Houses demolished in Tijuana

On Wednesday, August 7th, the city of Tijuana bulldozed the houses of the
community of "Cerro Maravilla, Puerto al Futuro" (Magnificent Hill, Door to
the Future). For the past five days I have been in Tijuana, accompanying
members of the community in a sit-in at city hall, documenting their struggle
and their negotiations with the city. I have been with them 24/7, both at
city hall and on their land, and seen first-hand the destruction wrought by
the demolition. Below is an account of the past week's events, as well as a
few still photos I grabbed from the video I shot.


Houses demolished in Tijuana
By Beth Bird
On Wednesday, August 7th, without any prior warning to the community,
bulldozers accompanied by dozens of police in riot gear destroyed all the
houses in the community of "Cerro Maravilla, Puerto al Futuro," in Tijuana.
As families watched, their houses were demolished, in many cases without
giving people time to remove their furniture and personal belongings. People
affected include many children, mothers with newborns, and elderly people, as
well as working parents. Some of the houses were poorly constructed, but
others were sturdy structures of cinderblock with cement foundations. In
total about 250 houses were destroyed.

Cerro Maravilla is a relatively new community, and has incorporated as a
"civil association," which is one way groups can incorporate to establish a
residential community. Over 1000 families were part of the "civil
association," and owned plots of land in the community, but only about 250
families had finished construction of their houses. There were not yet
services, like electricity and running water in the community, which is not
uncommon in Tijuana, the fastest growing city in Mexico, were the government
cannot keep up with the infrastructural needs of the rapidly expanding
population.

The mayor claims he ordered the demolition because the houses were in a "high
risk area," in danger of landslide during the rainy season, but no natural
disaster would have caused greater destruction than that brought on by the
bulldozers. The area now looks like it was hit by a tornado, with every
single house in ruins.

Residents of the community, and other observers familiar with land issues in
Baja California, say that the destruction has nothing to do with the area
being "high risk," but rather that powerful land interests were the real
reason behind the government action. The people of the community of Cerro
Maravilla have title to their land, but that title is being contested by
powerful developers, and is currently in litigation. This is not uncommon in
Baja California, especially in Tijuana, where real estate values are sky
rocketing due to that city's location on the border with the U.S., which
leads to rapid development of commercial properties and industrial parks for
multinational factories or "maquiladoras." Cerro Maravilla is centrally
located, and on a hill commanding a beautiful view of Tijuana. At the base
of the hill are several Korean owned maquiladoras and commercial housing
developments. This makes the land very valuable.

Legal titles to land in Baja California, especially for poor people, are
often very fragile. The only real way to secure that title is de facto, by
occupying the land. By building on the land, the community was securing
their title to it. By destroying the houses, the city government is rolling
back that security, making it easier to expropriate the land from its current
owners.

Because of the litigation, members of the community of Cerro Maravilla had an
injunction from the federal government prohibiting their removal from the
land. The mayor claims he did not go against this federal injunction. He
claims he did not remove them from the land, he only destroyed their houses.
He says he is not contesting their ownership of the property, but that he
will not permit them to build there.

>From the morning of Thursday, August 8th, until the evening of Monday, August
12th, members of the community occupied city hall, demanding payment for the
damages to their houses. The mayor offered as "payment" to relocate them to
an area an hour outside of the city, where they would receive houses with
electricity and running water. He said that by doing this they would not
lose title to their land on Cerro Maravilla. This offer was only good for
those community members whose houses had been bulldozed. Property owners
that had not yet completed construction of their houses and would receive
nothing. After several days of negotiation, the community rejected the
offer. They know that if they accept it they will eventually lose the land,
because the only way to really secure their title to it is by occupying it.
They have no interest in living so far outside of the city when their work
and their children's schools are in Tijuana. Many of the residents of the
community work in the maquiladoras at the base of the hill, and in the nearby
neighborhood of Otay Mesa.

Seeing that their negotiation was going nowhere, members of the community
left city hall and returned to their land, where they are now camping out on
the rubble of their houses, with little protection from the elements. Some
have tarps to offer some shade from the beating sun. They have set up a
communal kitchen at the base of the hill, and plan to continue their struggle
from there. They have returned to federal court in the hope that a federal
judge will find that the mayor violated the injunction prohibiting their
removal from the land and order reparation for the damages to their property.
They are seeking indemnification and the right to construct on their land.
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