Jueves, Marzo 26th, 2009 at 10:56

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff.
The Sala IV constitutional court has stripped Cahuita and Puerto Viejo of their status as cities and reaffirmed the principle that no one there could acquire rights in the maritime zone after 1977.

The case is a complex one that has been moving slowly through the courts. The court decision Wednesday throws out a 2005 law that was designed to make the two communities cities and allow residents to obtain title to properties on which some of their families have lived for nearly 100 years.

The maritime zone law declares all land countrywide within 50 meters of high tide to be for public use and all land 150 meters further inland to be government property which can be leased as a concession from the government.

City status is a way to sidestep the maritime zone law because cities are exempt from its provisions.

Although many Cahuita families have lived on, farmed and made their living from these same properties for nearly 100 years, the land was never titled in the Registro Nacional.

In 1977, with the enactment of the maritime zone law and because residents had no legal titles, it appeared the original Cahuita families and others owning land within the zone might lose their property altogether.

Many properties in the two communities in the Cantón de Talamanca are close to the beach and well within the maritime zone. Some structures also are within the 50-meter zone.

After the law was passed residents had a year to obtain a title. The Sala IV action would seem to void those titles since the decision is retroactive.

The case was pushed by two former legislators, Luis Ángel Ramírez Ramírez of the Partido Liberación Nacional and Quírico Jiménez Madrigal, a former member of the Partido Acción Ciudadana. Ramírez is a lawyer, and Jiménez is a biologist and a college professor.

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.

In human terms, the court decision, released Thursday, takes away valuable ownership of prime Caribbean seacoast property from the many residents and sets the stage for concession requests from large tourism operators.

Both Puerto Viejo and Cahuita are known as laid back, alternative lifestyle communities whose residents are mainly from the black Caribbean population in the Provincia de Limón. The area is a magnet for surfers and also for those drawn by the local national park.