhaps also when someone from the Northern Hemisphere is told that every thing has a price, they think that "Price" can only mean a monetary sum of coin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hound Dog

Oct 4, 2009, 5:12 AM

Post #13 of 13 (2825 views)

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Re: [arbon] Tulum landgrab?

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Well said Wendy and Arbon and necessary rational counterpoints to Dawg´s earlier overwrought white boy liberal´s take on the European land grab of The Americas. Actually, I suppose that should please me since had not the Europeans taken over Choctaw lands in Dawg´s native Alabama and sent those indigenous folk they did not slaughter packing to Oklahoma so they could build their plantations to house their African slaves, Dawg would be freezing his buns off in rainy and dismal Scotland and enslaved to the Brits instead of basking in sunny Mexico. There is something to be said for land grabbing after all.

Please, folks, always try to remember that the reason beautiful coastal areas such as Tulum were indian lands was because those beach lands were not valued and were "magnanimously" given the locals they had conquered so the Europeans could head for the hills to escape the coastal bugs what could kill them dead in no time.

That´s the same story as Palm Springs where nobody wanted to live in the 19th Century before air conditioning but the indians there were smart. When the Europeans wanted the Coachella Valley back, the indians leased it back to them so the white boys didn´t have to steal it and slaughter them. Now the indians are living in their mansions in Beverly Hills and collecting those rent checks laughing all the way to the bank. Come to think of it - maybe that´s what the Maya in Tulum want.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on Oct 4, 2009, 5:18 AM)