The following is draft a translation in Tropiland of an article appearing in La Estrella.
La Estrella, December 15, 2008
12-15-2008 RICHARD M. KOSTER
mailto:periodistas@laestrella.com.pa
On the beach of Coclé, where the Anton river comes meets the ocean, the waters of the river mouth have created a long lagoon and a peninsula that throws itself on the west ,parallel to the coast. They call it Las Uvas. It is possible to access it ,during low tide, via the beach from Juan Hombrón, but otherwise, it is not accessible by land.
Since it has neither drinking water nor irrigation and agricultural potential, it had no value until the fever of the tourist development came to the area of Farallón. In the summer of 2007, a person called Sonia Álvarez offered to buy possessory rights in Las Uvas for $ 3.00 per square meter. Immediately, she found local fishermen caliming that they had Rights Of Possession over the land.
In June, 2007 Álvarez, Roberto Homsany , Alberto Sudarsky and Henry Lebowitz, requested to buy 31.6 hectares of the peninsula to the State making a formal, written request (as per protocol) at the Department of Economy and Finance . Their request mentioned as motive “a project of " country-style villa ecotourism project” and it was accompanied by 32 “contracts of sale of the Rights of Possession of the resident inhabitants of the area” and “an agreement signed by the holders of these property Rights of Possession, who have been inhabiting them for 39 years”.
When La Estrella visited the peninsula, on November 13, it was desert. Seagulls were patrolling the smooth sea. The only human element was a rancho of four posts with tin roof bent from the breeze. To imagine 32 supposed inhabitants needed a poet's imagination.
Having road access to the property is a requisite so that Cadaster grants title by means of Rights of Possession. Be that as it may, the purchase request included a letter of the mayor of Anton, Roger Ríos, who was requesting from Hacienda Santa Mónica “a road servitude (right of pass) to lead to the peninsula of Las Uvas”.
Hacienda Santa Mónica is one of the most beautiful properties of Central America - approximately 3,000 hectares that spread from the Inter-American highway down to the ocean. It was created by combining land from five farms by president Harmodio Arias Madrid. In it he developed rice and bred cattle . He then turned it over to his son Gilberto Arias Guardia, and then to his grandchildren. They sold it to the second mother's second husband , Wilson Lucom. Lucom paid the mortgages and set the farm to produce, but in 2005 he sold it so that it was the site of the first “Branded City” of Latin America.
"Branded Cities" are communities designed to serve simultaneously as esidential, commercial and recreational. The most out-standing example is Palm Island of the United Arab Emirates. The project, which will be called Grand Panama and which will cost $3 billion, will feature a five -star hotel, a marina, four golf courses, 9,700 residences, and a 400,000 square meters of shopping center.
It will generate 10,000 jobs during the phase of construction and 5,000 permanent jobs. It will give incalculable profits to the region and the country.
Lucom accepted a first payment of half a million dollars, but he died in June, 2006 before finishing the buying and selling. In his testament he left an apartment of $ 1 million and a million dollar anuity to his widow, but he directed the buldge of his assets to a foundation dedicated to to feeding children in need in Panama. The widow has urged to annul the testament, and Santa Monica, the principal part of the executrix, has remained tangled in the succession dispute, under the administration of lawyer Marta Cañola, named by the Judge of the Fifth Circuit.
When Grand Panama International paid half a million to buy Santa Monica, they hired Meneren Corporation of Denver USA, to develop and administer the project. Meneren must wait for the conclusion of the judgment of succession to complete the buying and selling with the winner,of the case and has remained alert to the real property swaying in Panama. On May 11 of the present year Meneren inspector, Steve Guthrie, received an e-mail of a broker in Panama offering him area in the beach close to Juan Hombrón. On having investigated, Guthrie discovered that Las Uvas were being marketed even though they and the peninsula were part of the "Branded City" property.
“They were trying to sell to us land that our bosses already were ready to buy!”, he said to La Estrella. “With the down payment of half a million dollars, he lagoon is where we think to put the marina, and without these kilometers of beach the property does not serve for the project”.
