The following morning, Erik, Romano, and Rodolfo went up to the Llano San Miguel with the Rural Guard and stopped the work. They all went down, along with Ulate, the man in charge of the tractors, to the Municipality. Soon, the priest Alberto Cassal, himself arrived "like a raging bull", Romano later described it, "furious and arrogant saying that he would enter the Municipal Palace by himself to fix this matter." Cassal clearly wanted to prevent others from entering while he negotiated with Botassi.
"No sir," Romano responded, "this is a public place," and so they all went in.
Cassal argued in the Municipality that the tractors were not constructing, only leveling the ground. Finally, Botassi told the priest that he would not have a construction permit for any tractor work until he had an interdisciplinary environmental impact study approved by the Ministry of the Environment.
"Nobody is going to stop this!" the priest threatened on his way out. And Rodolfo responded, "This crap is not going to be built, and it's not going to be built!" (Field notes, October 30, 1992)
That same day in the evening CODECE had already organized a Forum "Construction in the Mountains: Development or Destruction?", which I attended.
Romano addressed an audience of about 50 people, among whom was the Municipal Executive, Botassi.
"The project planned by Opus Dei is a spearhead that would create the precedent for more and more construction invading the Protection Zone. Finally, the natural beauty, the scenery, the tranquillity, the fresh air, the solitude and the freedom to walk the countryside, would be trampled over. What would occur would be a cascade of construction, the buying up of land, urban expansion within the Protection Zone, with their barbed wire fences, cutting off passage along trails used traditionally by the inhabitants of Escazú. The Mountains of Escazú would become the exclusive garden of the new proprietors, instead of belonging to every Costa Rican, as they are still today. Soon, the haven for retreats that so impassions the priest of Opus Dei, would become one more neighborhood of San José, full of streets, cars, light posts, in addition to everything that brings with it, such as daily garbage, sewage, waters with detergents, smoke and noise from the cars. All this would take place above where the waters used by the inhabitants of Escazú are collected."
"It is a shame", he continued, "that our Municipality has been so disrespectful of the community and arrogant towards the very people it represents, and instead has been a lackey with the interests of the powerful."
One of the Sisters of the Catholic school where the Forum was held expressed her discontent with what Opus Dei was doing.
"This construction can be built in many other places, but we cannot make this mountain anywhere else. I want to continue to get up in the mornings and find the mountains green, and not covered in concrete. We are already circulating petitions to be signed by all the residents of Escazú, protesting the project of Opus Dei. Everyone in our school has already signed, and we are not stopping there."
"Considering how powerful Opus Dei is," Romano stated, "if we win this fight, nobody else will dare come in and build here."
Finally, Armando Botassi, expressed that he did not understand why the Municipality was being cast as the villain of the movie.
"Let's look together for solutions. The principal problem is that we do not have good laws to regulate what is done on private property. A Regulation Plan is an excellent tool, but its regulations must be protected constitutionally. The environment is the patrimony of everyone, and not only the concern of the Municipality. We must all help each other."
This new-found conciliatory tone by Botassi, several people commented on the way out, was probably aimed at earning him points for re-election (Field notes, October 30, 1992).
The following week, the only issue we discussed in CODECE was the threat of Opus Dei. We all recognized that it was only a matter of time before they obtained all the required documents to continue with their project. In the discussions, that included Romano, Paulina, Erik, a biologist Javier Sánchez who had become closely involved in CODECE since he lead the expedition for the biological inventory in the Mountains of Escazú, Pedro Mena, Amalia León, and two sociologists that were temporarily volunteering work in CODECE, and myself, we came up with two strategic areas in which to deal with Opus Dei: the technical-legal field and the area of communal mobilization.
