By IPS Correspondents
PANAMA, Aug 21 1998 (IPS)

The restoration of a historic neighbourhood here could transform it into a money-spinning destination for tourists but that brings little cheer to some 600 poor families who live there.

They have been protesting against the fact that they have to abandon the dilapidated homes they have been renting in the colonial neighbourhood of San Felipe, declared an international historical site in 1997 by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

“We are asking to be treated with dignity and decency, not like a plague, as some people are treating us,” Sonia Castillo, who has lived in San Felipe for 30 years, said during one of the protests.

Guillermina Arauz, who has been renting a large, run-down house in the neighbourhood for the past 50 years, complained that her children were among those worst affected by the impending eviction since they are still studying at the Bolivar Institute in San Felipe.

In San Felipe, “we have lived together all of our lives, like a big melting pot: wealthy people, middle-class people and poor people,” said another resident, Jaime Espumer. “Now they want to kick out the poor so only the rich remain.”

The director of Historical Sites of the National Institute of Culture (INAC), Sebastian Paniza, admitted that the idea is that San Felipe will become a tourist attraction. But, he said, “this depends on private investment”.

Ninety percent of the area is owned by investors who want to turn it into profitable business, said Paniza.

UNESCO decided on Dec. 6 last after several years of research to include San Felipe – built around 1673 in its current location at the foot of a hill by then Spanish governor Antonio Fernandez de Cordova – on its list of international historical sites.

After the UNESCO decision, the selling price of homes in San Felipe skyrocketed due to tourist interest in the neighbourhood, according to a real estate agent. Before that – in August 1997 – the local government had established a special system of incentives for investors interested in restoring San Felipe’s buildings.

The new historical monument includes a cathedral and cathedral square, the ruins of the Jesuit University of San Javier and Bolivar High School, which functioned until 1777, and the site of a historic congress called by liberator Simon Bolivar in 1826.

According to historian Alberto Osorio, San Felipe “is an historic area with religious buildings, some of which are in use while others are not,” as well as a residential area. It is also the site of several of Panama’s political and cultural institutions, such as the National Theater.

Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps, who built the Suez canal and began the construction of the Panama canal at the end of the 19th century, was one of the illustrious residents of San Felipe. His home is now the site of the French Embassy, said Osorio.

Paniza maintains that it is investors and not the government who are seeking to evict the residents of San Felipe, since the state only owns 10 percent of the property in the area, including the offices of the presidency and of INAC, the National Theatre, the Ministry of Government, some monuments and school buildings. Some 12,000 people live in San Felipe, according to the Ministry of Housing.

Housing Minister Rogelio Paredes said that the problem did not involve all the people who rent homes in San Felipe, but only the some 600 families living in houses on the verge of collapse and which should be demolished or restored.

Despite the fact that the houses are private property, the Ministry of Housing has offered each household 400 square meters of land in the city of Arraijan, 13 kilometers west of the capital, so that they can build their own homes.

But those threatened with eviction have refused to accept the land the government is offering them because it lacks access roads, drinking water, sewerage and electricity, said Jose Arauz, spokesperson of a committee of residents of San Felipe.

Arauz indicated that the non-governmental German foundation Research Services for the Community (SUIC) has offered to provide 60 million dollars to build a neighbourhood of 3,000 homes for the families being evicted from San Felipe if the Panamanian state provides the land.

This neighbourhood could be built on state land located behind the U.S.-owned Howard air base, some eight kilometers from the capital, he said.

Ruben Vallejos, representative of the San Felipe local authority, also proposed that a neighbourhood be built on the same site for the affected families, but with public funds rather than money provided by the SIUC.

Paredes promised to study all the proposals so as to find a solution to the problem, but he warned that the situation had reached a “crossroads”. He said he had to resolve the issue for the affected families and, at the same time, offer “guarantees to the investors who want to reconstruct the neighbourhood and make the tourist project a reality”.

“I have to find a balance between these two sectors because I cannot harm one and favour the other,” he said.

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