Jueves, Marzo 26th, 2009 at 11:00

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Residents of beach towns are organizing and plan to present a proposed law to legislators that will trump the existing maritime restrictions.

The organization grew out of a meeting of community representatives in Nicoya Feb. 27. That was the same day that A.M. Costa Rica reported that the Sala IV constitutional court had invalidated a law that would protect Cauhita and Puerto Viejo homeowners who are within the 50-meter section of the maritime zone.

As a manifesto issued by this new group of representatives from 32 beach towns said, they and their ancestors have lived in and used what is now the maritime zone for years and that the government and other institutions have taken advantage of their poverty and lack of knowledge and resources  to make their situation illegal.

The maritime law went into effect in 1977. In the case of Cahuita and Puerto Viejo residents lived on that land for nearly 100 years, but they had no documents to prove it.

Very little of Costa Rica’s coastal land is under private ownership even though most of it supported dwellings and homes long before the maritime zone law. The law specifies that property from mean high tideline to 50 meters inland is public and cannot be developed except for very few uses, like marinas. The next 150 meters inland is controlled by the state and the local municipality. Private ownership is not allowed, but the municipal officials in conjunction with the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo can grant concessions for use.

The beach town group calls itself the Frente Nacional de Comunidades en Peligro de Extinsion. Representatives plan another meeting this week.

The manifesto said that residents of the communities know that the hidden agenda is to evict them from their lands and homes in favor of powerful economic interests who want to exploit the zone.

In fact, the courts have ordered municipalities to destroy many structures in the maritime zone even though some predated the maritime law. The law favoring Cahuita and Puerto Viejo provided those communities with city status and exempted the land from maritime zone rules. Now that the Sala IV has stripped the communities of city status, whole sections of beachside homes could be demolished.

The organization includes communities in the provinces of Limón, Guanacaste and Puntarenas. The group said it wanted to meet with lawmakers Friday in Nicoya to demand a halt to demolitions in Ostional, Montezuma, Tambor, Puerto Soley, Peñas Blancas, Manzanillo, Cahuita and Pochote.

The manifesto promises a general strike in the beach towns and in the nation’s border zones if some legislative action is not taken by July 25. That is the Día de Anexación de Guanacaste, which is always a festive time in that province.

In addition to finding that the law declaring the two communities cities violated the maritime zone principle, the court also said that it violated another constitutional principle by creating a special privilege for one segment of the population. The court meant those persons who were given the right to title their property.

It is not constitutionally possible to have acquired any valid rights in the maritime zone of Cahuita and Puerto Viejo after 1977, the year in which the maritime zone law went into effect, the court said. Many inhabitants of the area came later than 1977, and many who were there earlier will have trouble proving that.

Residents of that area have developed a legal process to prove and acquire title to their land. Even in today’s market some ramshackle homes are sitting on million dollar beach properties.