In the technical-legal field, we considered that CODECE could continue blocking Opus Dei by focusing on technicalities, at least to stall for time. But in general, there was little we could do to prevent construction on private property within the Protection Zone, considering the sanctity of private property in the Constitution. Any prohibition by the Municipality was subject to a suit of unconstitutionality. However, restrictions, rather than outright prohibitions, on constructions within the Protection Zone might be effective. These could be stated in a regulation by the Municipality based on technical criteria. CODECE could supply these criteria. Another possibility could be to establish a Regulation Plan that would limit the activities and type of infrastructure allowed within the Protection Zone. Finally CODECE could push to have the Protection Zone be declared in the public interest and move in the direction of expropriations and severe restrictions on land use. All these options required the collaboration of the Municipality, and now, during the pre-electoral period, was the moment to seek this collaboration since Botassi was looking for re-election. Politically, the time was propitious to garner the social capital of the Municipality in favor of community interests. CODECE had to work quickly on writing up one document that specified what was required in an environmental impact statement, and another document that could be a provisional regulation on activities in the Protection Zone, and give these to the Municipality for ratification. (Field notes, November 5-10, 1992)
In the area of community mobilization we came up with the idea of creating a Council of Elders made up of local eminent personalities and local leaders as a group of the community that could demand the protection of the Mountains of Escazú. The idea was to create a community-wide front with CODECE simply as an advisor, so as not to be alone against a force like Opus Dei. Without wasting much time, CODECE called this Council of Elders, first among the membership of the Association, and then among particular community leaders. The meeting was held at the school in Escazú, with the presence of some 20 persons. From the leadership of CODECE, only Romano went so as not overwhelm the Council if Elders with members of CODECE. Romano later recounted the events of the meeting. After he gave a brief introduction explaining the issue at hand, those present then began talking without any order, nor did they all care that much about the issue. Each had their own issue that concerned them. Romano gave Fello, one of the participants and also a member of CODECE, copies of a summary of all the events regarding Opus Dei and the Llano San Miguel, to hand out to those present. Unbeknownst to Fello or to Romano, however, one of those present was Federico Gamboa, the engineer of Opus Dei, who infiltrated the meeting and took with him all the information that was handed out and discussed!
"We have to find an ace somewhere, because they have us screwed!" Romano concluded, after recounting the events. (Field notes November 9, 1992).
In confronting Opus Dei, CODECE made use of abundant information its members had been able to collect, including such crucial information as the requirement of an interdisciplinary environmental impact study for any construction within the Protection Zone. Besides this informational cultural capital, CODECE also made use of institutionalized cultural capital it had been able to generate with its own labor. CODECE had become the local "authority" on environmental issues, even in the eyes of the Municipality. This gave CODECE the power to "advise" the Municipality, as well as make demands on it, to restrict the activity of Opus Dei in the Protection Zone. In contrast, CODECE's efforts to expand its social capital by generating greater community participation, continued to fall short of the Association's expectations. Ironically, its accumulated cultural capital, which gave CODECE some type of authority, also seemed to raise the Association above the community, making it an entity to which members of the community relinquished their own participation and power.
Opus Dei eventually suspended its heavy construction work for some time, but during periodic walks to the Llano San Miguel I continually found new "improvements". Scarcely one month after the "event" with Father Cassal at the Municipality, I found a young man training boys in mountain climbing techniques on the Llano San Miguel. He belonged to the Opus Dei Association Pro Arte y Cultura, and oblivious to any controversy over the subject, mentioned that soon a recreation center for young people would be built there with all types of sporting facilities.
That same day, though, I found a hopeful sign of change. On my way back down the mountain, I met "Carreta", a local small-time merchant with his wife and children and father-in-law, Santiago Fernández, an older man who had participated in the Council of Elders. I struck up conversation with them. They were headed to see the damages Opus Dei had done. With tears in his eyes, don Santiago said to me, "The people are organizing to fight against the destruction Opus Dei is causing!" And Carreta confessed, "You know, I was very mistaken. I was a good friend of Norberto Salinas [the previous owner of Llano San Miguel, who donated the land to Opus Dei], but what he did was unpardonable. We have to fight against this. But where religion is involved, it's very difficult, and Opus Dei is very powerful." (Field notes, November 30, 1992). It was heartening to hear this type of talk beyond the walls of the office of CODECE.
