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Fear, loathing, garbage, asshole gringos, shitty restaurateur’s & corrupt comandantes in “El Pueblo Chico Infierno Grande de San Carlos.”

Fear, loathing, garbage, asshole gringos, shitty restaurateur’s & corrupt comandantes in “El Pueblo Chico Infierno Grande de San Carlos.”

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David Baraff moments before he is arrested for putting up banners in protest to Charly’s Rock stinky garbage

 

There is no order in this town. There are basically two patrols with 6 cops. I don’t see the police that often on the street during the day. I do see them on the streets on the weekends when they are making bank. I walk the boulevard often on Saturday night to watch how many cars get stopped and see the money change hands and the tourist drive away. The cop has got a few extra pesos in his pocket to feed his family. That hasn’t changed and I don’t see it changing for a while. All residents here know all about it, but this latest event demonstrates that San Carlos, has taken a turn for the worse. Back in the day when San Carlos was a sleepy gringo tourist town I could not imagine anything like this happening, but those time are long gone these are the times we live in. While there has always been some, as I have heard it called anti-Yankee or Mexican hostility towards Gringos, thanks to the war of 1845 no less, I myself can’t recall in my 30 years here anything quite like this.

Part 1 South of the Border Land of Disorder on how Richard Baca had a 80 year old man thrown in jail on trumped up charges.

Part 2 South of the Border Land of Disorder on how Javier Ordaz tries to have two local women thrown in jail on trumped up chargers.

South of the Border Land of Disorder Part 1

 

South of the Border Land of Disorder Part Two

 

Gringos getting hassled is nothing new here of course. Several years ago I did a piece on a couple of friends of mine, many people know them. The way John, Kimberly and Susan were treated and how their rights were denied to them is perhaps one of the better pieces of investigative journalism I ever did and they are covered in the above links. If you have never seen those stories or videos check them out because this was the traditional way in which gringos would get fucked over in San Carlos. Part one’s story on John Papel , who has since passed was actually similar indeed to this current event.

Now fast forward to the present and what happened to Dave Baraff, the morning of August 8th really in a sense pales in comparison to what Kim and Susan went through for years but that doesn’t mean Dave wasn’t a bit intimidated and scared when they came for him. Does anyone remember the arson that took place because of the raging Rottweiler’s of Los Ranchitos? With all the past bullshit that has gone down here I guess I really shouldn’t have been surprised when Baraff got arrested by the cops, put in hand cuffs and driven downtown for essentially being an asshole. Did the cops have the right to do what they did to him? Fuck no they didn’t ……anyone who thinks the police or judicial system in Mexico will protect your rights are sadly mistaken. If you want your rights in this country, like most any country, you will need to demand them, protest for them and yes , sometimes fight for them or you can actually pay money for them to. That is why I am coming out of semi retirement from the citizen journalism thing and covering this story. Because if there ever was a story in San Carlos that deserved some ink, this is one of those. Everyone knows that for years I have supported the concept of San Carlos forming it’s own Municipality. If San Carlos were it’s own city with it’s own “reglamento”/by laws, incidents like this could become a thing of the past but unless, “We The People”, residents of San Carlos foreign and domestic alike don’t fight for “a change” in San Carlos, nothing will, of that I am certain. So with that said let’s delve into this shit show shall we!

 

Charly’s Su Rock Garbage Malecon Sep. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Charly’s Rock disgusting Garbage on Malecon Sep. 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s start with the gringo. Dave Baraff has lived in San Carlos for around 15 years and rents out a small apartment attached to his home, which just happens to be located across the street from Charly’s Rock. He is a “residente permanente” in Mexico and although I have never seen his visa I do not doubt he is a legal resident here. His beef with Charly’s Rock is nothing new in this town. Garbage or should I say the lack of pick up of garbage is perhaps the second biggest beef in the whole town, right up there with security and water supply. I seriously doubt that there is one person in this town that has not been affected by the garbage.

Imagine if you will a San Carlos that is it’s own city and then just imagine if you might a serious recycling program run by the Municipality of San Carlos……by I digress back to realty………Charly’s Rock is a very successful restaurant. My uncle who was a PHD in business certainly knew of the concept location, location, location. Charly’s Rock has got it. Unfortunately, there is a mountain of garbage associated with all of that success. I remember that it was only one short year ago that the mountain of garbage that was generated from Charly’s Rock used to be deposited in a bin that was located just outside the restaurant itself right on the malecon. I in the video above you will see a short video clip of the garbage on the malecon. Those images of that garbage more recorded in August of 2018, almost one year to the day that Dave was arrested. I am not sure why or exactly when Charly’s Rock finally moved the garbage bin from the malecon location to directly in front of Dave’s house. I can say that it was always inappropriate when his gargabe bin was located on the malecon.

