Another expat property owner has been caught apparently trying to bogart the beach.
And the confrontation was televised. Yucatan’s Telesur network broadcast images of what they characterized as a “gringo” guarding the sand in front of his Chuburna beach house.
The news follows some bad publicity for foreigners in Santa Clara, on the other side of Progreso. There, a couple from the United States allegedly built a fence stretching into the surf to prevent the rest of the public from passing in front of their beach house.
“It turns out that on Sunday I went to the beach in Chuburna and it turns out that this gringo did not want us to bathe in front of his house, because it belongs to him … he sat at his little table to take care that no one comes near, how they see this the authorities should see these gringos who are owners of everything. What if a Mexican goes to their land as they treat us,” wrote “Gladys” Facebook.
One man replied joking that he could retaliate by organizing a large beach party in front of the home.
Under the constitution, the beach in Mexico belongs to everyone, and cannot be blocked off by a property owner and marked “private.”
All beaches in Mexico are publicly-accessible federal property and anyone has access to them anytime. Exceptions to the access rule include stretches of beachfront reserved for military use.