However, the next time I hiked past the Llano, I found a "No Trespassing" sign posted at the entrance. Some time later, a barbed wire fence enclosed the entire property. At one point, I even found efforts of reforestation on the land, but these were with exotic species not suited to the region. Eventually in 1996, I found the road paved to the entrance of the property, with gutters and street lights all in place. Was it true that "nobody could stop civilization", as the engineer of Opus Dei had predicted? I hoped not, but had my fears.
Regulation Plan
The "ace" that CODECE tried to play in order to prevent Opus Dei and others from invading the Protection Zone with constructions, was supporting the legal institution of a Regulation Plan for the county of Escazú. In my field diary I had already made note of the idea of a Regulation Plan for Escazú in April of 1992. The notes made reference to CODECE's concern over the Municipality's version of the Regulation Plan that categorized Escazú as an urban county, opening the gate to rampant development (Field notes, April 1992). The following month, at a meeting among all the technical collaborators of CODECE, architect Marian Pérez, explained that her collaboration with CODECE focused on writing up a Regulation Plan for Escazú as part of a move for greater participation of the people in their self governance. (Field notes, May 4, 1992). The idea of a Regulation Plan was already being toyed with by such sectors as the Municipality, as well as a group of local businessmen and developers. For CODECE, however, it was the threat of Opus Dei that moved it to work seriously on a Regulation Plan for Escazú.
The Directive Junta of the Association and various others who participated regularly in the discussions, considered that, above all, it was the local communities of Escazú who had to give their opinions regarding what the future of their county should look like. Especially important was the need to hear the voices of those sectors rarely consulted in these matters. These included small farmers, women, and students. CODECE presented the idea to friends in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Costa Rica, where several graduate students took up the idea for their thesis.
In September CODECE made an open invitation to the communities of Escazú to a presentation of these students' thesis on the Regulation Plan of Escazú. There were about 25 people, more than half of whom were members of CODECE. In the presentation, the two architects made an analogy of Escazú to a sick patient that needed a diagnosis, which was provided by the Regulation Plan. In the Plan areas for further development were delineated, as well as areas for agriculture, protected areas, and commercial areas.
Rodolfo León raised the question as to the effectiveness of such a plan to regulate activities when faced with the constitutional right of doing whatever one felt like on private property, but no one had an answer to his question. After some discussion regarding the methodology the architects used to come up with their Regulation Plan, they explained that the importance of this meeting was to inform the people, so that when the Regulation Plan was offered for public approval at the Municipality, the community would be able to participate.
After the presentation, Paulina had mixed feelings about the presentation. CODECE had called the meeting as a way of informing the community on the importance of participating in the creation of a Protection Zone, but it was obvious that the architects' vision of community participation was limited to a one time approval of a project the community had not contributed to developing. The most important conclusion of the presentation, Paulina and I agreed, was in fact that real communal participation had to be inserted into the entire process of developing a Regulation Plan. (Field notes, September 24, 1992).
There were rumors during this time that several local architects and businessmen, along with some members of the Municipal government -all with pro-development interests- had already formed an Association for the Regulation Plan of Escazú in order to press for a line item in the budget of the Municipal government committed to formulating a Regulation Plan for Escazú. This information also pushed CODECE to move ahead with the issue, but it was the immediate threats of Opus Dei during the month of October, 1992 that set the pace for CODECE's work on the Regulation Plan. Soon after, CODECE asked for a meeting with the Municipal Council to discuss the issue of the Regulation Plan. I attended the meeting at the Municipal Palace, along with some 20 other community members. Romano opened the meeting.
