Here is a rundown of the known companies vying for possesion of the land:
1. Bavaria SAB Miller: the largest beverage company in Colombia. Its brands include: Águila, Águila Light, Póker, Costeña, Pilsen, Club Colombia, Brava, Costeñita, Pony Malta, Agua Brisa, Agua Brisa con gas, Tutti Fruti, Malta Leona, Malta Leona Cool, Cola & Pola, are the leading brands in Colombia. Also controls the airline company Avianca and has holdings in the television stations Caracol and RCN. The president of the company (as of Jan. 06) is Karl Lippert (from Poland). Bavaria's main stockholder is Julio Mario Santo Domingo.
Bavaria donated $3 million to the scandal-ridden presidency of Ernesto Samper (1994-98). Samper's resignation was called for throughout Colombia and the world after it was found out that his campaign had been largely funded by drug traffikers. Bavaria's donation was the second largest after the CaIi Drug Cartel (Committee on Foreign Relations 1996; de Córdoba 1996).
website here: http://www.bavaria.com.co/ingles/home.php
2. Grupo Corona: the leading producer of construction materials, home improvements products, ceramic tiles and sanitary ware in Colombia. The group exports its building material products to more than 25 countries, with Colombia and the United States being its main markets. Largely controlled by the Echavarria Obregon Family.
website here: http://www.corona.com.co/
3. El Sindicato Antioqueño: large producer in insurance (Suramericana tie Seguros), cement (Cementos Argos), and food sectors (Cía. Nacional de Chocolates, Colcafé, Café Sello Rojo).
"In Colombia, there are more than 15 grupos, but 4 stand out: Grupo Empresarial Bavaria, Organización Ardila Lülle, Organizatión Sarmiento Angulo, and Sindicato Antioqueño (Rettberg 2001b).5 For the past decade, these four grupos have owned one-fourth of the largest one hundred public and private companies in Colombia, according to sales, and have consistently owned at least six of the ten largest private domestically owned companies.6 In 1998, their combined sales amounted to over 12.5 percent of Colombia's GDP (Rettberg 2001b). Grupos are also key employers and sources of tax revenues. They hold controlling ownership of companies in the beer and soft drink industry, the cement industry, the food industry, the financial sector, and the mass media." Latin American Politics and Society, Spring 2005 by Rettberg, Angelika
Friday, April 25, 2008
Asesinan a abogada de los nativos de la isla de Barú y a su hijo
Asesinan a abogada de los nativos de la isla de Barú y a su hijo
observador Saturday, May. 28, 2005 at 9:26 PM
Dentro de su casa en el barrio Los Alpes de Cartagena, fue asesinada Mauricia Lafont Espriella de 56 años, abogada de los 94 nativos poseedores en el caso del litigio con los promotores turísticos por los terrenos, 1.427 hectáreas, en Isla Barú. También fue muerto su hijo Carlos Enrique Gómez Lafont, de 17 años.
El hallazgo de los cadáveres ocurrió pasadas las 11 de la mañana de ayer, aunque el doble crimen, al parecer, fue cometido en horas de la madrugada.
La abogada presentaba dos heridas con arma de fuego en la parte posterior de la cabeza y su hijo una en el pecho. La abogada se había hecho célebre, porque desde hace muchos años venía defendiendo a los nativos de la Isla de Barú, una zona insular de Cartagena, que adelantan un proceso en contra de la Nación por la posesión que tienen 94 herederos sobre la Hacienda Santana de una extensión de tierra de 1.427 hectareas.
En la zona se adelantará el megaproyecto turístico que contempla la construcción de tres grandes hoteles de lujo y campos de golf en un terrero de 630 hectáreas sobre las cuales reivindican propiedad el Ministerio de Comercio (280), Valores Bavaria (300) y el grupo Corona (50).
Lo más novedoso del proyecto es la participación no sólo de la Nación, sino de los más importantes empresarios con inmuebles en la isla. Es decir, la familia Obregón Santo Domingo, Valores Bavaria, el Sindicato Antioqueño, el Grupo Corona o sea la familia Echavarría y el empresario Eduardo Luis de la Vega, que lidera el grupo privado.
Según la revista Semana "el presidente Álvaro Uribe se apersonó del proyecto turístico más grande del país". El primer gran hotel de lujo del será construido por la empresa Decamerón en el sector de Playa Blanca. Tendrá cerca de 220 habitaciones y tan pronto se comience a desarrollar este primer proyecto "se va a involucrar a la comunidad isleña para capacitarla, a través del Sena, en las artes de la construcción y en todas las actividades del complejo hotelero. Es decir, cocineros, meseros, recepcionistas, amas de llave, equipajeros y hasta jardineros". La propuesta en materia social contempla además un sistema de protección a las familias raizales de Barú y los pequeños pueblos de nativos como Santa Ana y Ararca, habitados por unas 9.000 personas.
