17 People Shot in Property Dispute at Edward Sides' Parcela Cinco

I grew up in Dodge City, Kansas, and sometimes I think the Wild West lives on. I hate it when this kind of stuff happens because it puts foreign property owners in a very bad light-and rightly so, in this case. Read on…

At least 17 people were shot in a property dispute that pits U.S. citizen Edward Sides against a community of more than 200 people. The dispute involves a 12-acre plot of land known as Parcela Cinco, or "Parcel Five," situated on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast, just inland from the Los Sueños Marina and Marriot Hotel on Herradura Beach. A judge ruled earlier this year that the land belongs to Sides, and ordered more than 50 families, some of which claim to have lived there for as long as 20 years, off the property.

On June 28, private security guards protecting the property opened fire on dozens of evictees and community members, hitting men, women and teenagers. The Red Cross said that of the 17 people it took to an area clinic, one is in critical condition and six were injured by bullets. The rest were injured by shotgun pellets (hard ammunition, usually made of rubber, that aims to stop attackers with blunt force but does not penetrate the skin). No deaths have been reported.

The security guards insist the group attacked, and say they fired only in self defense. "There were five of us and the neighbors started showing up, about five at time, insulting us, until there were 50 or 60," says a security guard who prefers not to be named. "They began to attack, and that is when my colleagues began to shoot."

Witnesses from the community, however, claim the guards opened fire while they were gathering peacefully for a meeting. "They came up and told us we had to leave or they were going to start shooting," says Margot Meza, who owns a hardware store near where the incident took place. "And then they started shooting."

According to 17-year-old Marisol Campos, she was talking to a friend in her front yard-about 100 feet from the crowd-when shots rang out. "I had just turned to see what happened when I felt something hit me really hard in my leg, and looked down and a bunch of blood was coming out," Campos says. As she turned to run, she was hit again from behind with a volley of pellets. "I fell down in the yard and they still kept shooting," she says.

Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) detained the security guards to take their statements, and then released them, saying that the incident remains under investigation.

The shooting marks the second outburst of violence here in as many months. In May, a mob threw rocks, hunks of concrete and Molotov cocktails at the house on the property. That attack set fire to the security guards' temporary barracks, though no injuries were reported. Residents claimed the guards had been threatening them and their children as they passed the property. The guards said it was the other way around. No arrests were made.

When the police arrived to begin the eviction in June, accompanied by the judge and inspectors to measure the property, they discovered irregularities in many of the security guards' paperwork. Apparently, 22 of the security guards working for Seguridad Internacional Los Aguilas, the company hired by Sides, were working illegally-they were not registered with the Costa Rica Private Security Services Administration, as required by law, and did not have gun permits. In addition, one of the guards had an outstanding arrest warrant for aggravated robbery.

The evictees claim ownership of the land because, according to them, the property was abandoned decades ago. They also say that, as per Costa Rica land possession law, they are entitled to ownership of the property they built on. Others say they bought property from sellers that produced documents showing the land was legitimately theirs. Regardless, dozens of houses, some with swimming pools, were bulldozed to the ground upon completion of the eviction.

Sides has been unavailable for comment, but some evictees are appealing the judge's ruling in the Costa Rica Supreme Court. Meanwhile, a social institution called Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social (IMAS) is helping some evictees make rent payments.

Your Latin America Insider,

Suzan Haskins
for International Living

P.S. We remind you that one way to protect yourself when buying property in a foreign country is by hiring a title search and buying title insurance. You can avoid headaches, heartaches, and more. And above all, educate yourself about the rules of land ownership.