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 Vallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | May 2007 
Eco-Wars in Puerto Vallarta
 David Lord - PVNN
| | There is a gold rush attitude here in the streets of Old Vallarta; it says anything goes in this land speculation and condo building frenzy that has been taking place over the last several years. |
BOMBS AWAY! They have blown apart the jungle and homes on Amapas mountain! As I focus in with my telephoto lens from above, just out my back door, looking down on the fallen condos, I wonder, are we next?
The photos are taken in a war zone; the destruction is so great that memories of jungle battle fields emerge vivid. You may have seen the photos in local newspapers, or heard people talk of the destruction up somewhere on the mountains, but you are not sure of where...
Just look up from old town, from the new parking garage, built by our former Mayor, or from the front door of Rizo's Grocery and you can see it. It is where the concrete covers the mountain, it is right there above you.
Looking up, I am reminded that a war is truly raging in beautiful old Puerto Vallarta. In reality, the destruction is equal to what I saw from cells of B-52 bombers on missions to prevent our combat base at Khe Sanh from being overrun in Viet Nam.
During the Tet Offensive in 1968, these missions consisting of 3 B-52 Bombers at a time, dropping 72 Bombs weighing 500 hundred pounds each. How much could they destroy in 50 missions? About the same that has been done here, perhaps not as much.
There is a gold rush attitude here in the streets of Old Vallarta; it says anything goes in this land speculation and condo building frenzy that has been taking place over the last several years. First, the seed money was generated, then the gambles taken and the pay offs began to roll in. Now, the gold mine discovered, every Tom, Dick and Mary has a project to build or to sell or to promote.
Tons of Developers and their agents have done what tons of bombs use to, blow holes in the mountain, then watch the palms tress fall, only to be replaced by reinforced concrete buildings with large windows to view the new and improved man-made paradise.
Let me show you around folks. Total Destruction of the Eco System is the Mission, greed is the reason, as always. We in the Neighborhood wrote the Mayor last week, and in the letter we referred to these actions as no different than the Conquistadores rebuilding upon the ruins of the Maya their version of progress.
I am telling this Inconvenient Truth to you, and just like the popular movie, it is scarier than we want to know. We are headed towards a community just like Acapulco, which sounds a lot like Apocalypse when spoken amongst the ruins on Amapas Mountain.
I have been addressing the Veterans of Puerto Vallarta for several years about the need to protect what is theirs under the existing laws. The reason I took on the job was easy to see, finding that most of these men and women were simply overwhelmed at the sheer volume of regulations and confusing double speak when used in official sections, titles and codes.
I suggest that the laws in place here are as equally confusing, limiting and complicated by design. The fact that the association or college of architects here in Puerto Vallarta has complete control over the signing off on building plans, forcing the outside developers to buy their services, leaves a potential gap of responsibility as to who is destroying the mountain.
When it comes tumbling down in the rainy season as happened last year and the Condos fall again this year, dismissing the Architect that signed off on the Developer's project will not remove the source of the money - or the brain that conceived such destruction - from the mountain.
The project gained permits by hook or by crook. There having been 164 projects approved in the last four days of the previous municipal administration according to articles written by Miquel Angel Infante Villegas that were published in the most recent edition of "Proceso" magazine.
So, "Buyer Beware" in Old Vallarta. By not understanding how you got on that fine terrace with a view of Paradise, you may be buying into a future built on shaky ground, where lawsuits continue for years to come.
 David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at david.lord@yahoo.com.
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