Aurelio Andrión, until March of this year regional Cadaster chief in Coclé, confirmed what Guthrie said. “There is no case of "purchasing from the State in that place”, he said to La Estrella. “The peninsula of Las Uvas belongs to finca number 7022, which is part of Hacienda Santa Mónica ”.The Public Register confirms Andrión . It establishes that the south boundary of finca 7022 is “the Pacific Ocean”.
Mayor Ríos said to La Estrella that Sonia Álvarez had asked for the letter in which Hacienda Santa Mónica requested right of way from the Treasury Department. He wrote it to help the fishermen, who are his constituents. He delivered it to Álvarez and not to lawyer Cañola.
According to the said lawyer, the grounds in the peninsula of Las Uvas “are not state but a private property that finca 7022 is part of and Rights of Possession do not exist on private property”.
Sonia Álvarez, Alberto Sudarsky, Roberto Homsany, and Henry Lebowitz have not come on record as of yet. On November 8 there was a meeting of the fishermen who had sold their "Rights of Possession to Sonia Álvarez. They were angry. They were selling in $ 3.00 per square meter, but they received only 8 %. The rest would come when the investors were receive title of the area which, from the looks of it, is far,far away.
Since it has neither drinking water nor irrigation and agricultural potential, it had no value until the fever of the tourist development came to the area of Farallón. In the summer of 2007, a person called Sonia Álvarez offered to buy possessory rights in Las Uvas for $ 3.00 per square meter. Immediately, she found local fishermen caliming that they had Rights Of Possession over the land.
In June, 2007 Álvarez, Roberto Homsany , Alberto Sudarsky and Henry Lebowitz, requested to buy 31.6 hectares of the peninsula to the State making a formal, written request (as per protocol) at the Department of Economy and Finance . Their request mentioned as motive “a project of " country-style villa ecotourism project” and it was accompanied by 32 “contracts of sale of the Rights of Possession of the resident inhabitants of the area” and “an agreement signed by the holders of these property Rights of Possession, who have been inhabiting them for 39 years”.
When La Estrella visited the peninsula, on November 13, it was desert. Seagulls were patrolling the smooth sea. The only human element was a rancho of four posts with tin roof bent from the breeze. To imagine 32 supposed inhabitants needed a poet's imagination.
Having road access to the property is a requisite so that Cadaster grants title by means of Rights of Possession. Be that as it may, the purchase request included a letter of the mayor of Anton, Roger Ríos, who was requesting from Hacienda Santa Mónica “a road servitude (right of pass) to lead to the peninsula of Las Uvas”.
Hacienda Santa Mónica is one of the most beautiful properties of Central America - approximately 3,000 hectares that spread from the Inter-American highway down to the ocean. It was created by combining land from five farms by president Harmodio Arias Madrid. In it he developed rice and bred cattle . He then turned it over to his son Gilberto Arias Guardia, and then to his grandchildren. They sold it to the second mother's second husband , Wilson Lucom. Lucom paid the mortgages and set the farm to produce, but in 2005 he sold it so that it was the site of the first “Branded City” of Latin America.
"Branded Cities" are communities designed to serve simultaneously as esidential, commercial and recreational. The most out-standing example is Palm Island of the United Arab Emirates. The project, which will be called Grand Panama and which will cost $3 billion, will feature a five -star hotel, a marina, four golf courses, 9,700 residences, and a 400,000 square meters of shopping center.
It will generate 10,000 jobs during the phase of construction and 5,000 permanent jobs. It will give incalculable profits to the region and the country.
Lucom accepted a first payment of half a million dollars, but he died in June, 2006 before finishing the buying and selling. In his testament he left an apartment of $ 1 million and a million dollar anuity to his widow, but he directed the buldge of his assets to a foundation dedicated to to feeding children in need in Panama. The widow has urged to annul the testament, and Santa Monica, the principal part of the executrix, has remained tangled in the succession dispute, under the administration of lawyer Marta Cañola, named by the Judge of the Fifth Circuit.When Grand Panama International paid half a million to buy Santa Monica, they hired Meneren Corporation of Denver USA, to develop and administer the project. Meneren must wait for the conclusion of the judgment of succession to complete the buying and selling with the winner,of the case and has remained alert to the real property swaying in Panama. On May 11 of the present year Meneren inspector, Steve Guthrie, received an e-mail of a broker in Panama offering him area in the beach close to Juan Hombrón. On having investigated, Guthrie discovered that Las Uvas were being marketed even though they and the peninsula were part of the "Branded City" property.
