Conflicts for use of the coastal area south of Punta Mogotes lighthouse, General Pueyrredon Municipality, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Abstract

The city of Mar del Plata was founded in 1874 and its lands were part of an estancia belonging to Patricio Peralta Ramos. For the construction of Provincial Route 11, private lands were expropriated on both sides of the route, leaving the area between the route and the sea under state control. However, in 1958 the descendants of P. Peralta Ramos claimed the lands they considered their property, and their appeal was admitted by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in 1970. In addition, in 1980 the remaining fiscal sector was declared a Tourist and Forestal Reserve Costanera Sud. Therefore, the public and private areas were subjected to intensive tourist use. The objective of this paper is to analyze the process of appropriation and spatial occupation of the sector corresponding to Playas del Faro SAI and the conflicts in the Reserve and in the adjacent public beaches. Intervention in the space has been significantly relevant. The actors of the private domain use and dispose of the public domain with many prerogatives and few controls, which inevitably leads to confrontation with other groups that enter dispute over the conditions and limitations for access and spontaneous permanence in front of the seashore.