Documenting the Siege

The sudden takeover on August 4 of waterside homes and businesses along Mexico’s popular Tenacatita Beach has left local residents, cruising sailors and shoreside vacationers frustrated and angry. Today’s update is that heavy equipment is currently in the process of bulldozing homes and businesses along the beach.

"We have wintered 30 years on this beach, like many boat owners. Now all access is being threatened," report two Latitude readers. They and others have put a call to boaters for help: "We plea for anyone on a boat in the vicinity to please anchor in the bay, and document and film all destruction of restaurants, hotels, palapas and homes. The local people and press are banned from the area and are threatened with this hostile takeover."

As we reported Monday, according to the Guadalajara Reporter newspaper, 150 members of the Jalisco State Police arrived on the shores of Tenacatita Bay last Wednesday in the early morning hours and evicted 800 locals who were living and working on a undeveloped section of the beach — some of them had been there for 40 years. Resistance resulted in 27 arrests and several gunshot wounds.