Thread by @Vaquero2XL

Here in Dorado at “Ghetto Beach” reporting on today’s anti-beach privatization protest for @latinorebels

All coastal land in Puerto Rico is public by law but hotels, airbnbs, private homes, etc… along the beach get around this law by building fences and other obstructions near the beach that don’t let the public pass through into the beach easily. By law, buildings near the…

beach have to have a public access path to the beach but many of the “paths” created by buildings along the coast are little more than dirt roads or are filled with rocks.

Dorado Beach specifically has had a long history of being slowly appropriated by the Dorado Beach Hotel and not allowing the public onto their “private” beach. When the @ACLUPR visited the beach, they found the public path was inaccessible and blocked by… metro.pr/noticias/2022/…

multiple large rocks. On the beach itself, reportedly 15 Dorado Beach Hotel used golf carts to impede people from accessing the coastal land. When the reporter Maritza Cañizares and the Dorado municipal assemblywoman Yamira Colón requested access to the beach, Dorado Beach…

Hotel security chief Pedro Rosario denied them access. Reminder, all of this is taking place in public land so the hotel and its personnel are breaking the law.

Luxury residents of the area have been coordinating in group chats to delete the location pin for the beach from Google Maps jayfonseca.com/residentes-de-…

In response, Puerto Ricans re-upped the pin and left a bunch of reviews. They’ve even created another pin called “Playa Ghetto, Public Beach 🇵🇷 ✊🏼”

https://twitter.com/vaquero2xl/status/1492317772914769925

At time of posting, the first pin seems to have been deleted and only one remains. The first picture is from earlier today when neither pin appeared.

Dorado Beach sent their membership a letter saying that they were going to up their security for today’s protest and that they complied with the law that all beaches were public and must not be hindered but some beaches were difficult to access because of “morphology and…

https://twitter.com/ElUrbanistaPR/status/1491956838044250112

natural characteristics.” Example of what they’re describing below:

https://twitter.com/kristianbob/status/1492133655564726275

A lot of the people that live at these beachfront properties are recipients of Act 20/22, which are laws that essentially allow non-Puerto Ricans to pay little-to-no taxes if they move here. You can learn more about it on my story below for @latinorebels latinorebels.com/2022/01/25/act…

Anyway, I’m on the ground trying to find a way into this beach. Dorado Beach security told me people couldn’t pass through the private neighborhood to access the public beach and had to go all the way round. I’ve also seen about two dozen cops headed towards the beach.

Found the beach

A local community member told me that lots of police have been making the rounds around the area since last night. There’s a dozen police/guards along the beach guarding private property.

I’ve been told that this is where the peaceful protest against anti-beach privatization is gonna be held. Same vibe as Ocean Beach two weeks ago but with less sports.

So this is the type of terrain that the public has to pass through because there’s not easy access to the beach

Just spoke with fisherman Victor García who’s previously only come to this area through the sea via kayak, boat, etc… But he’s told me that now he knows his rights to the beach, he’s gonna come way more often.

The type of structures that are built right on the rocks that make an already cumbersome climbing experience worse

When I asked security guard what path to take, they told me normally you’d go through the rocks but high tide is making it so that they’re letting us pass through a little grass spot.

HM08 cause we’re rock climbing jaja

The “path” we just climbed at the other side. There’s no easily accessible path through the land. You have to go through the rocks. A man just passed carrying an icebox and he told me it was a huge pain to lug through here.

This is the type of access that hotel and apartment renters have to the the beach. I’ve also noticed at least two of them taking pics/filming people who are walking past.

My boot got wet cause it’s pretty much impossible to walk through without getting wet up to your calves and my sock is making that squishy sound.

So, at the little beach cove area that’s right in front of the hotels the vibes are pretty nice. Sun is blazing, waves are coming and going and everybody is having a pretty nice time. People keep trickling in little by little. Meanwhile, hotel security is posted on the lawn…

vigilantly watching all the people that come and go.

Oh yeah this beach is real nice

A local fisherman caught a “Pipo Fish” with Logan Paul dollars. “Doesn’t weight a lot cause it’s filled with hot air,” he says.

Currently on my way back to where the tents are. People who are coming from over there have told me there’s a lot of people there partying and having fun.

“This is absolutely beautiful,” he screamed at me as he was making his way down the rocks.

Just made my way through the rocks back to the public-facing part of the beach where the tents are. Security told me that’s the normal path for the public when the water line isnt high. I really don’t recommend it, even for me it was hard to climb around without falling.

Once more, this reporter wishes he had brought a swimsuit

“Zumba combativa”

@BoriWarsPR on sale at the beach. Sounds like a pretty fun game

They also have two beach tennis courts set up for anybody who wants to play.

Looks like the rain is about to come down

Rain’s started to trickle down a little bit and people have started to take shelter under the tents

Eliezer Molina just got on mic and told people to be wary of Karen’s on the beach.

Rain’s more or less stopped and the sky is very clear. There’s a kickboxing class later on and there’s a beach cleanup at 5:30-6:00

Overall, vibes immaculate.

I’m out of “Ghetto Beach”