"Good evening. Our interest is simply to be able to converse. You are well aware that whenever we come to the Muni, there is always some regulation or limiting time period, or there are other points to be attended, that we rarely have the opportunity to sit down without other pressures and exchange ideas about things that concern us and concern you; concerns that we share. We would like to present to you some of the ideas we have discussed in the Directive Junta of our Association, and of which we felt it would be important to hear your opinion, in order to search out possible actions. Because as Escazuceños, either by 'nativity', as the campesinos say, or by adoption, we share the same concerns that unite us.
"Basically, what I wanted to present to you, in name of the Directive Junta, is the following: the development of Escazú has till now permitted the conformation of three clearly identifiable zones. On this map -which you might already have seen- made by the architects of the University of Costa Rica- we can see first the urban part, where the residential areas, hotels and commercial areas are. This strip represents half or 60 percent of the county. Then there is the agricultural strip, which crosses the county. That is all the high part of San Antonio. Here we predominantly find rural aspects such as agriculture, trapiches, coffee farms, etc. I don't mean by this that all who live here are farmers. No, there are many who work in offices, in construction, etc., but one can still breathe a rural environment here. This agricultural strip borders the third region, the Protection Zone that is also clearly delineated. So, when one sees this map and sees Escazú, one finds that these three realities complement each other and are what make Escazú attractive. They explain what the attraction and the beauty of this county is, and what makes it different from other counties of San José. You no longer find this combination of realities in Desamparados nor in Guadalupe, nor in any other county.
"So in face of this evidence, one asks oneself many questions, and one which is fundamental: How to promote the development of the county, taking advantage of these characteristics, guaranteeing their permanence? In other words, how to achieve the development of Escazú, while maintaining these characteristics? Why maintaining them? Because as I said, the three combined are what make the county attractive. Imagine that the urban region did not exist. It would be very beautiful, bucolic and romantic, but there would be no services. Currently, from any point in Escazú, in 10, 15, 20 minutes, you can access all the services: supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, hardware stores, everything! Then, if we eliminated the agricultural region, we would be losing all those traditions of which we are all so proud, adobe houses, ox-carts, trapiches, horse-back riding, and the source of such national celebrations as the Day of the Boyero [ox-driver]. Finally, if we eliminated the Protection Zone in the mountains, we would be losing a great hydrological wealth, recognized in numerous documents. The air currents from the Atlantic come heavy with humidity, and those clouds one sees constantly over the mountains, discharge their humidity by rain or condensation, permanently nourishing these watersheds. But the Protection Zone also holds a scenic wealth, which you recognize when you rise in the morning and look up to the mountains, a wealth writers have written about and which they link to our identity as Escazuceños.
"So, it is the combination of these three areas which we wish to maintain. When one sees the initiative of Escazuceños to declare the high region a Protection Zone, it is because they value the mountains. When one sees that, despite numerous difficulties, the farmers of Escazú continue strongly attached to agricultural production, despite the construction of houses and roads... There are 200, 250, I don't know how many farmers determined to continue farming, because as Rodolfo León says, 'Where will the ox go when he no longer plows?' In other words, they are farmers, they feel like farmers, and want to continue being farmers. And this is possible. Felipe's father once told me how in Europe one sees cities and towns coexisting with small farms.
"How then to achieve development, while maintaining an enduring balance between these three zones? When I speak of development, it should not be thought of in immediate terms. We have to think of the generations who come after us, otherwise we would be very selfish. What would happen if development today destroyed this reality, or in 10 or 15 years transformed it into something completely urbanized, into one more metropolitan region? We would be killing the chicken of the golden eggs. It would stop being interesting, it would become another Desamparados, or like any other town. But it is not by chance that Escazú has been maintained the way it is. Already 30 years ago, some Escazuceños had the foresight to buy up the watershed of Río Las Lajas, and today there are beautiful secondary forests there, where we have seen five sloths in one morning, and many wild turkeys. It's a beautiful forest, Las Lajas. And other Escazuceños made the Protection Zone possible, because they understood that Escazú could not only be this, or only this, or only this.
