CORRUPTION

Predators roam in Bocas

No property is safe

R.M. KOSTER
rmkoster@rmkoster.com

PANAMA. A hundred years ago the Bocas del Toro archipelago was a leader in banana cultivation. Today its main product is real estate swindles. The Star has taken a hard look at land questions in the islands. The resulting series of articles starts today.

Through more than 50 interviews we discovered a situation that rewards trickery and punishes good faith. It's made up, essentially, of three elements.

First, Panama's bewildering system of land titling. In being confusing, it lends itself to deception and self-deception. In leaving a great deal to the discretion of officials, it lends itself to corruption.

Third, in the Bocas Islands land values shot up sharply with the influx of retirees and tourists. Big money has attracted predators and tempted officials.

The situation may be expressed in this equation: Confusion +Relaxed Standards +Money = Zero Juridical Security. Predators can go after titled land without risk or cost and with good prospects of success, since defending it can cost thousands. As a realtor of ten years’ experience told our reporter, "No property is safe."

Our series will continue through Friday, examine four cases in detail, touch on four others, and present Bocas gall as illustrated in the following anecdote:

Six Diamond Resorts International, an American firm, intends to create a tourist complex on Isla Colón with some four-storey buildings. The zoning rules forbade more than three. In 2007 the company invited the mayor and a number of officials to the US, all expenses paid. When they returned, the zoning rules changed. A company officer told our reporter that they could never get the officials together in Panama. The only way was to bring them to Houston. The mayor, meanwhile, said that the population of Bocas has grown a lot lately. Extending the town horizontally could be bad for the environment. Therefore, the rules were changed to permit four storeys. Page 3