 

But according to Baraff It was around 6 months ago that he started to complain about the stench. I can verify the stench, I smelled it often walking my dogs on the malecon.  By around the middle of July I was asked by Dave to check out the garbage in front of his house. I remember the day clearly that Dave asked me to check out the garbage. I was helping the Committee Pro Municipio 73 give a presentation at Charly’s Rock to local business owners. For those who do not know there is a growing movement of San Carlos residents, Mexicans and Americans, that would like to break away from Guaymas and form a separate and independent municipality. I was surprised to see Dave at the meeting and even more surprised when he asked a few questions about Mexican law. Much of the presentation deals with the legalities of how San Carlos can separate from Guaymas.

 

At the end of the meeting it all became clear to me why Dave had come to the establishment of his nemesis Rueben Pinto, the owner of Charly’s Rock . He wasn’t terribly interested in helping San Carlos become it’s own municipality, even though that could potentially solve his garbage problem forever. What Dave was trying to do was recruit members of the committee to join in his fight against Charly’s Rock. Four people went over to the garbage dump and we offered Dave some advise on how he should go about dealing with the garbage issue. The first thing I recommended was that he make a formal “denuncia with Profepa”. I told him he needed to create a paper trail on the problem. I also told him he needed to go speak with the Comisario in San Carlos and submit that in writing. This would give him two separate documents addressing the issue. I have learned over the years that a paper trail is extremely important in Mexico. Does anyone remember the zip line towers that were built at the Estero El Soldado? Those zip line towers were finally removed from the estuary and the way it was done was through a massive number of formal complaints, in writing, to Profepa. These complaints are called “denuncias” and they can be made on line. Our non profit WorldsAquarium wrote many letters and made formal denuncias to Profepa. We were asked to do this by another non profit called “Guaymas Tu Puerto” which is run in part by a man named Victor Parra Maldonado. I like to think of Victor as a one man wrecking crew. Victor went to Mexico City and was able to get the Federal Government to intervene and eventually remove the towers, San Carlos won that fight with the State. I reckon Baraff could have won his fight to, with out getting roughed up the local cops.

 

I also mentioned to Dave that it might be important to get his neighbors, who have apartment rentals right next to his to also make formal ‘denuncias”.

Dave was not interested in any of the advice that was given to him that day. I mentioned to him that the new Comisario Enrique Gamaz was doing a really fantastic job and he should speak with him. What I got from Baraff on that suggestion was a rant on how Enrique was a fraud. What Baraff did tell me was that he was going to crowd source a bunch of environmental lawyers to have Charly’s Rock condemned and torn down. He claims that the restaurant is a health hazard and is structurally unsound. He would like to see it removed and the point on which the restaurant sits be restored to it’s original natural state.

What Baraff did tell me was that he was going to crowd source a bunch of environmental lawyers to have Charly’s Rock condemned and torn down.

At this point the four of us bid adieu to Dave and went about our separate ways. By the time Dave had been arrested on the 8th of August, Charly’s Rock had already been fined by the Department of Ecology in Guaymas. Dave didn’t want to take the advice we offered to him but it appears that his neighbor who owns the Apartment rentals right next to his house did take the advice. I was told by Rueben Pinto, the owner of Charly’s Rock, that the fine levied upon the restaurant was $22,000 pesos and the fine had actually been issued some time before, perhaps as much as a week before, Dave put up his signs in protest. Dave knew that Charly’s Rock had been fined but the garbage was still sitting in front of his house. I believe it wasn’t until the day that he put up the protest banners and arrested that the garbage bin was finally moved about 50 yards farther away from Dave’s house. The problem is far from over. When the wind is just right all the apartments in that area will still smell the success of Charly’s rock.

 

 When I spoke with Rueben Pinto and his son Marcos they gave me a long story about their problems with Dave and his on going complaints that started with the dust from the parking lot and how Dave had on occasion verbally abused his employees. Rueben also blamed the problem on the private company he paid to remove the trash. They were not coming as often as they were supposed to. He says since his fine he has changed companies. Dave admits freely that once he yelled at a Charly’s Rock employee for not closing the lid to the garbage bin and he also admits that he followed that same employee all the way to the restaurant; Fucking Mexican…Fucking Gringo……we can all imagine the scenario. Reuben told me his goal is to have Dave deported and I don’t doubt for a moment that sometime in the future Dave will receive a visit from “la migra”. Rueben believed that Dave had to be running from the law in the United States because he doesn’t show up on any google searches and has no social media profiles. I could see the sadness in Rueben’s eyes when I had to come clean and inform him that I have known Dave Baraff since I was in high school. We actually shared the same Chemistry class at the U of A and eventually rented a run down shack on Tucson’s west side for many years. I have traversed glaciers and climbed rock and mountain often times on the same rope team with Dave. I once witnessed an avalanche on the Fair Weather glacier while Dave had stopped the team to take a dump. While we all paused I had a moments break from the 60 pound sled I was hauling to look up at one of the hanging glaciers in the valley. After so many trips up and down the valley you notice things.  I remember clearly sayings to the entire rope team of 4 “Hey that looks like a new crack in that hanging glacier”, seconds later it came crashing down just a few hundred yards from us. Dave had just finished putting his skis back on and literally jumped out of his binding. It was on that same glacier Dave fell into a crevasse. It was my weight at the end of the rope that stopped him from going to the bottom of the abyss.

