The world's largest retailer won preliminary approval on Tuesday to build a store in Cabo San Lucas after an almost two-year battle, but opponents vow to continue fighting the project with demonstrations or by blocking roads.
CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. apparently has no place in paradise.
The world's largest retailer won preliminary approval on Tuesday to build a store in Cabo San Lucas after an almost two-year battle, but opponents vow to continue fighting the project with demonstrations or by blocking roads.
The Los Cabos city council voted unanimously to give conditional approval for the store, requiring it to be nonintrusive, pass environmental studies and not excessively affect traffic in this fishing and resort town of about 80,000 at the tip of the Baja California peninsula.
Residents and shopkeepers, however, fear that the store _ first proposed, and rejected, at a site near the middle of the city _ could harm the resort town's laid-back atmosphere, where sports fishermen and tourists mingle with locals on the narrow streets.
Some are also worried that the store, or a proposed highway overpass for it, might replace the trademark stone sea arch as the first view people have when they drive into the city.
"If we have to hold demonstrations, we'll do it, and if it comes to that, block some of the access roads" to Cabo San Lucas, said Sebastian Alvarez, leader of The Union of Organized Businesses, a group of 350 small shopkeepers.
"We are very angry that they're favoring such a big company, without realizing that this is going to affect the people who live here, the small businesses, in a big way," Alvarez said. "The economic impact is going to be fatal, and that has been proven in many parts of the world."
Mayor Luis Armando Diaz, who governs both Cabo San Lucas and its twin city, San Jose del Cabo, said he believes the city council acted correctly in voting to give preliminary approval.
"I think we balanced out the (competing) interests," said Diaz, noting that two years ago, the city rejected a plan for a Wal-Mart store near the center of Cabo San Lucas.
But Diaz also said Wal-Mart may have to build highway overpass at the new site to handle the increased traffic, which could interfere with some views of the stone arch, a rock formation that reaches into sea.
Officials of Wal-Mart's Mexico subsidiary did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
There are already Home Depot and CostCo outlets on the same highway near the proposed site, but neither has an overpass and it's unclear whether the Wal-Mart store would be larger than those stores.
Wal-Mart must still submit environmental impact and water studies before city officials grant any building permits. The proposed site is next to a dry riverbed that captures much of the area's sparse rains.
"We have asked them for an architectural design that won't severely impact the traditional style of the area," Diaz added.
But Alvarez said that in any form, the big-box store will finish off the small-shop atmosphere, the city's economic mainstay.
"I think that the councilmen haven't yet realized that (Wal-Mart) will, in less than a year, cause the disappearance of the small stores that have contributed so much to the development of this area," he said.
In 2004, another Wal-Mart-owned discount store quietly opened less than a kilometer (mile) from the ancient temples of Teotihuacan, just north of Mexico City, despite months of protests claiming the sprawling complex was an insult to Mexican culture.
Alvarez said that isn't going to happen in Cabo San Lucas without a fight. "Los Cabos isn't Mexico City," he said. "I think this is just starting, and we're going to get tough."
Source: Associated Press
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