The machinery moves a pile of debris. Cargo trucks enter the dirt property. Under the midday sun, the workers, dressed in phosphorescent helmets and vests, go from one side to the other between the two apartment towers where they have worked these months. They lift sacks, move material, lay foundations. Everything that was once the forest areas surrounding the El Nixticuil forest have been converted into a construction area.
Behind these two towers under construction belonging to the Altures project, there are a couple of houses in a residential subdivision. Just a few meters to the side begins El Nixticuil. These are 1,951 hectares of forest that since 2008 have been classified as a state Protected Natural Area (ANP) and are located north of Zapopan, a conurbated municipality of Guadalajara, Jalisco, in western Mexico.
“Living next to the forest”, this is how for 18 years companies have advertised, built, rented and sold apartments and houses in the green areas surrounding the ANP; buffer zones, as those that serve as a cushion to maintain ecological balance; areas that some say should have been included in the protection area, but that were left vulnerable without being included in the decree.
Today El Nixticuil is surrounded by more than 15 subdivisions. Many in expansion and many new ones that are advertised as residential. This maintains a dispute between forest defenders and the companies behind real estate growth. Mostly, marked by conflicts of interest, invasion of protected areas, unregistered buildings, lack of permits and other similar ones investigated for this report.
Where does the forest begin
The steps in El Nixticuil sound like the creaking of gravel and dry leaves. The landscape is not completely green, but yellowish, warm, with trees with thin trunks and tall undergrowth. “You can also see tlacuaches, snakes and lots of tarantulas,” Sofía Herrera says as she pauses in the grass to photograph a dandelion accompanied by Adrián Hipólito and Alejandro Pérez, two of her colleagues from the El Nixticuil Forest Defense Committee.
The Committee was formed in 2005 by residents of the El Tigre neighborhood, located just a few meters from the forest. They began their mobilization when the first cuts for housing construction were promoted by the Zapopan government, which in those years was planning to relocate a subdivision.
“People in the community have been getting more and more involved. Unfortunately, the speed with which dispossession progresses is not equivalent to that with which community organization advances, but positive changes have been generated,” says Sofía.
The first achievement as a community occurred in 2008 when El Nixticuil was declared an ANP, including the towns of San Esteban and El Diente. Its category is hydrological protection, mainly because it is a basin of the White River, which is a tributary to the Santiago River, one of the most important in Jalisco.
Despite this, for the Committee, since the protection decree, there have been irregularities.
“We estimate that around a thousand hectares of forest were left out,” says Adrián Hipolito and shows the southwest area of the forest on an improvised map. This is where the main subdivisions and buildings have been established. “This usually happens across the country. There are many hectares left out to protect the interests of real estate companies,” he adds.
Some of the forest areas surrounding El Nixticuil, also populated with pine, oak and tall grass trees, although not part of the ANP, are classified as conservation areas in partial urban development plans.
Partial urban development plans are the legal tools at the municipal level that regulate human order in the territory. They exist in all municipalities and justify what can be built block by block, as well as the type of construction and the viable areas for it.
“It's just that urban development plans haven't been updated since 2012,” Adrián explains during the forest tour.
This outdated nature makes it difficult for conservation areas to receive a stricter category or density with construction, despite the fact that the same development plans indicate that any work close to Nixticuil must be at the service of the environment.
This afternoon Sofía, Adrián and Alejandro stop their walk until they reach a stream that is barely a stream due to the winter season. There, on the side of where the rustling of the leaves ends and the smooth stones begin to flow through the water, a construction known as El Dosel, a division of 21 houses developed by the company Ingeniería Asfaltos y Emulsiones S.A. de C.V. and the construction company IAESA.
This has been one of the most documented over the past year because it is located in a forest ravine and to date it has no construction or development licenses, according to a review of the Zapopan City Council's transparency portal. This is repeated with other subdivisions in the area such as the Torres de Altures.
In 2021, El Dosel obtained a definitive suspension of works, but the Sixth Unitary Chamber of the Administrative Justice Court lifted the suspension and in April they resumed construction.
Interactive of the location of real estate developments in relation to the Protected Natural Area (ANP) of the El Nixticuil forest (not counting conservation areas). In red, those investigated for this report. In yellow, other projects surrounding the region.
