Villas del Sol fight goes international
Surgeons Association President Eduardo Ibarra said Tuesday he is taking his fight to provide permanent homes to the 200 poor families in the squatter community of Villas del Sol to international and judicial fronts.
Besides plans for a federal lawsuit based on the government denying the community access to water service, Ibarra said he has also taken the matter to the United Nations, the League of Latin American Citizens, Congress and Habitat for Humanity.
“I am going to dedicate my life and soul to making sure this is a paradise … Even if we have to go to President Barack Obama we are going to do it,” Ibarra said of plans to build permanent homes for the squatter communities on a 17-acre plot in Arecibo that he donated to Villas del Sol residents. “The problem could be solved with only two words: good faith.”
“We have to take this matter to the world forum,” Ibarra said during a meeting of Puerto Rico Community Foundation with Villa del Sol residents to discuss the possibility of creating a community and development organization, or CHDO, to build homes on the plot of land in Arecibo. To date, CHDOs have built 5,000 homes for the poor, sick and elderly, Puerto Rico Community Foundation President Nelson Colón said.
Ibarra, his wife Jeanny and Villas del Sol residents also reiterated their calls to Gov. Fortuño for the government to reconnect water and light services to the squatter community in Toa Baja, pending their possible move to Arecibo.
“I want to call on first lady Lucé Vela to have some compassion for the children of Villas del Sol,” said Martiza de la Cruz, spokeswoman for the community, which has been without basic utilities for the past five months.
Her newborn daughter is among those suffering, as she has respiratory condition caused by gas fumes from electric generators that are the only form of electricity in the neighborhood, De la Cruz said.
De la Cruz said the community also continues to be object of cruelty by police, while recounting how a police officer Tuesday refused to get help for an orphaned girl who as having an epileptic fit. “The policeman turned his back on the situation and said that if the little girl was Dominican he hoped she died,” De la Cruz said
The squatters are facing eviction for having built their community in an area in Toa Baja that is prone to flooding and had been cleared of residents after Hurricane Georges in 1998. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently extended, by six months, the Dec. 31 deadline to evict the squatters.
When the Ibarras donated the land to Villas del Sol residents at the end of October, it seemed as if the problem of Villas del Sol were over. However, the Fortuño administration has been blocking the move to transfer the families to permanent homes in Arecibo, community attorney Juan Correa said.
After the announcement of the donation, Chief of Staff Marcos Rodríguez Ema commissioned the Engineers and Surveyors Association to study the plot of land in Arecibo to see if it is apt for residential development. The study, which was completed in less than three days, determined the farm is of high ecological value and not apt for development, community organizer Alvin Couto said.
It is unclear why the Engineers and Surveyors Association opted to step in, as the Puerto Rico Planning Board and the Permits and Regulations Administration are the government entities that have authority over this matter, Couto said.
“This is ridiculous. While part of the land is zoned as a nature reserve there are sufficient pockets where houses can be built without affecting the habitat,” said Couto, adding that building homes for Villas del Sol residents could also get a go-ahead if Arecibo Mayor Lemuel Soto gives a dispensation to build homes on the land.
During the meeting Tuesday, the Puerto Rico Community Foundation and the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission presented Ibarra with resolutions honoring him for his donation and work to solve Villas del Sol residents’ problems and well as give him a cake and celebrate his birthday Tuesday.
“This is not only an act of philanthropy but an act of education that shows people to be sensitive to the needs of others,” Civil Rights Commission President René Pinto Lugo said.
Ibarra, who comes from poverty himself, said he learned when he was young “that you cannot be casual about poverty. [People living in poverty] are in a state of emergency and should be treated as [if] they are in an emergency.”
“Some matters are legal and some are moral. The state of affairs at Villas del Sol is a moral matter that must be resolved,” Ibarra said.
Besides plans for a federal lawsuit based on the government denying the community access to water service, Ibarra said he has also taken the matter to the United Nations, the League of Latin American Citizens, Congress and Habitat for Humanity.
“I am going to dedicate my life and soul to making sure this is a paradise … Even if we have to go to President Barack Obama we are going to do it,” Ibarra said of plans to build permanent homes for the squatter communities on a 17-acre plot in Arecibo that he donated to Villas del Sol residents. “The problem could be solved with only two words: good faith.”
“We have to take this matter to the world forum,” Ibarra said during a meeting of Puerto Rico Community Foundation with Villa del Sol residents to discuss the possibility of creating a community and development organization, or CHDO, to build homes on the plot of land in Arecibo. To date, CHDOs have built 5,000 homes for the poor, sick and elderly, Puerto Rico Community Foundation President Nelson Colón said.
Ibarra, his wife Jeanny and Villas del Sol residents also reiterated their calls to Gov. Fortuño for the government to reconnect water and light services to the squatter community in Toa Baja, pending their possible move to Arecibo.
“I want to call on first lady Lucé Vela to have some compassion for the children of Villas del Sol,” said Martiza de la Cruz, spokeswoman for the community, which has been without basic utilities for the past five months.
Her newborn daughter is among those suffering, as she has respiratory condition caused by gas fumes from electric generators that are the only form of electricity in the neighborhood, De la Cruz said.
De la Cruz said the community also continues to be object of cruelty by police, while recounting how a police officer Tuesday refused to get help for an orphaned girl who as having an epileptic fit. “The policeman turned his back on the situation and said that if the little girl was Dominican he hoped she died,” De la Cruz said
The squatters are facing eviction for having built their community in an area in Toa Baja that is prone to flooding and had been cleared of residents after Hurricane Georges in 1998. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently extended, by six months, the Dec. 31 deadline to evict the squatters.
When the Ibarras donated the land to Villas del Sol residents at the end of October, it seemed as if the problem of Villas del Sol were over. However, the Fortuño administration has been blocking the move to transfer the families to permanent homes in Arecibo, community attorney Juan Correa said.
After the announcement of the donation, Chief of Staff Marcos Rodríguez Ema commissioned the Engineers and Surveyors Association to study the plot of land in Arecibo to see if it is apt for residential development. The study, which was completed in less than three days, determined the farm is of high ecological value and not apt for development, community organizer Alvin Couto said.
It is unclear why the Engineers and Surveyors Association opted to step in, as the Puerto Rico Planning Board and the Permits and Regulations Administration are the government entities that have authority over this matter, Couto said.
“This is ridiculous. While part of the land is zoned as a nature reserve there are sufficient pockets where houses can be built without affecting the habitat,” said Couto, adding that building homes for Villas del Sol residents could also get a go-ahead if Arecibo Mayor Lemuel Soto gives a dispensation to build homes on the land.
During the meeting Tuesday, the Puerto Rico Community Foundation and the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission presented Ibarra with resolutions honoring him for his donation and work to solve Villas del Sol residents’ problems and well as give him a cake and celebrate his birthday Tuesday.
“This is not only an act of philanthropy but an act of education that shows people to be sensitive to the needs of others,” Civil Rights Commission President René Pinto Lugo said.
Ibarra, who comes from poverty himself, said he learned when he was young “that you cannot be casual about poverty. [People living in poverty] are in a state of emergency and should be treated as [if] they are in an emergency.”
“Some matters are legal and some are moral. The state of affairs at Villas del Sol is a moral matter that must be resolved,” Ibarra said.