New reports point to the Megamar Corp. society, which is said to have resumed work on the project, which would mean a violation of an order decreed by the Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente) on January 19, to halt construction work on the tourist project that this company is developing in Punta Chame. Residents of Punta Chame confirmed that work on the Megamar Corp. project had been reactivated since the early morning of Friday, February 13, with trucks bringing materials to the site, and workers and machinery raising structures. In complaints with videos filmed on Carnival Saturday, February 14, workers and machinery can be seen working on the Megamar Corp. project, linked to the Colombian businessman, naturalized Panamanian, Riad Salim Elhayec Tony. There are also images taken this Monday, February 16, showing workers carrying out work on the Megamar Corp. project. Construction work on Megamar Corp. had been paralyzed since January 19 of last year, when the Ministry of Environment inspected the project and confirmed that they were extracting sand without permits for a beach fill in a 2.5-kilometer linear polygon facing the Pacific Ocean. Since 2016, the Megamar Corp. society has been illegally extracting sand, calculated at more than 500,000 cubic meters of the mineral, in Punta Chame. During that period, there are also complaints of devastation of mangroves in more than 30 hectares, for the creation of a sand fill and the construction of a beach tourism project in Punta Chame. The Attorney General of the Nation, Luis Carlos Gómez, led an inspection of the Megamar Corp. project on January 22 of last year, following complaints of an environmental crime against this society.
