14. The war for the mangroves.

-How is your father? - Asked Bernard, the German who left his studies in physics at his university in Germany, put his backpack on his shoulder and traveled the world as a backpacker, until he arrived in Muisne in the 80's. Here he found a little woman from Quito, who was a lawyer, an island full of palm trees, with a blue green sea of ​​transparent waters, white crested waves, and even cows of a breed that no longer exists, the Spanish cow, brought by the conquerors, adapted to a tropical climate, that walked through the streets in a calm and peaceful way. It was an island without cars, with pedestrian streets of white sand or grass. A long mangrove and plank bridge linked the center with Barrio Bella Vista, which had a beautiful cove lined with palm trees at the mouth of the Muisne River. In front of it, Bunche, which was a beautiful and enormous mangrove swamp.

The mangroves were a forest at the back of the island, and in front, on the other side of the peaceful estuary. The inhabitants lived on the shell and the charcoal of the mangrove that they cooked in small mounds, from which smoke came out day and night. The serene swaying of the tallest palms attracted the boys, who climbed it in an incredible way, putting their feet against the palm tree and holding it with their hands, while they climbed up to 10 meters to reach the coconuts.

-My dad is retired, he lives in Quito, with my mother

-Veronica is the name of his mother-if my mind serves me right.

-Yes precisely.

-His father had to leave the malaria research with the University of Hidelber, and I cannot fulfill my commitment to teach him German, in exchange for him teaching me to organize the peasants. But he returned in 1988 with London Channel 4, to make a documentary called Shrimp Fever.

For that documentary, we brought to the cancheras that we had organized and held a protest march, which enchanted the English, who told us that two hundred thousand hectares of mangroves had been deforested and that 1200 km along the beaches of Ecuador were swept away with nets. , which killed all the marine animals on the country's beaches, which were now a pestilential cemetery of marine species

Here on the island the landowners, as in Bunche, in the Landfill where even the company that built the highway, the Compañía Hidalgo Hidalgo, had huge pools of shrimp. Don Buche, the landowner of Bolivar, where my son now makes the rural farm, they have about two hundred, in Sálima, Daule, Chamanga, where his father worked, everything was mangroves and now they are shrimp farms.

From the concheras organization we created the Fundecol Foundation. After the documentary, Green Peace came to show solidarity with us. With them we demolished the walls of an illegal shrimp farm that is being built on the island and took them prisoner. It was the first time in the world that the ship and the captain of the Rainbow Warrior ship had been arrested.

We did a campaign in Quito, at the Casa Humboldt, in which the Chigualeros came, the group of traditional and tropical music from Esmeralda who put lyrics to a song that his father created the lyrics, called Mi Manglar. We made T-shirts that we financed ourselves with and many of them were stolen from his father.

- And what about the Fundecol Foundation?

- We built our house where the offices are located next door, but now they are abandoned. They financed us some mangrove protection campaigns, we organized the Latin American mangrove network, but then came the eternal disputes, robberies, deception, opportunism and fights between the leaders. Now I don't want anything with them, but my wife is their lawyer and they work in Quito.

-His son told me that he is working in Bolivar and by coincidence we both work in Mompiche.

- Well, I don't see him much, he comes and goes quickly, it is better to look for them in the sub-center.

-What happens is that we have a dengue epidemic and he has the pesticides to fight mosquitoes and personnel, and that is also the job of the Ministry of Health.

- Well, as I said, you can find it in Bolívar.

- It was a pleasure meeting you, Don Bernard, I will visit you again.

- Well, I'm always here. Say hello to your dad.

- Of course, and thank you very much.

Maxima arrived at the dock, which was high tide at the time, and she imagined her father swimming to the other side of the estuary, which was now crossed by a boat every 3 minutes. Don Geraldo's yacht at that moment began its rapid race through the Estuary to go out to the Ocean. And the question in his head was how a poor fisherman and passenger transporter could get to have a boat like that, which must be worth a lot of money.

When he arrived at the landfill to go to Boca del Sucio, where he had to work, he saw a huge 4x4 double cab ford truck leave a place, with a man full of gold necklaces. He had been told that drug lords wore gold chains around their necks, but Geraldo didn't have one.