The 70s of Punta Hermosa

Next April 7, Punta Hermosa turns 70 years old. Its mayor, Guillermo Fernández, is older than the district by barely six months and has been established in the beloved enclave of the small south for a quarter of a century. And he was his mayor for three terms and eleven uninterrupted years (2007-2018), until immediate re-election was prohibited. He returned in 2023 with Avanza País.

“We found a municipality in disarray. With many positions created, a lot of bureaucracy, and we started the year changing the registry of organization and functions of the municipality, modifying positions and reducing management,” he reviews.

Then the huaico fell. The phenomenon naturally nourished the sandy beaches and contributed to their beauty. But what happened a year ago was of an unusual magnitude. “What they did was channel the huaico by hand, let’s say, without any study.”

This is how part of the year went, cleaning and recovering the old part of Punta Hermosa that is in what was once the delta of this huaico.

Recovered “from the shock and trauma,” the development of projects began. As of March 2024, the two sea walls that had to be broken so that the mud falls into the sea have already been rebuilt. Playa Norte and half of the Playa Norte development were paved. They will continue with the Señoritas y Caballeros boardwalks, in El Silencio. “Our goal is that at the end of this administration the entire district will be paved.”

The shortage of water, which was received for four hours every two days during which tanks and cisterns were filled, was solved with the water desalination plant in Santa María, which has made it possible to have the liquid element 24 days a day, with a pressure. With the oxidation lagoon the municipality waters the parks, which look green and recovered.

In addition to the beginning of the participatory budget, where residents will choose projects to develop, the Punta Hermosa public school, Víctor Andrés Belaúnde, will be recovered, which today is “a disaster. What exists was built by Fujimori during his government. In previous administrations we built six classrooms, which are the only decent ones in that school, but it has 1,500 students in deplorable conditions. So we have done two projects to completely rebuild the initial school, with S/.21 million, and the primary and secondary school, with S/.58 million.” They have already been declared viable by the MINEDU and hope to access the budget, since the modified district allocation is only S/.24 million for 2024.

Although it is the second municipality with the highest relative revenue in the country, Fernández criticizes that the value of the land to calculate the property tax is set by the Ministry of Housing, “which says that a beautiful piece of land is worth 140 soles per square meter when in reality It is worth US$1000.”

As a consequence of these limitations, the citizen security budget with 140 nights must be subsidized with resources that could go to other areas.

Although the district is an oasis of security and is almost unaffected by crime, the excesses of nightlife were another matter. “When we started the management, there were five nightclubs, all with their Civil Defense certificate due to administrative silence.” In total, “and believe it or not, there were almost 90 stores in Punta Hermosa with a certificate for administrative silence. “It is an indication of corruption and we are finishing studying the cases to file complaints.” Two of the five nightclubs did not qualify and now the three traditional ones remain. With music and drinks, it became customary for restaurants to transform into bars, which was not allowed in a residential area. “The closing time of the restaurants went from 11 at night to 1:30 in the morning, but “with background music that does not go any further for a much more orderly context.” Live music must have express authorization from the municipality depending on the event and is only allowed until 11pm and with decibel control.

Punta Hermosa usually has more or less 20 thousand inhabitants, a figure that triples in the summer. In addition to the beach, the gastronomic and clothing store offer attracts the nearby districts. “For example, it is much easier for people who live in Villa to come to Punta Hermosa than to go to Miraflores.” But he clarifies that “the philosophy is to try to maintain residency. We do not intend to be a large commercial attraction center.”

Along these lines, buildings can be a maximum of three stories and if they are in front of a park or avenue, 4 stories. Only in The Silence that are the Señoritas y Caballeros beaches are five and six floors allowed in the third row. He points to the previous administration for granting some irregular licenses that have been cancelled, again with the famous administrative silence.

At the other extreme, Punta Hermosa is also threatened by land trafficking in its eastern part. “Our limits reach the province of Huarochirí. There is a municipality called Santo Domingo de los Olleros, which is actually a shell, and it distributed licenses, authorizations and certificates to the invaders of the Quebrada de Malinche. There are 30 thousand people living there. We have declared it a geological risk area. The poor people who have bought from them ask for water and sanitation. New areas of victims of the huaicos would be generated. It is an issue that we have pending and we are trying to resolve with the Municipality of Lima and the central government. For now we do not give them any documents so that they can be formalized.”

The challenges do not end there. In the Kontiki area, at the end of Playa Blanca, there are cliffs that are part of the urban environment and are home to seabirds. “We declare it a protected area. However, there are two companies to which the Superintendency of State Assets sold a piece of land that is between the old road and very close to the cliff. I met with Superintendent Wilder Cifuentes who seems to me to be an honest and correct man. They have offered us to suspend the process of these companies until the definition of a cliff is resolved, for which we are hiring the National University of Engineering, which asked us for 30 days to carry out the study.”

With the same UNI, an early warning center for landslides and tsunamis has been installed, which is announced with a siren that allows evacuation in advance. May it also bring good news for the district.