 

About a week after the arrest, I asked Enrique Gamaz, our Comisario, via a WhatsApp chat group to please try to set up an open public meeting between our Comandante, the mayor of Guaymas and the new military comisario of municipal police in Guaymas, Andres Cano Ahuir. On the same day that I texted Enrique I also posted that request via Twitter and Facebook. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that within 48 hours of asking for a public meeting I was going to get a private meeting with Andres Cano Ahuir. It was pure luck and timing.

Andres Ahuir Comisario de Policia Guaymas

The meeting consisted of Enrique Gamaz, Juan Carlos Gonzales, myself, the Comandante of San Carlos who took this picture and the new military head honcho of Police in Guaymas, Andres Cano Ahuir. Ahuir has impressive credentials and was happy to relate them to us. From the jungles of Columbia dealing with FARC to battling the Zeta Cartel in central Mexico. From the research Juan Carlos did on him he is well suited for the job he has at hand. The meeting went well and Ahuir told us, exactly what the Comandante told us a week early. He gave us the same song and dance about why Baraff was arrested and the official story goes something like this.

When the Cops showed at Baraff’s house they got out of the patrol truck, all 4 or 5 of them with full paramilitary weaponry, Baraff then got aggressive with them, raised his voice and refused to show any identification. We asked for the police report from the Comandantes office but the police told us that they never wrote up a police report. The reason for this was really amazing to and the Comandante told us that they didn’t want to bother poor Mr. Baraff to much because if they wrote up a police report he might have had to pay a fine and he would have had more trouble. As if getting arrested and hauled down to a judge in Guaymas isn’t enough trouble right? Enrique myself and Jan Carlos did go down to the Juez Calificadors office in Guaymas and request a copy of the court document. Since there was no police report in San Carlos there most certainly had to be a court document that showed that Baraff had indeed been arrested. We never got an official hard copy but thanks to the persistence of Juan Carlos Gonzales we found out what the court document said. Juan Carlos was able to convince a court official to allow him to read the document from a computer screen. According to the Juez Calificador the reason Baraff was hauled downtown was because he was playing load music. So now there are two different official versions as to why Barraff got arrested.

 

 

Here is were Baraff got lucky, in a sense that is. The very moment of the arrest there just happened to be a journalist from the Facebook site InfoGuaymas taking a shot of Baraff’s house with all the protest signs up. I know it was a journalist who took the pictures and not just an anonymous bystander because I spoke with the administrator of the site.  You can actually see Baraff adjusting one of the signs in a photo right before the police show up. You see it is not a coincidence that the Comandante arrived when Baraff was out of his house. Rueben Pinto told me openly that he called the Comandante on the phone when he saw that Baraff was outside his gate. Since in Mexico if a cop doesn’t have a warrant for your arrest he certainly can not enter your home and actually even with a warrant I think the cops still have to wait for you to leave your house before they can arrest you but anyway it was no coincidence the cops showed at that very moment. And as we know the cops not only didn’t have a warrant they never even wrote up a report for Baraff’s arrest. Hence the made up story’s of how he got aggressive or how he was playing his stereo to loud, take your pick of either bullshit excuse used to teach the asshole gringo a lesson.

 

It took me over a month but I finally hunted down an eye witness that was willing to tell me what he saw on the record, on camera. His story exactly jibed with what Baraff told me in our interview and with what the pictures from InfoGuaymas showed. The police arrived and within seconds Dave Baraff was arrested put in cuffs and hauled aboard the patrol vehicle on his way down to have a meeting with a judge. He wasn’t questioned and he never even had a chance to get “aggressive” with the cops because they came to his house with one thing in mind. To teach this fucking gringo a lesson. What they really accomplished was a confirmation of what most of us know already. The police are not here to protect us. They are here to extort us, kidnap us and rob from us if they so desire. How is that for the 4th  transformation of Mexico for ya? It is exactly this reason why just recently the mayor of Guaymas turned the police force over to a military man. I hope the decision will bear fruit and I also hope that the publication of this story and the video will make the current and future comandante’s think twice before they decide to abuse the human rights of the residents and or tourist’s who visit San Carlos.

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3 Responses to Fear, loathing, garbage, asshole gringos, shitty restaurateur’s & corrupt comandantes in “El Pueblo Chico Infierno Grande de San Carlos.”

  1. Interesting story.

    I can’t comment to anything but to say that we lived very close to Charly’s Rock, would frequently walk/drive past the location, sometimes going to Charly’s (mostly just for a beer with a nice view), but often going to Los Arbolitos and especially La Trattoria. The smell from the garbage was *always* a horrible stench, I don’t think I *ever* saw the lids closed on the dumpster, it was frequently overflowing, and it was a real problem. So the complaints about the stench are totally legit. It was a years long problem, especially noticeable after the remodel several years ago.

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