Así para los nativos afrocolombianos despojados de sus tierras, como dice el antropólogo Jaime Arocha, "claro está que hay otras opciones: mesero y cocinera en los hoteles de cinco estrellas que las corporaciones abrirán en espacios a los cuales Unesco quizá les dé carácter de patrimonio de la humanidad, como la ensenada de Utría. Se deduce esa opción del desarrollo que ahorca a los pobres, a partir del interés de la actual administración presidencial por asociarse con Bavaria y Corona para convertir santuarios ecológicos y étnicos, como la isla de Barú, en complejos turísticos para millonarios del norte".
http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/26470.php
observador Saturday, May. 28, 2005 at 9:26 PM
Dentro de su casa en el barrio Los Alpes de Cartagena, fue asesinada Mauricia Lafont Espriella de 56 años, abogada de los 94 nativos poseedores en el caso del litigio con los promotores turísticos por los terrenos, 1.427 hectáreas, en Isla Barú. También fue muerto su hijo Carlos Enrique Gómez Lafont, de 17 años.
El hallazgo de los cadáveres ocurrió pasadas las 11 de la mañana de ayer, aunque el doble crimen, al parecer, fue cometido en horas de la madrugada.
La abogada presentaba dos heridas con arma de fuego en la parte posterior de la cabeza y su hijo una en el pecho. La abogada se había hecho célebre, porque desde hace muchos años venía defendiendo a los nativos de la Isla de Barú, una zona insular de Cartagena, que adelantan un proceso en contra de la Nación por la posesión que tienen 94 herederos sobre la Hacienda Santana de una extensión de tierra de 1.427 hectareas.
En la zona se adelantará el megaproyecto turístico que contempla la construcción de tres grandes hoteles de lujo y campos de golf en un terrero de 630 hectáreas sobre las cuales reivindican propiedad el Ministerio de Comercio (280), Valores Bavaria (300) y el grupo Corona (50).
Lo más novedoso del proyecto es la participación no sólo de la Nación, sino de los más importantes empresarios con inmuebles en la isla. Es decir, la familia Obregón Santo Domingo, Valores Bavaria, el Sindicato Antioqueño, el Grupo Corona o sea la familia Echavarría y el empresario Eduardo Luis de la Vega, que lidera el grupo privado.
Según la revista Semana "el presidente Álvaro Uribe se apersonó del proyecto turístico más grande del país". El primer gran hotel de lujo del será construido por la empresa Decamerón en el sector de Playa Blanca. Tendrá cerca de 220 habitaciones y tan pronto se comience a desarrollar este primer proyecto "se va a involucrar a la comunidad isleña para capacitarla, a través del Sena, en las artes de la construcción y en todas las actividades del complejo hotelero. Es decir, cocineros, meseros, recepcionistas, amas de llave, equipajeros y hasta jardineros". La propuesta en materia social contempla además un sistema de protección a las familias raizales de Barú y los pequeños pueblos de nativos como Santa Ana y Ararca, habitados por unas 9.000 personas.
Así para los nativos afrocolombianos despojados de sus tierras, como dice el antropólogo Jaime Arocha, "claro está que hay otras opciones: mesero y cocinera en los hoteles de cinco estrellas que las corporaciones abrirán en espacios a los cuales Unesco quizá les dé carácter de patrimonio de la humanidad, como la ensenada de Utría. Se deduce esa opción del desarrollo que ahorca a los pobres, a partir del interés de la actual administración presidencial por asociarse con Bavaria y Corona para convertir santuarios ecológicos y étnicos, como la isla de Barú, en complejos turísticos para millonarios del norte".
http://colombia.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/26470.php
Spectacular Colombian island in tourism battle
February 21, 2007
Spectacular Colombian island in tourism battle
By Hugh Bronstein
ISLA BARU, Colombia (Reuters) - To visitors, it is a paradise of white beaches and brilliant blue waters, but Colombia's Isla Baru has been scarred by a long fight for control between Afro-Colombian residents and hotel developers.
Armed security guards, paid by the government and private business groups, this month fired around the feet of locals trying to plant fields on contested property worth millions of dollars near the booming Caribbean coast tourist city of Cartagena.
No one was wounded but residents are scared. "Now we know they have orders to shoot at us, we're afraid for our lives," said Carlos Rincon, a farmer. "This is getting worse."
What local media have dubbed "The Battle for Baru" started in the 1970s when the government says it bought 300 hectares from business groups that say they still hold 200 hectares.
Together they have drawn up plans for a luxury resort and want to start building.
But the Afro-Colombian descendants of slaves who say they hold land titles dating back to the 1590s insist the purchase documents were falsified and that they never sold to anyone.
For years, residents have periodically tried to push back into areas they once controlled before being chased out again.
Manuela Miranda says she was detained in 1995 and flown to the capital Bogota where she was interrogated for two days in a hotel room and forced to sign papers saying she had sold her papaya farm
"They said they would take me up to the top of Monserrate and shoot me," she said, referring to a mountain peak that overlooks Bogota. "I ended up signing out of fear."
Miranda never gave up her land though, and says she filed a complaint with authorities despite notes placed under the door of her home telling her to keep quiet.
