Letter to the Editor: The Battle Over Playa Tenacatita

Byline: Jack Davidson I read Capt. Pat Rains’ story “Legal Battle Continues Over Playa Tenacatita; Boaters Still Locked Out” in the Oct. 28-Nov. 10 issue with interest. Just imagine what would happen in Southern California if a developer who wanted to build a hotel in the middle of a prime coastal resort area could simply hire an army of private police and a parade of bulldozers to forcibly remove all of the local residents and flatten all the local restaurants, houses, bars and boat-serving businesses in one day. That developer — and all of his henchmen — would find themselves in jail. Evidently, that’s not the way it works in Mexico. If you’re a friend and political supporter of the state governor (as Mexico news reports suggest), you can apparently just issue a statement that all of the people living in your targeted resort area are “squatters” whose property deeds mean nothing, get a judge to issue an eviction order and start clearing everyone out in your own private lightning raid. Then, after the dust clears, put up a big fence around the site, and hire patrol boats to keep out nosy boating tourists who used to frequent the area. As worldwide publicity began...