There goes the neighborhood

Literally:

Story by ABI, via Aporrea:

The destruction of at least 150 homes intended for poor people, in the municipality of Warnes, was ordered by Gabriel Camacho Cuéllar and his lawyer, Otto Richter, with the sole objective of preventing the devaluation of a million-dollar development project, according to the presidential representative, Gabriela Montaño.

“Camacho has already threatened not to let poor families live near his properties because they would lower the property value of the neighborhood,” said Montaño, who announced that legal actions would be taken against the authors of this assault on poor families.

At 10 a.m on Tuesday, heavy machinery belonging to the Municipality of Santa Cruz arrived at the location to begin the demolition of the homes, which were in the last phase of construction in the community of La Comarca, Warnes, 9 kilometres inside the city limits of Santa Cruz. Mayor Percy Fernández was forced to fire six high-level functionaries, including María Costas, the sister of prefect Rubén Costas.

The presidential representative in Santa Cruz identified Cuéllar, the proprietor of the adjoining properties, and his attorney, Otto Richter, as those responsible for pressuring the mayoral office of Santa Cruz to prevent the poor families from living next door to the luxury homes which he was building there. According to the authorities, there is a construction project underway to build a luxury condominium complex on the grounds.

Translation mine.

Talk about the destruction of property values–what the hell is this?

I sure hope Cuéllar and his lawyer cough up enough in restitution monies to rebuild these houses.