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Chorrillos, our Property Stolen

In 1994, a public tender called under Costa Verde Independent Authority Regulations resulted in the sale by the Chorrillos Municipal Government, led by Mayor Hugo Valdivia, of a 200 hectare, 5 kilometer long ocean front property for five million dollars paid cash. The contract required the property to be developed towards the ocean and thus have a positive impact on the district and the city of Lima at large.

However, the new mayor Pablo Guitérrez illegally disregarded the contracts, but did not return or deposit the money. The next district mayor, Augusto Miyashiro, did likewise, despite the municipal government’s commitment at the time of the sale to help in obtaining the necessary municipal permits and paperwork.

Thanks to my brother Isy’s perseverance, in 2007, after more than 10 years, we obtained the construction permits and authorizations issued by the National Institute of Culture, the so called Archeological Non-Objection Certificates, which were also registered in the Public Registry.

The property development project envisaged to build high rises over 20 hectares. The project would be comprised of some 80 buildings, 15 stories high each, on average, to turn this derelict area into a new tourist and urban development pole for Lima. Only 10% of the project would be built in its initial stage. The final concept was to develop an amazing but wasted coast line, and let the residents of the national capital take advantage of their proximity to the ocean and live in harmony with marine life. We wanted to benefit from the natural attraction of our proximity to the sea, as do many other cities around the world.

A few months after having registered all our permits in the Public Registries and having started the development works, President Alan García said on television our property had been the scene of a battle during the Pacific War and therefore had to be made intangible. He ordered the National Institute of Culture to enact a directorate decision giving our properties a historical value and therefore making them intangible.

In fact, the property was unusually shaped, and its borders were determined by the property’s height. However, such border does not reach the promontory there, the so called Morro. Logically the historical intangible part of the property was always protected. We never bought the promontory. Even more so, the arbitration decision of January 15th, 2001, confirmed the “Morro Solar” promontory was not part of the property.

It is important to mention that in this area there was an Army firing range. However, the Army had left it voluntarily.

We asked the Peruvian Army for their technical historical opinion. They clearly said that land had never been the scenario of any war battles in Peruvian history.

Why did President García lie openly about BNM and our Chorrillos property? Why did the President of Peru step in in these two specific cases? What was his interest in them?