A list of real estate agencies
From some parts of Nixticuil it is possible to see the horizon where the Sierra de San Esteban rises, but also the handful of houses and white buildings in the residences.
The Nixticuil is surrounded by an average of 18 subdivisions counted for this report. But there are 10 that have been investigated for this publication because they illustrate the irregularities in the expansion model and are found in areas adjacent to the forest, mainly in the southern part.
There are the famous preserves (as private housing or condominium areas are called) of La Cima; to the west those of Capital Norte and the towers of Altures; and to the southeast those of Miralto, Reserva Esmeralda, Altavista, Vitana and Sotavento.
Of the 10 investigated, only five have development and construction licenses (La Cima, Miralto, Altavista, Vitana and Sotavento), according to a search carried out in the records of the Zapopan City Council. And only five of them are able to find their Environmental Impact Statement (MIA), according to requests for information made through transparency.
All these documents are necessary to be able to start construction. From studies that allow us to know the environmental impact, such as MIAs carried out by developers, to development and construction licenses, which are prior authorizations by the government to carry out the works.
“In the case of the real estate developments Altavista, La Cima (or in their case Coto Del Bosque, coto C, coto D and coto G), Capital Norte, Manzanos, Cerezos, ZOI Capital Norte, no coincidence was found in the files of this Department of Environment,” says the City Council's office regarding the existence of the MIAs.
Vitana's Tower
Beyond the inconsistencies in the procedures, at El Nixticuil, having permits does not mean complying with the law and protecting the forest. This is the case of Vitana Residencial, located in the Altavista area. It is an armored preserve behind a reddish fence and whose entrance only allows you to see a couple of white houses with symmetrical windows. Inside, there is a swimming pool, gym, green areas and views of the forest, as evidenced by the advertising of the companies responsible for selling them.
The project has had a license since 2015, but in 2017 an MIA was entered in the name of Vitana Residencial II. A new preserve of 163 lots that is intended to be the extension of the first and that will also adjoin El Nixticuil.
Despite this, Vitana Residencial II is not viable. In February 2018, it was denied by the Department of Environment of the Government of Zapopan on the grounds that the property was incompatible with Nixticuil because it was a protected area.
“The impacts that will be generated in the project area, such as light and noise pollution, effects on hydrological resources, flora and fauna, as well as the increase in forest fires, among others, would directly affect the ecological balance of the Natural Resources Protection and Hydrological Protection Area, El Nixticuil forest, ” says letter 1800/2018/151 issued by the agency.
However, in August of that same year, Vitana Residencial II received a development license in its name. And from 2019 to 2020, it has obtained 74 construction permits under different individuals, construction companies and real estate agencies. In addition to those that continue to be granted to the first part of the project.
According to a review, the owner of Vitana Residencial II is Banco Mercantil del Norte, a subsidiary of Grupo Banorte. The promoting construction company is Terre Urba S.A. de C.V., which was founded and managed until 2021 by Jaime Ramírez Peralta, accused of tax fraud and money laundering that same year, according to information from the Attorney General's Office (FGR) published in the media.
For this report, we searched for Terre Urba S.A. de C.V., but they do not have a tax address, social networks or any other relationship that would allow us to get in touch.
In addition, all the companies, individuals and authorities mentioned throughout this report were contacted, but as of the closing of this publication, no response has been obtained from any of them.
Communication was also initiated with the Zapopan City Council to clarify points raised in this investigation. Although an interview was initially agreed, the authorities responded with an information sheet from the City's Integral Management Coordination, which only includes characteristics of the flora and fauna of the Nixticuil and the confirmation that there is letter 1800/2018/151 declaring the Vitana Residencial project to be unfeasible.
Miralto, the complaints and the trees
“A Construvida creation”, this is how the signs that hang outside the subdivision announce it. The surrounding streets are filled with advertising for buying and selling to different cell phone numbers or contacts via WhatsApp.
“Miralto is part of the subdivisions that are built in areas surrounding the forest,” explains Ana Cabral, who is a lawyer and for several years has legally accompanied the defense of Nixticuil.
This is a development of 122 residences divided into two preserves that adjoin the forest. The houses are behind the trees of a conservation area and El Nixticuil. From above, it seems that all the houses have emerged as one more extension. And there, within that same preserve, still under construction, a 12-story building is being built for 71 apartments with 4 elevators.
