Fishermen feel betrayed by ex-ag chief in dispute with Ceiba over fishing village

The Puerto Rico Fishermen and Defenders of the Sea Federation Inc. contends that the Municipality of Ceiba intends to evict the group of fishermen who managed to rehabilitate and reopen the Los Machos Beach fishing village after the devastation of hurricanes Irma and Maria.

By THE STAR STAFF

The Puerto Rico Fishermen and Defenders of the Sea Federation Inc. (FEPDEMAR by its acronym in Spanish) on Wednesday denounced what they said was a betrayal of fishermen on the part of the former agriculture secretary and current president of the Economic Development Bank, Josué Rivera Castro, by handing over control of the Los Machos Beach fishing village in Ceiba to the Municipality of Ceiba.

The group contended that the town now intends to evict the group of fishermen who managed to rehabilitate and reopen the fishing village after the devastation of hurricanes Irma and Maria.

“We placed all our trust in Mr. Josué Rivera Castro, former secretary of agriculture. In March, he asked us to identify the priority issues for fishermen. He committed to FEPDEMAR to respect what Section 6 of Regulation 7626 states: that a municipality can request the administration of a fishing village, but only when there is no fishing association interested in managing it,” FEPDEMAR President Miguel A. Ortiz Serrano said. “In the case of the Los Machos Beach fishing village in Ceiba, the Department completely disregarded any sense of decency in this matter. The fishing association that currently occupies the village and that the municipality wants to evict, ANSI LLC, was the one that managed to rehabilitate and reopen the village after hurricanes Irma and Maria, contributing $60,000 with great effort and hard work. God knows where the money that FEMA provided to rehabilitate the village is.”

Ortiz Serrano added that “now the fishermen in Ceiba are facing eviction by the municipality, with the blessing of Rivera Castro, who re-signed a contract with the municipality knowing that there is a committed, trained, honest, proven fishing association interested in continuing to manage the fishing village.”

FEPDEMAR insists that the fishermen’s association has priority according to the regulations, Ortiz Serrano said.

“It’s unbelievable how far this abuse can go. Another example of this situation is in La Parguera,” he said, referring to the seaside neighborhood in Lajas. “There, the fishermen have been waiting for almost a year for the Department of Agriculture to grant them a lease. We are worried and anxious about what is happening in Ceiba and what we are seeing in La Parguera.”

Next Monday at 10:30 a.m. FEPDEMAR will hold a meeting with acting Agriculture Secretary Irving Rodríguez Torres to address the situation. They will demand the immediate cancellation of the new contract with the Municipality of Ceiba and that the lease be awarded to the fishing group ANSI LLC.