In that takeover August 4, 2010, nearly 800 Mexican citizens were roused from homes by 200 police and forced to leave at gunpoint. Their possessions were seized, stores looted. A few household items were returned later.
A number of unarmed people were hurt in the assault.
Most recently, people are the area were heartened by Villalobos' loss of the federal concession to the beach. There was a great deal of speculation that he would have to open the beach by Semana Santa, then the speculation said maybe April 30.
But since then, everything remains status quo. Anyone trying to get to the beach still has to pass through an ugly chain link checkpoint, where unpleasant guards carrying automatic weapons demand to search cars, require that identification be left at the guard shack and generally act as though anyone headed to the beach is a suspect.
Here is a brief report posted on the People's Guide to Mexico:
People's Guide to Mexico
In the meantime, some individual lawsuits, brought by American and Canadian landowners (whose oceanfront properties were seized by hundreds of armed guards in the employ of Villalobos) have had hearings in Guadalajara courts.
Rulings on their requests for amparos (injunctions) are pending.
Here is a photo of what Tenacatita Bay Beach looked like before Villalobos seized it and bulldozed the many restaurants and concessionaire facilities there.
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| Happier days, before the illegal seizure by Jose Villalobos |