According to the development license issued through transparency, Miralto Residencial belongs to Banco del Bajío and the developer Jarha. However, the real estate company Construvida is the developer of the project, the same company that has filed complaints against the Committee in Defense of Nixticuil.
On May 31, a couple of defenders who make up the Committee attended the offices of the Attorney General's Office. The visit resulted in the partial arrest of a member by agents, who questioned him about his activism and informed him that there is an open research kit that matches his home.
That investigation included Velvet Ramírez, Martín Ruvalcaba, Héctor Aguilar Farías and Sofía Herrera from the Defense Committee. The reason: to “disclose false information” about the subdivision by pointing out the irregularities of its construction in an amparo they had promoted to stop the works.
“For us (the complaint) it has played a role in harassing the defense of the land due to the way in which the colleague was approached and questioned by the rest of the members of the collective, without formal notification of what was happening with the complaint and the research files,” explains Ana Cabral.
After that, the Committee decided to submit itself voluntarily to the Public Prosecutor's Office in order to obtain more information and demonstrate its willingness to cooperate.
Days later they were told that there were two other research kits (FED/JAL/GDL/0001742/2022 and FED/JAL/GDL0003860/202) against Ana Cabral and Juan Carlos Flores Solís, who is also a lawyer and has accompanied the group of defenders.
Aerial view of Miralto Residencial (preserves and tower under construction). Video: Patricia Ramirez.
According to the Public Registry of Commerce, Construvida real estate is owned by José Arturo Álvarez Centeno and Raúl Hernández Valverde, who have already worked as partners in other companies dedicated to engineering and architecture in Jalisco.
In particular, Álvarez Centeno is the son of José Arturo Álvarez Dueñas, who until last October was on the register of directors responsible for works in the government of Zapopan, Jalisco.
In Mexico, the General Law of Administrative Responsibilities, which governs the obligations of public servants, does not classify as a conflict of interest that a family member is a civil servant in the same sector as those who own real estate companies.
However, in the Miralto development license, the name of the responsible director is Arturo Álvarez Dueñas. What could already be investigated as an irregularity, according to lawyers consulted for this report.
This has been one of the main points made by those who defend El Nixticuil: the link between those who are real estate partners and those in positions of power, as well as authorities responsible for supervising.
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“One of the things that we have identified over the years is that there has been a very active role on the part of the Zapopan City Council in legalizing dispossession. They have used partial urban development plans, leaving areas with high densities such as H4,” says lawyer Ana Cabral.
H4 is a zoning category. A type of housing land for housing developments that can be classified in development plans.
But what Cabral doesn't explain is why the Zapopan City Council allowed the Nixticuil buffer zones to receive this category. This has justified not only horizontal houses with one or two floors, but also towers for apartments such as Miralto and Vitana Residencial II.
“This type of monstrous construction is affecting the ecological balance. They are about life itself and the conservation of the Protected Natural Area,” says Cabral.
In some other cases, the buildings are small but invade conservation areas, such as an Oxxo in the Altavista area.
According to Carlos Estrada Casarín, an urban planner from Guadalajara and professor at ITESO, defects in urban development plans can occur before they were published. Mainly, due to the interference of groups interested in the real estate and construction industry through technicians, consulting agencies or even authorities.
“Many times you think that legislation is ideal, but sometimes it already has fundamental defects because of these causes,” Estrada points out.
The phenomenon of plans is repeated in the entity. Beyond Nixticuil, forests in Jalisco are at risk due to unregulated urban growth. According to the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area Land Use Plan Review Report (PotMet), the municipalities of El Salto, Ixtlahuacán, San Pedro Tlaquepaque, Juanacatlán, Tlajomulco, Tonalá, Zapopan and Zapotlanejo have lost around 1,568 hectares of forest.
Faced with this scenario, the municipality of Zapopan is the one with the highest loss with 793 hectares. A measure that would be equivalent to having disappeared half of the Nixticuil forest; an average of 650 football fields; or around all the land occupied by the University City of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in the country's capital.
Although there are no official estimates for El Nixticuil, the data allow us to understand an even greater loss due to defects in the legislation and its tools.
