The myth of the lack of regulation of the Bacalar Lagoon and its basin Hundreds of instruments to regulate and over-regulate almost everything in

the objects in which they transformed nature, through environmental discourse: Conservation.

Far from being immovable, myths change with changing discourses, since once the triad gains control of these "endangered" places, it suddenly becomes a priority to promote, ironically, a contrary, pristine image to consumers (usually non-local) in the form of tourist businesses with access to "wild" spaces "preserved" of a "closer contact and intimacy with nature", with an economic benefit, direct or indirect, for the promoter and / or controller of the resource or site "preserved”. Or it serves them to get resources to be served with the big spoon to be able to remedy, clean and eliminate the danger denounced, even if they spend decades asking for more money to investigate, to educate the population or to organize trainings or finance trips, amenities under the pretext of having to attend an endless process of meetings and spaces for the exchange of information, or to generate discourses, design policies and instruments, without really reaching or even having the intention of real action. Since your goal is not effective action, it is to perpetuate the myth in order to continue to gain control and benefits.. In this way, the groups of academics, bureaucrats or technocrats involved invest a large amount of resources in advertising their discourse, to generate polarizing positions based on the criminalization of a sector of the population. As an example we take up the myths arising from the change of color of the Bacalar Lagoon, handled to public opinion by members of the triad and especially by Luisa Falcón, ECOSUR, the members of ONGA such as Agua Clara, and other promoters and followers of the promoter group, published in the media and social networks.

The myth of the lack of regulation of the Bacalar Lagoon and its basin

The arguments used to propose the urgency of creating a regulatory instrument as a protected area in the Bacalar Lagoon included: The alleged lack of regulatory instruments to be able to stop "the serious environmental deterioration of the lagoon" that scientists from the Institute of Ecology of the UNAM and ECOSUR (promoters of Ramsar's failed proposal, of the PNA and indirectly of PROTUR) were denouncing and that local and institutional environmental non-governmental organizations repeated and dispersed in the media, creating a whole myth around the fragility of the ecosystem and the imminent danger, and the criminal attitude of local inhabitants and service providers whose economic activities were "killing the lagoon, the stromatolites and the chivitas”, due to the excessive growth of tourism and pollution by agrochemicals as well as a deficient waste treatment system for the population of Bacalar. Their solution was the creation of an urgent Protected Natural Area..

The extraordinary thing about this situation is that the problems shown by all these actors promoting the protected area or Ramsar or the following instruments that were proposed over the years were not articulated with their "solutions" to really combat the source of the problems that were being denounced; that is, placing a protected natural area restricting uses within the lagoon did not really contribute to solving the problem of the deficient wastewater treatment system in the adjoining populations, or the use of agrochemicals, upstream. So what was a PNA going to be for? Creating a protected area as we have already seen had only served government institutions, NGOs and scientists in the past to ask for more funds and obtain positions, but above all to obtain absolute control over the territories. The PNA proposal had the same cut as most of the declarations, a sense of urgency to create it, the criminalization of certain groups, the quasi-heroic attitude of the promoters and a condescending and colonialist attitude of the government actors. “It is urgent " – repeated the neoliberal environmentalists defenders of the Ramsar site, the PNA and the infamous PROTUR for the Bacalar Lagoon –"that a regulatory instrument be created that guarantees the scenic beauty and nature of the Bacalar Lagoon, because there is no regulation in the Lagoon" (and they were going to save the Lagoon from the predation of the locals). They repeated this discourse in every opportunity and means of communication they have had at hand, even in recognized media that lent