“They were trying to sell to us land that our bosses already were ready to buy!”, he said to La Estrella. “With the down payment of half a million dollars, he lagoon is where we think to put the marina, and without these kilometers of beach the property does not serve for the project”.
Aurelio Andrión, until March of this year regional Cadaster chief in Coclé, confirmed what Guthrie said. “There is no case of "purchasing from the State in that place”, he said to La Estrella. “The peninsula of Las Uvas belongs to finca number 7022, which is part of Hacienda Santa Mónica ”.The Public Register confirms Andrión . It establishes that the south boundary of finca 7022 is “the Pacific Ocean”.
Mayor Ríos said to La Estrella that Sonia Álvarez had asked for the letter in which Hacienda Santa Mónica requested right of way from the Treasury Department. He wrote it to help the fishermen, who are his constituents. He delivered it to Álvarez and not to lawyer Cañola.
According to the said lawyer, the grounds in the peninsula of Las Uvas “are not state but a private property that finca 7022 is part of and Rights of Possession do not exist on private property”.
Sonia Álvarez, Alberto Sudarsky, Roberto Homsany, and Henry Lebowitz have not come on record as of yet. On November 8 there was a meeting of the fishermen who had sold their "Rights of Possession to Sonia Álvarez. They were angry. They were selling in $ 3.00 per square meter, but they received only 8 %. The rest would come when the investors were receive title of the area which, from the looks of it, is far,far away.
Feb. 17, 2009: The Spanish online version of La Prensa has been truncated (censored?) with a disclaimer "Look for the full version in page 2A of our printed version." Thanks to Google cache, we are able to share the full version with our Spanish-reading users.
LAS UVAS DE COCLÉ
Fiebre en la costa
12-15-2008 RICHARD M. KOSTER
periodistas@ laestrella.com.pa
El desarrollo turístico ataca al país desde múltiples frentes y en toda guerra la primera baja es la verdad
Portada PANAMÁ. En la costa de Coclé, donde el río Antón llega al mar, las aguas de la desembocadura han creado una laguna larga y una península que se tira al oeste paralela a la costa. La llaman Las Uvas. A marea baja se puede llegar allí por la playa desde Juan Hombrón, pero de otra manera no es accesible por tierra.
Como no tiene ni agua potable ni fertilidad, no tuvo valor hasta que la fiebre del desarrollo turístico llegara a Farallón. En el verano del 2007, una persona llamada Sonia Álvarez ofreció comprar derechos posesorios en Las Uvas a $3.00 el metro cuadrado. De una vez encontró pescadores dispuestos a sostener que los tenían.
En junio de 2007 Álvarez, Alberto Sudarsky, Roberto Homsany, y Henry Lebowitz, solicitaron al Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas comprar los 31.6 hectáreas de la península a la Nación. Su solicitud mencionó como motivo “un proyecto de villas campestres ecoturísticas” y fue acompañada por 32 “contratos de compraventa de los derechos posesorios de los moradores residentes del área” y “un acuerdo firmado por los poseedores de estas tierras, los cuales las habitan desde hace 39 años”.
Cuando La Estrella visitó la península, al mediodía del 13 de noviembre, era desierta. Patos cuervos patrullaban un mar liso. El único rastro humano era un rancho de cuatro postes con techo de zinc agachado debajo de la llovizna. Imaginar a los 32 supuestos moradores nos hubiera requerido grandes dotes de poeta.
Acceso vial es un requisito para que Catastro otorgue título a base de derechos posesorios. Así es que la solicitud incluía una carta del alcalde de Antón, Roger Ríos, quien solicitaba a Hacienda Santa Mónica “servidumbre vial para dar acceso a la península”.
Hacienda Santa Mónica es una de las propiedades más bellas de Centroamérica —unas 3,000 hectáreas que se extienden de la carretera Interamericana hasta el mar. Fue creada de cinco fincas por el presidente Harmodio Arias Madrid. Allí sembró arroz y crió ganado. Esta la pasó a su hijo Gilberto Arias Guardia, y luego a los hijos de él. Ellos la vendieron al segundo marido de su madre, Wilson Lucom. Lucom pagó las hipotecas y puso la finca a producir, pero en 2005 trató de venderla para que fuera el sitio de la primera “ciudad marca” de América Latina.