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Fires in La Cima
Adrián has a radio hanging on his belt that rings several times a day. Two clicks in a row and then the voice of the report on the forest situation, especially if it comes to fires.
But on February 13, what sounded first was the neighborhood alert group. Two fires had started in one and a half hectares south of the forest. The first one a few meters from the Tigre colony, near the entrance to Nixticuil, and the second in the Cima area, one of the subdivisions in the southern part.
Like every time a fire occurs, the community brigade came in a van that they have adapted with a tank. It was around 1:47 in the afternoon when they arrived and, in the midst of the smoke haze that invaded the place, they managed to control the fire 43 minutes later.
The work was joined by a brigade from Zapopan, which accompanied them when they received the report that there was another fire in La Cima. “Two municipal brigades, 2 tanks and us had to intervene here,” Adrián explains.
Forest fires in Jalisco place the state in the first place for damage. In a state overview, the history of fires by the National Forestry Commission (Conafor) from 1970 to 2022 indicates that Jalisco is the state in the country with the most hectares affected. A total of 1 million 371 thousand 239, mostly for “illegal activities”.
But for those who defend the forest, fires are also intentionally caused. The objective is to generate environmental deterioration that allows individuals to request a change in land use, they say.
Land use changes can be made before the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat). If a forest area is deteriorated, the developer may request a modification that separates the area from its environmental value to make way for other activities. However, there is not enough data to establish a list of fires caused for this purpose.
What is a fact is that the presence of real estate projects can lead to an increase in forest fires, as reported by the Department of Environment of the government of Zapopan with the construction of Vitana Residencial II. This is due to alterations in fire cycles, which have to do with the natural relationship that exists between fire and the ecosystem.
Based on official data, the Defense Committee also prepared a map to document the fires that occurred around Nixticuil from 2007 to 2019. The most affected areas are those of La Cima and Capital Norte. One of the most conflicting properties is a ravine in the La Cima area, which is under the title of conservation area. It is a land full of trees and weeds that is kept between two areas of buildings and houses.
“This is where they planned to build a shopping mall,” says Adrián standing in front of the ravine, referring to the news that circulated last year about the construction plans, which to date have not been transcended.
In addition to this conservation area, there is also an ANP property that was isolated within the preserves, which has not been developed either but is also a source of fires.
In the community registry, between the conservation ravine and the ANP fragment, there are a total of 22 fires.
Interactive of La Cima and the properties where the Defense Committee has registered fires. In contrast, the map of the partial urban development plans, where the conservation area is distinguished in brown and the ANP in blue.
La Cima, which began as a couple of houses, even before the real estate expansion and the ANP decree, is currently an area with several preserves, avenues and small shopping malls under construction.
The project has had an urban development license since 2005 and is the one with the most building licenses. From 2019 to 2022 alone, 381 have been awarded for a period of two years. This is despite the fact that there is no MIA for the project, as indicated by the Department of Environment of Zapopan via transparency.
According to inquiries made in the Jalisco Public Property Registry, there are more than 220 properties under the name of this project. The same records indicate Jorge Garcíarce Ramírez, director of the Aga Consortium, who died in January of this year, as part of the owners.
The Garcíarce family in Mexico is known for being the owner of the Aga Consortium, to which the Aga Bottling Company belongs, famous for its Red Cola, Squirt and Sidral Aga soft drinks. On the other hand, in the Public Trade Register, members of this family appear as partners of companies involved in development, such as Fraccionadora El Tigre S.A. de C.V and Centro Comercial La Cima S.A. de C.V.
During the nearly 20 years of expansion, land defenders, specialists and local media have pointed out that there is a link between the Garcíarces and Pablo Lemus Navarro, who was mayor of Zapopan from 2015 to 2021 and currently governs Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco. Lemus has been accused of opening the door to real estate development and blocking the updating of partial development plans.
The main points come because Garcíarce and Lemus were part of Multivalores Grupo Financiero (Multiva). In addition to Lemus, he directed the Employers' Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex), Jalisco, which is an employers' union with voluntary membership for state employers.
Several people interviewed for this report agree that companies' ability to build has also been obtained through links with authorities. Despite this, no evidence was found that can show with certainty that there is a benefit granted by Lemus to Garcíarce other than having coincided in the same business spaces.
