New backroom deal for Bosque Panul behind the community's back
At the Municipal Council meeting on Tuesday August 17, Mayor Rodolfo Carter reported receiving two letters. The first, a letter from Inmobiliaria Gesterra, owners of Fundo Panul. The second, a letter from an organization linked to political parties (UPA, Partido Ecologista Verde), called "Salvemos El Panul," which supposedly acted in "representation of the community." The mayor invited both entities to present to the Municipal Council on September 7th.
At the Municipal Council meeting on Tuesday August 17, Mayor Rodolfo Carter reported receiving two letters. The first, a letter from Inmobiliaria Gesterra, owners of Fundo Panul. The second, a letter from an organization linked to political parties (UPA, Partido Ecologista Verde), called "Salvemos El Panul," which supposedly acted in "representation of the community." The mayor invited both entities to present to the Municipal Council on September 7th.
Inmobiliaria Gesterra received Fundo Panul at a laughably low price during the dictatorship, and has spent years trying to destroy the forest to make way for a massive real estate development.
This is why, in January of this year, Gesterra submitted a subdivision project to the municipality, which is currently under review. This project would cause irreversible damage to the Panul ecosystem, as it would subdivide the forest into parcels or lots and seek to build streets that are planned in the current zoning plan, among other urban works.
It is therefore extremely serious that the mayor invites this real estate company to present to the Municipal Council at a time when the municipality is evaluating its subdivision project — this represents a dangerous conflict of interest. We should recall that this company has on various occasions offered a supposed "Park" in the upper part of the estate, on the condition that it be allowed to build a real estate project in the lower part — a proposal that the mayor apparently supports.
Regarding the "Salvemos el Panul" letter, we want to clarify that this organization has no connection whatsoever to Parque Comunitario Panul or to the Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera, organizations that have fought alongside the self-organized community to protect El Panul for fifteen years. "Salvemos El Panul" has done no real work in or for the forest, aside from two or three minor interventions, and we view with great mistrust what has happened with this emerging organization. Over the past month we have seen it convene activities very similar to those carried out for years by the community, with political actors supporting its efforts. While we understand that any neighbor may want to protect or save El Panul, we consider it an unacceptable disrespect to appropriate fifteen years of work done by a group of people and present it as an environmental platform for personal benefit, announcing political candidacies and conducting political proselytizing. Because that is the purpose of this organization — one which Mayor Carter embraced with great enthusiasm.
Given that the "Salvemos el Panul" letter is dated July 21, it is also very surprising that five days later, on July 26, a letter from Gesterra arrived at the municipality. So much coincidence raises considerable suspicion... because what was created here for the mayor was the perfect scenario for another performance: Gesterra requesting permission to carry out its real estate project, and a group of "concerned" neighbors accepted by the mayor as representatives of "the community."
In other words, the mayor and the participants are seeking a negotiation behind the community's back: on one side, the owners of Panul, who will not yield a single centimeter of forest unless they are allowed to build their real estate project; on the other, a phantom organization that has done nothing for the forest and has not participated in territorial assemblies, but which serves as an instrument for the mayor at a convenient moment — the same mayor who for eleven years has left Panul unprotected, under the false excuse that everything is privately owned and he can do nothing.
The history of environmental struggles is filled with situations like the one we are living through now with Panul. Neighbors who, out of ignorance or petty self-interest, collude with unscrupulous businesspeople and corrupt authorities, sometimes causing irreparable harm.
We call on the neighbors who love and enjoy Bosque Panul to follow our social media channels and stay alert to these maneuvers so we can defend Panul together. We will continue building community work, with all the challenges inherent in self-managed organizing, driven by people who want to preserve this unique and irreplaceable ecosystem.
Red por la Defensa de la Precordillera
Panul Parque Comunitario
August 19, 2021
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