"Now there is an attempt to construct in the Protection Zone. All this, then, is to ask oneself: Is the current development of Escazú threatening this reality, or will it guarantee perpetuation of this reality? Take note that we are not opposed to development. We simply ask ourselves whether development can maintain these characteristics which make Escazú so beautiful? Or is the current development threatening this reality? It is regarding this that we would like to hear your opinions.
"For some time now, we have been hearing 'the footsteps of big animals', with more and more people coming to build in our beautiful Escazú. Thus, the initiative of a Regulation Plan becomes important and necessary . What has been the history of the Regulation Plan? Those of you who are carrying on this process can inform us on this. We too, have information on this and question whether the way the Regulation Plan is being proposed will guarantee these things? Is it focused to respond to these realities? Is the Association for the Regulation Plan composed of people who express an interest for these three sectors? There is a group of professionals who live in San Rafael, including the most exclusive residential areas of Trejos Montealegre, who are pushing this project forward. And we ask ourselves, 'from what perspective?' An architect who lives in Trejos Montealegre, would see Escazú with different eyes than Rodolfo, who is a farmer. If I lived in San Rafael, the mountains would tell me one thing, but if I lived at the foot of the mountains, they would tell me something else, and from the agricultural zone they would tell me something different, depending where you are from. So we ask ourselves, 'how is the Association integrated?' How has the process of the Regulation Plan been carried out, and will it guarantee that these three realities are maintained, combined but not destroyed? These are the doubts we have."
After Romano's presentation, one of the few members of the Municipal Council who attended the meeting, all of whom were of the National Liberation Party (PLN) and opposition of the current United Social Christian Party (PUSC) in power, expressed his views. After agreeing with Romano on many points, he explained that, indeed, there was an Association for the Regulation Plan.
"But at this time," he clarified, "it is very little what the Municipality has regarding this. In fact, I believe that the Municipality is going to have to take over this Regulation Plan, because the truth is that the Association has had the project for several months, and we have not seen anything definite. In fact, I think it is not going to work. They have not met with the required quorum. Only three or four people are the most interested, and it is not working. But I would like to return to your question regarding the need to think about the future, and what a Regulation Plan is going to offer us. If it is going to fit us into a tight shoe that gives priority to residential projects in the Protection Zone, I think that would be the greatest error, the most inconceivable error that could occur, and that even the Municipality could not accept that. That, never! But I believe that all that is intended with the Regulation Plan, according to commentaries I have heard, is to end up with a balanced plan. We would have to find out how far it has gone, what has been done, in order to discuss what is currently the situation of the Regulation Plan. For the moment, that is all I could say."
Other people from the community present at the meeting also expressed their concerns. Doña Estefana, an elderly teacher from a farming family in San Antonio, who in years to come would become president of CODECE, touched on some points that confirmed CODECE's ideas about communal participation around the Regulation Plan.
"Well, I am very concerned about this blessed Regulation Plan because in it one finds the opinions of the rest of the county. Let me tell you something. What most interests me is San Antonio, because we can see that San Rafael has turned into pure gold, and Escazú into pure gold, but what do we get out of Escazú and San Rafael if they are in the hands of outsiders? Even the mountains will be of no use if this Regulation Plan or whoever, doesn't pay attention to what we really need. These mountains are our mountains, and the water they bring. And nobody, nobody is considering this. These gentlemen of the Regulation Plan should, in fact, coordinate with all of us, not only with the Municipality, but with all of the inhabitants of the county, because they all have different thoughts, some have very important thoughts, about the conservation of our county. Others, who I know about, the group Arte y Cultura, want to take away from us what we have. I believe that now is the time for CODECE and the Municipality to 'plug in their batteries', as the pachucos say, and stop them, or do something so that they leave. I believe CODECE would do a great job if they really decided to carry this out. Otherwise, what do we have so many university students for, so much stuff that is only up in the