Las ciudades marca son comunidades diseñadas a la vez residenciales, comerciales y recreativas. El ejemplo más destacado es Isla Palma los Emiratos Unidos Árabes.
El proyecto, que se llamará Gran Panamá y que valdrá 3 mil millones, contempla un hotel de cinco estrellas, una marina, cuatro canchas de golf, 9,700 residencias, y un centro comercial de 400,000 metros cuadrados.
Generará 10,000 empleos durante la fase de construcción y 5,000 empleos permanentes. Dará beneficios incalculables a la región y el país.
Lucom aceptó un pago inicial de medio millón de dólares, pero murió en junio de 2006 antes de finalizar la compraventa. En su testamento dejó un apartamento de $1 millón y un cuarto de un millón anual a su viuda, pero destinó el grueso de sus bienes a una fundación cuyo propósito es alimentar niños con necesidades en Panamá. La viuda ha instado anular el testamento, y Santa Mónica, la principal parte de la testamentaria, ha quedado enmarañada en la disputa de sucesión, baja administración de la licenciada Marta Cañola, nombrada por el Juez Quinto del Circuito.
Cuando Gran Panamá Internacional abonó medio millón para comprar Santa Mónica, contrató a la Meneren Corporation de Denver, EEUU, para desarrollar y administrar el proyecto. Meneren debe esperar la conclusión del juicio de sucesión para completar la compraventa con el vencedor, y ha quedado alerta a los vaivenes de bienes raíces en Panamá. El 11 de mayo del presente año su director administrativo, Steve Guthrie, recibió un e-mail de un corredor en Panamá ofreciéndole terreno en la playa cerca de Juan Hombrón. Al investigar, Guthrie descubrió que se trataba de la península Las Uvas, que él conoció como parte de la Hacienda Santa Mónica.
“¡Pretendían vendernos terreno que nuestros principales ya contrataron comprar!”, dijo a La Estrella. “Con abono de medio millón de dólares. La laguna es donde pensamos poner la marina, y sin estos kilómetros de playa la propiedad no sirve para el proyecto”.
Aurelio Andrión, hasta marzo de este año jefe regional de Catastro en Coclé, confirmó lo que dijo Guthrie. “No hay compra a la Nación en aquel lugar”, dijo a La Estrella. “La península de Las Uvas pertenece a la finca 7022, que forma parte de la Hacienda Santa Mónica”.
El Registro Público confirma el criterio de Andrión. Establece que el lindero sur de la finca 7022 es “con el Océano Pacífico”.
El alcalde Ríos dijo a La Estrella que Sonia Álvarez había pedido la carta en que solicitó servidumbre a Hacienda Santa Mónica. La escribió para ayudar a los pescadores, quienes son sus constituyentes. La entregó a Álvarez y no a la licenciada Cañola.
Según la licenciada, las tierras en la península de Las Uvas “no son estatales sino propiedad privada que forman parte de la finca 7022, y no existen derechos posesorios sobre propiedad privada”.
Sonia Álvarez y Roberto Homsany no han devuelto llamadas de La Estrella. No hemos podido localizar ni a Alberto Sudarsky ni a Henry Lebowitz. El 8 de noviembre se celebró una reunión de los pescadores quienes habían vendido sus derechos posesorios a Sonia Álvarez. Estaban enojados. Vendían en $3.00 el metro cuadrado, pero cobraron solo 8%. El resto vendría cuando los inversores recibían título del terreno. Se estima una larga espera.
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CRONOLOGÍA
En el verano del 2007, una persona llamada Sonia Álvarez ofreció comprar derechos posesorios en Las Uvas a $3.00 el metro cuadrado.
En junio de 2007 Álvarez, Alberto Sudarsky, Roberto Homsany y Henry Lebowitz, pidieron al Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas comprar los 31.6 hectáreas de la península al Estado.
La Hacienda Santa Mónica es una de las propiedades más bellas de Centroamérica, 3,000 hectáreas desde la Interamericana al mar.
El 8 de noviembre hubo una reunión de los pescadores que vendieron sus derechos posesorios a Sonia Álvarez.
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