NO WINNERS
Neither side has won. The developers have been unable to build their hotels, and Isla Baru is mired in poverty.
The island traditionally lives from fishing and tropical fruits but most families have shabby homes, schools are poorly equipped, women carry water to their homes in buckets on their heads, and there are very few jobs.
"We'd like to get to the beach to fish but the guards won't let us through," said Sergio Morales, a father of four. "That's how we always fed our families before this conflict began."
The attorney general's office last year declined a government request to bring invasion of property charges against the locals, leaving the case at a standoff.
Oscar Rueda, Colombia's deputy minister for commerce, industry and tourism, says those who claim land rights must stop confronting security guards and take their case to court.
"They are attempting to invade," he told Reuters. "If you legally own a house you don't come at night with a group of friends and try to take over the property. You file a legal claim to get your house back."
Island residents say documents from the mayor's office in Cartagena prove the property is theirs.
"If the national government and the conglomerates want to contest that decision then they are the ones that must appeal in court," said their lawyer, Alvaro Luna.
A Reuters reporter was stopped by guards on the road to Baru's best beach, Playa Blanca, and forbidden to pass.
Nearby, Morvil Rocha lives in a metal shack close enough to what he claims is his land to watch security guards strolling through the wasting orange groves he once tended.
Families being pushed from their homes is nothing new in Colombia, where more than 3 million people have been displaced by decades of guerrilla war driven by the cocaine trade.
"We're willing to sell but we've never seen an offer," said Carmen Garcia, the owner of a small group of huts that serves as Playa Blanca's only hotel. "People are displaced in Colombia all the time, but by the war. This time it's by tourism.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/21/worldupdates/2007-02-21T000440Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-288514-1&sec=worldupdateshttp://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/21/worldupdates/2007-02-21T000440Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-288514-1&sec=worldupdates
Spectacular Colombian island in tourism battle
By Hugh Bronstein
ISLA BARU, Colombia (Reuters) - To visitors, it is a paradise of white beaches and brilliant blue waters, but Colombia's Isla Baru has been scarred by a long fight for control between Afro-Colombian residents and hotel developers.
Armed security guards, paid by the government and private business groups, this month fired around the feet of locals trying to plant fields on contested property worth millions of dollars near the booming Caribbean coast tourist city of Cartagena.
No one was wounded but residents are scared. "Now we know they have orders to shoot at us, we're afraid for our lives," said Carlos Rincon, a farmer. "This is getting worse."
What local media have dubbed "The Battle for Baru" started in the 1970s when the government says it bought 300 hectares from business groups that say they still hold 200 hectares.
Together they have drawn up plans for a luxury resort and want to start building.
But the Afro-Colombian descendants of slaves who say they hold land titles dating back to the 1590s insist the purchase documents were falsified and that they never sold to anyone.
For years, residents have periodically tried to push back into areas they once controlled before being chased out again.
Manuela Miranda says she was detained in 1995 and flown to the capital Bogota where she was interrogated for two days in a hotel room and forced to sign papers saying she had sold her papaya farm
"They said they would take me up to the top of Monserrate and shoot me," she said, referring to a mountain peak that overlooks Bogota. "I ended up signing out of fear."
Miranda never gave up her land though, and says she filed a complaint with authorities despite notes placed under the door of her home telling her to keep quiet.
NO WINNERS
Neither side has won. The developers have been unable to build their hotels, and Isla Baru is mired in poverty.
The island traditionally lives from fishing and tropical fruits but most families have shabby homes, schools are poorly equipped, women carry water to their homes in buckets on their heads, and there are very few jobs.
"We'd like to get to the beach to fish but the guards won't let us through," said Sergio Morales, a father of four. "That's how we always fed our families before this conflict began."
The attorney general's office last year declined a government request to bring invasion of property charges against the locals, leaving the case at a standoff.
Oscar Rueda, Colombia's deputy minister for commerce, industry and tourism, says those who claim land rights must stop confronting security guards and take their case to court.
"They are attempting to invade," he told Reuters. "If you legally own a house you don't come at night with a group of friends and try to take over the property. You file a legal claim to get your house back."
Island residents say documents from the mayor's office in Cartagena prove the property is theirs.
"If the national government and the conglomerates want to contest that decision then they are the ones that must appeal in court," said their lawyer, Alvaro Luna.
A Reuters reporter was stopped by guards on the road to Baru's best beach, Playa Blanca, and forbidden to pass.
Nearby, Morvil Rocha lives in a metal shack close enough to what he claims is his land to watch security guards strolling through the wasting orange groves he once tended.
Families being pushed from their homes is nothing new in Colombia, where more than 3 million people have been displaced by decades of guerrilla war driven by the cocaine trade.
"We're willing to sell but we've never seen an offer," said Carmen Garcia, the owner of a small group of huts that serves as Playa Blanca's only hotel. "People are displaced in Colombia all the time, but by the war. This time it's by tourism.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/21/worldupdates/2007-02-21T000440Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-288514-1&sec=worldupdateshttp://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/2/21/worldupdates/2007-02-21T000440Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-288514-1&sec=worldupdates
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