What is Esencia and what will happen to Puerto Rico if this is constructed?

Diaspora Pa'lante Collective

26 Mar 2025

Capitalist developers and political opportunists are feeding off Puerto Rico's land and resources to privatize the island. The people suffer from deteriorating infrastructure and increasing austerity measures.

Originally published in Diaspora Palante Collective.

Esencia is a massive $2 billion colonial development project aiming to seize over 2,000 acres of land, spanning three miles of beaches in Punta Melones, Cabo Rojo, by 2028. The United States has long justified its imperial presence in Puerto Rico under the guise of “progress” and “development.” With the complicity of a local government that prioritizes U.S. interests, policies like Act 60—which grants foreign investors the ability to evade local and federal taxes—serve Puerto Rico on a silver platter to wealthy developers, speculators, and those eager to claim and exploit a slice of “paradise.”

While Puerto Ricans face life-threatening austerity measures, the federal and local governments turn Puerto Rico into a neoliberal playground for foreigners. “Development” comes at the expense of Puerto Ricans’ lives, and their access to land, coasts, and cultural patrimony; it impedes their ability to work, thrive, and simply remain in the place they are from. “Development,” moreover, disregards the natural environment and the disruption of fragile ecosystems. For these projects, non-human life is reduced to a resource to be extracted.

Esencia may hide behind Puerto Rican architects and “environmentalists,” but it is led by the Reuben Brothers and Three Rules Capital, with the later addition of Mandarin Oriental. These real estate and hospitality magnates are the people who will benefit from the construction of over 900 “elite” residences, 5 hotels, 2 golf courses, a private airport, schools, a trauma center, and more. Esencia will not benefit local residents in any way: it seeks to create a private city within Cabo Rojo, built to segregate its wealthy foreigners from Puerto Ricans and protect them from the reality that Puerto Ricans face outside its walls: a crumbling infrastructure, food insecurity, and frequent power outages.

The Esencia project has a clear goal: to create a “paradise” in the Caribbean for foreigners while continuing to destroy the land and displace the native population of Puerto Rico. This project is designed to benefit the ultra rich and will control and limit the access of Puerto Ricans, who currently freely enjoy the lands, using them as recreational areas, coexisting respectfully alongside the plant and animal species that live there.

The project would severely impact the delicate ecology of our land and waters. The area for the proposed project is home to several plants, including the endemic Eugenia woodburyana, cobana negra, and bariaco, that serve as a habitat for many animals. Some animal species that would see their habitats eradicated include: 1) The yellow shouldered blackbird and the Puerto Rican nightjar, both endangered birds, whose habitat and breeding, nesting, and foraging areas would be affected by deforestation, 2) Antillean manatee, who can be found in the marine areas such as Caño Boquerón, 3) Sea turtles, who can be kept from nesting on the beach by artificial light and can become disoriented. These precious ecosystems sit on Specially Protected-Ecological Rustic Soil, with over 100 identified Taíno archaeological sites that have been preserved. Construction of this luxury project would also demolish and appropriate these historic sites.

Esencia’s greenwashing efforts and supposed cultural respect and community involvement cannot deceive Puerto Ricans, who know the results of many other development projects that have taken over the coasts and lands. Esencia’s developers claim that the project will protect environmental conditions. One example of how these claims are unsubstantiated is that Esencia includes 2 golf courses in its calculation of green areas. Golf courses are not green areas and they are not ecosystems – they are leveled and highly manicured areas that require large amounts of water. They do not provide shelter, nesting grounds, or food for the local species. They are a direct habitat disruption to countless fauna and flora.

Esencia also states that it will support archeological digs and build a museum within the project’s borders. Cabo Rojo is the town with the highest documented density of archeological deposits on the island. Esencia’s plan to appropriate these historical materials is a rampant violation of Puerto Ricans’ right to their ancestral patrimony. The lands, beaches, and Taíno historical artifacts should be stewarded by the Puerto Rican people, not owned by multimillionaires.

Esencia also claims that it will develop Cabo Rojo’s industries and create employment. However, Esencia will benefit from tax exemption, an advantage that local industries do not have. Instead of supporting local workers and businesses, this project will affect their livelihoods: for instance, many fishermen in the area will lose their access to the ocean. If anything, Esencia will foster precarious labor in the service industry, thereby deepening the dependency economy and furthering legacies of slavery and colonialism.

Furthermore, Esencia, like other resorts in Puerto Rico, takes away basic services from Puerto Ricans. When tourists and foreigners come to Puerto Rico, water, electricity, and other resources are strained and directed to these areas and away from the native population. A clear example of this can be seen as the project intends to build a trauma center for the resort; meanwhile, Puerto Rico is experiencing a health crisis, exacerbated by La Junta, due to loss of funding for hospitals across the archipelago. This has left many areas, like Vieques, without a single hospital.

Locals, who already endure the crushing weight of high costs of living because of the colonial-capitalist system imposed on Puerto Rico, cannot afford for this project to come to fruition. The only people who will benefit from this project are the rich and powerful who profit from the exploitation of our land and nation. The local Puerto Ricans will face displacement and the destruction of their lands.

In solidarity with the many groups resisting Esencia and other similar development projects across the archipelago, we demand that the Office of Permit Management, the Department of Natural Resources, the Cultural Institute of Puerto Rico, and the Autonomous Municipality of Cabo Rojo:

Revoke the permit and stop the permit granting process now.
Ensure that the lands are not intervened upon in any way.
Heed and study our amply documented claims and materials, which have already been submitted.
Conduct a transparent investigation process where directly affected communities and specialists have prioritized participation.

Puerto Ricans struggle against gentrification and displacement every single day, and the construction of Esencia would only add to the millions of our people uprooted and displaced from their homes. We must do everything in our power to stop this project from happening. Otherwise, we will surely see a Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans.

Join a revolutionary Puerto Rican organization today and fight for our land back!

Follow @comiteesencia on Instagram to stay updated and sign the petition using the link in our bio.

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