The ongoing probe into homes built illegally in Puerto Rico’s second largest estuary, where officials say more than 3,600 mangrove trees were cut, has led to public hearings, the launch of a …
SALINAS, Puerto Rico — Jacqueline Vázquez was sitting on the couch when her phone rang.
Homes of concrete block complete with fences, pools and even a dock have been illegally built inside the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The reserve has protected nearly 2,900 acres of mangrove forest surrounded by waters in varying shades of turquoise. It is home to the critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle and the vulnerable West Indian manatee, among other species.
Last month the secretary of the natural resources department resigned. He told a local radio station that some employees investigating the illegal construction were receiving death threats. The judge also noted that 2% of the property in the case is protected land where no urban development should have been permitted, and 12% is located in a coastal area with a high risk for flooding.
“We feel that the fight here is never-ending. It is very, very frustrating,” said Mónica Timothée Vega, a civil attorney. At the request of a friend, she also is fighting another proposed development in a wetland in the northeast coastal town of Luquillo. Pedro Cardona Roig, an architect, planner and former vice president of Puerto Rico’s Planning Board, said the same thing is happening to him as he investigates on his own what occurred in Salinas, where Jobos Bay is located. He said of the 16 documents he previously perused online, only a handful remain.
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