Marbella regains full contol of Puerto Rico area after eviction of squatters
After years of legal wrangling following its puchase, the remaining plot of land in the Sierra Blanca has been cleared
Marbella town hall has finally managed to evict the squatters in the Puerto Rico natural park - the area where, previously, residents celebrated the traditional Día de Tostón chestnut festival on 1 November, although they haven't been able to do it recently due to the squatters. The 30,000-square-metre plot in Sierra Blanca was acquired by the town hall from Manzah Al Kaïd Limited for 348,000 euros. The purchase was approved on 5 September 2023, but the eviction of the squatters only took place this October.
With the operation, the town hall puts an end to years of acquisitions and litigation in the court. The total surface area of the park, including the upper and the lower parts, of 390,000 square metres now belong to the town. The plan is to convert the 50,000-square-metre lower part into a periurban park.
In 2021, the town hall bought land for which Jesús Gil was indicted
The previous operation that the town hall had carried out in the area was in November 2021, when it purchased 50% of Puerto Rico Alto that was not municipally owned - land for which former mayor Jesús Gil had been investigated. Before Gil's arrival, the town hall had reached an agreement with the owners of the property - the Martínez Higuero and Arias Salgado families - to exchange it for land for development in the Nagüeles area in order to build a municipal park.
This ended in August 1994 with the approval of an urban development operation that revoked the previous agreement and validated another one, which involved the exchange of two plots in La Pepina totalling 20 hectares, with a net buildable area of 6,200 square meters.
This urban development agreement was signed by Jesús Gil himself and led to his indictment following the criminal complaint filed by the Martínez Higuero family for fraud. The case was dismissed in 2004 after the former mayor died.
The reason for the dismissal is that, in parallel to the processing of the agreement, the town hall signed another agreement with the Arias Salgado family. The land reserved for the Martínez Higuero family did not correspond to the land they had acquired and the Arias Salgados quickly sold the plot to a company owned by José María González de Caldas - bullfighting business owner, former president of Sevilla FC and a friend of Gil. The courts eventually ruled in favour of the family, recognising their 50% ownership of the estate, which was acquired by the town hall at the end of 2021.