Aerial view of La Cima. In the background, the conservation ravine. Video: Patricia Ramirez.
Earth, Harmony and Landslides
When it comes to family ties with authorities, Tierra y Armonía is the white elephant of real estate growth. It is the most notable company for its housing projects in Guadalajara and Zapopan. Near El Nixticuil, the names of residential subdivisions such as Alva, Madeiras, Altaterra and Real Cantabria sound like.
Tierra y Armonía is a subsidiary of Amadeus de Occidente, belonging to the Martínez Camarena family and the Mendelssohn Real Estate Group, owned by Juan José Errejón Alfaro and Beatriz Eugenia Alfaro Méndez, uncles of Enrique Alfaro, current governor of the state of Jalisco.
Although the company is the image of the developments, in the inquiries made to the state's Public Property Registry, Tierra y Armonía does not have any registered property in its name.
However, Capital Norte, which is one of the largest subdivisions in the western area, is described on its website as a creation of this company and GIG Real Estate Development. The two towers of Altures belong to this area, with heavy machinery and workers coming and going. Nearby are the Cherezos, Manzanos and ZOÍ Capital Norte developments.
Despite all the years of expansion, the area continues to be built. It looks like a model with small houses, lots of land ready to continue placing more and, on one side, the trees that start the Nixticuil forest.
As part of the irregularities that accompany the project, requests for information made through transparency indicated that there is no MIA in the name of Capital Norte or some of its condominiums. Although outside the Altures towers there is a blanket that indicates the existence of an authorized opinion on environmental impact since November 2020, valid for two years.
“It's hard to keep track of him. Before (Capital Norte) it was called Mirasierra. It was a megaproject of thousands of houses when it emerged between 2008 and 2009, but after the public complaints we made, one of the strategies they carried out to continue was to advance by small reserves... By doing so through small subdivisions, they have a series of much larger, much more complex permits, which makes it more difficult to study the projects,” explains lawyer Ana Cabral.
But building in buffer zones or forest areas close to the forest has effects that go beyond harm to the environment. Last June, after an afternoon of heavy rain, less than a meter of distance was what was left between a house in the Madeiras subdivision, the development of Earth and Harmony, and an overflow.
Landslides, overflows and floods are becoming common during the rainy season in Zapopan. A week before the incident in Madeiras, in La Cima, the runoff of water formed a stream and hit several vehicles on a street in the residential area.
“When rain hits the ground, it becomes runoff because it has no way of being filtered because the soil does not have that forest cover. So much of the precipitation turns into runoff and ends up reaching urban areas,” explains Josué Sánchez Tapetillo, a specialist in hydrology.
This has already been recorded in other places within the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, such as the La Primavera Forest, south of Zapopan, where heavy landslides have been reported.
In addition, there is the Santa Anita area, which is the focus of greatest alert in terms of floods due to the fact that in recent years the channels of the streams have changed with the new real estate developments in the area. This was explained by Luis Valdivia Ornelas, a researcher at the University Center for Social Sciences and Humanities (CUCSH), of the University of Guadalajara, during a press conference.
“In the quest to offer amenities or attractions that not any urbanization can offer, such as living near the forest, it also has consequences such as land use alteration that affects the hydrological cycle, causing greater runoff and flooding,” explains Sánchez Tapetillo.
View of the Altures area under construction. Video: Patricia Ramirez.
What's next?
As you drive around the area south of Nixticuil by car, everything is a parade of houses or towers, interspersed with promotional codes, telephone numbers, signs and the entrance to residential units that have already been populated. In the background, there is always the forest.
On solutions and ways to face a development that is expanding day by day, those who care for the forest maintain everything from reforestation activities to legal action to suspend works. They say that just as there has been devastation, areas have also been restored.
For her part, lawyer Cabral mentions the need to change the protection category of the ANP, currently hydrological, to a higher one. Also options such as expanding the area. While on the side of consultants and urban planners, the first steps are to update development plans and work on better land use.
However, for defenders, there is also a struggle to prevent the forest from being declared a lost war. Their main commitment is to continue community work.
“Whenever they ask me why (we defend it), I say why we have to justify the importance of caring for the forest,” says Sofía Herrera. “This wouldn't be the case if we removed that vision that we humans are the only ones, the ones who can decide about life.”
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