Help Save A World Heritage Site

The fight to save Casco Viejo from the Cinta Costera III continued into December, with a few things becoming much more clear, though there is still a lot to be decided and a lot left to fight for.

Where We Are Today

What is clear, and what everyone who has pitched in on this fight should be proud of, is that the worst case scenario, a landfill around Casco Viejo, looks to have been averted. This was the government's first option and without the groups and individuals who came together at critical moments we are quite sure it would have become a reality. The final version is moving ahead quickly and it will be an elevated viaduct just off the coast. It is still about as mediocre as infrastructure gets, but much, much better than the alternative.

UNESCO's technical and advisory bodies issued their annual State of Conservation report taking the government and Odebrecht to task for pushing ahead without considering alternatives and indicating that a delisting at the June 2013 meeting of the World Heritage Committee is a real possibility. While we appreciate UNESCO finally acknowleding that the project is moving forward (six months after it began), we cannot help feeling somewhat betrayed by UNESCO's inability to use its strongest weapon--the voice of its Executive Director--to denouce the project.  We wrote to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, requesting that the Security Council itself take up the matter, as we believe that the right of peoples to protect their heritage when their governmetns fail to do so is a fundamental human right and therefore within the Security Council's purvue. 

Where We Are Headed

Stopping the completion of the project now looks next to impossible, however, there is still a lot to fight for.  Our two primary goals now are to keep the project from creeping back to a landfill (see the jaw dropping newly proposed "Presidential Island" below) and to begin to lay the legal foundation for the eventual removal of the viaduct at some point in the future. Removal is not something we expect to happen for many years, but history has shown that one generation's misconcieved highway is often removed by later generations so preparing the groundwork now is key. At a more philisophical level, we hope that by continuing to push we send a message to future governments that destroying cultural heritage has consequences. 

Your donations have been key to keeping us in this struggle and averting the worst case scenario. Being able to have lawyers on call, send messags to the public and be ready with materials for peaceful protests at critical moments made the difference and we are grateful. 

• Letter to UN Sec General Ban Ki Moon (PDF)
  

Yesterday the organizations defending Casco Viejo held a press conference to make several pronouncements regarding the project and announce the initiation of new legal claims.

Someone, we suspect the government and/or Odebrecht, organized dozens of people to surround the building and try to interrupt the conference. This is not the first time they have done this in an attempt to show that the "people" support the project. It has long been speculated that people are paid to attend these kinds of demonstrations, but yesterday was the first day that the local news was able to directly record on video proof (see videos below of conference and the events afterword). 

Those interruptions will only serve to help disseminate the points made by the groups at the conference, which were:

1.  Recalling the recent tragic destruction of sites in Timbuktu, Syria and Afghanistan, the groups called on UNESCO to use its voice while there is still time to help protect Casco Viejo from being permanently disfigured. The groups called for an extraordinary meeting of the World Heritage Committee, citing their concern that the government's plan is to advance the project so far that it cannot be stopped by next year's regular UNESCO meeting.  

2. Announcing a lawsuit based on failure to take into consideration the environmental impacts of the project asking for the enjoyment of the project pending further study.

3. Demanding explanations from specific government officials and a detailed explanation for the project's cost (double per kilometer the cost of Panama's new subway) and disclosure of the studies that purportedly show that the other alternatives are not viable. 

4. Clarifying that the change from the original tunnel plan to the destructive seafront route was made at the suggestion of the contractor, and requesting that the CEO of Construtora Norberto Odebrecht take a personal involvement in the project to assure that it does not lead to the disfigurement of a world heritage site. 

We will continue to drive on these points in the coming weeks and keep you informed.