I'm a retired school teacher who lives in Luquillo, Puerto Rico, a small beach town about 50 km east of San Juan. Luquillo has been my home for 47 years; the town and its surrounding gems are magical and blessed by our ancestors — the rainforest rejuvenates me, the beaches cleanse me and the town and its people inspire me to protect it.
Unfortunately, Luquillo is under increasing threat from developers who seek to privatize and monetize our island's natural resources.
Developers like PRISA Group, known for their 1,400-acre $1.4 billion “Ritz-Carlton Reserve” development in Dorado, where one of the most expensive suites costs upwards of $25,000 per night. The development has limited locals' access to the beach.
PRISA recently worked with Marriott to build a hotel on a valuable ecological site in Luquillo, which I and many concerned community members opposed.
In 2021, we worked with scientists to compile an environmental report that showed the disastrous effects of constructing a hotel and casino on our native wetlands. We filed our report along with a request for the hotel group's construction permit to be revoked. Judge Elizabeth A. Rice Dilmé dismissed the case on the grounds that I did not “demonstrate that I have a proprietary or personal interest that is adversely affected.”
I then received a sealed envelope with charges of more than $40K in legal expenses from the hotel group, despite the fact that we did not go to court. I have filed three motions to request that the envelope be opened so I can see what I am being charged for. All have been denied.
The court has accessed and drained three of my bank accounts, including joint accounts with my children — a total of $6,000. I am unable to pay the remaining fees without support. I am asking for any donation you can offer to help pay the fees and take further legal action against this injustice.
The stakes are high.
Wetlands are incredibly biodiverse, providing habitat for both terrestrial and aquatic animals. 40 percent of all plant and animal species live or breed in wetlands. They act as a natural filtration system between the ocean and river and mitigate flooding during hurricanes — one acre of wetlands can store 1-1.5 million gallons of floodwater.
Burying the wetlands under silt and cement creates toxic runoff that contaminates the ocean, and prohibits fish and shrimp from navigating between the ocean and mountains for breeding and destroys the habitat of our island's endangered species like the coquí llanero. The hotel construction has caused irreparable damage of more than eight acres of valuable ecosystems.
My personal interest lies in the well-being of my community and the ecosystems we depend on to live.
And this story is part of a tragedy currently playing out across the island: developers are buying up ocean-front property, leasing to giant corporations that bring tourists and wealthy part-time residents, displacing locals and destroying the vibrant beaches, wetlands and tropical forests we — and countless species of plants and animals — call home.
We Boricuas are fighting — but these forces are powerful. Local developers and corporate international hotel groups have the resources to pay for lawyers, to heavily influence politicians and judges, to hire people to stage counter protests.
They will stop at nothing to silence voices of resistance like mine, because they know that we, too, are powerful.
My grandparents' legacy in Luquillo inspires me to cultivate, harvest and protect the land and to give back to my community. We are the soul of Puerto Rico, with the power of our ancestors behind us. And we, too, will stop at nothing to protect our island.
Any support you can provide for our ongoing fight will be so greatly appreciated.
Thank you and blessings,
Monica
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