Not quite Yosemite: squatters on Mexico City nature reserve threaten ecosystem, mock rule of law.

Two years ago, construction worker Jesus Bernal moved out of a slum in southern Mexico City and headed for the hills with his wife and three small children.

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Working with a dozen other families, Bernal hacked away trees on the slopes of the Ajusco National Park and built a shack of wood and metal where he could live rent-free in the shade of the forest.

"It is more peaceful here. We have little, but we live cheaply. I could never afford the rent in the city," said Bernal, resting on the grass outside his hut, while his wife washed clothes in a metal drum filled with water.

The ramshackle collection of shacks where the Bernals live is one of hundreds of illegal settlements that authorities say have multiplied in protected ecological areas around Mexico City in recent years.

SPREADING OF A STAIN

The mancha urbana, or urban stain, is eating up the green zones of the Valley of Mexico as the burgeoning population of the Americas' biggest metropolis spreads out in uncontrolled growth.

Environmentalists are concerned the squatters, alongside illegal loggers, are endangering a system of ecological reserves that give basic support to life in Mexico City.

"It's a critical problem. We are going to be left without forests in the Valley of Mexico. And with no forests, life will be very difficult for the 20 million people who live here," said Homero Aridjis, a prominent Mexican writer and founder of the renowned Group of 100 environmentalists.

The spreading urbanization threatens underground aquifers beneath the forests and fields in protected areas, which provide 70% of Mexico City's water, local authorities say. Furthermore, the destruction of the woodlands increases air pollution as trees that once absorbed contaminants disappear, while the number of cars grows. The automobile industry has defied a slowdown in the Mexican economy, with Mexican car sales in 2003 almost reaching the one-million mark.

"Unless we take action, we will see a future where health problems skyrocket, while we have a water shortage that could cause a social explosion," said Sara Figueroa, a Green Party representative in the Mexico City Legislative Assembly.

CULTURE OF LAWLESSNESS 

Authorities have to contend with a culture of land invasions that is instilled in a city that was virtually created by squatters, according to Figueroa.

Throughout the 20th century, immigrants swarmed from across rural Mexico to seek their fortune in the capital, constructing squatter settlements that gave way to sprawling shantytowns before becoming official suburbs.

The population of the Mexico City urban area has swelled to at least 18 million, according to government figures, and threatens to overrun the region's national parks.

"The government started to set up the system of parks in 1917, when the reserves were far away from the city limits. Now Mexico City has caught up and is spreading onto them," said Ernesto Enkerlin, president of the National Commission for Protected Areas in the Environment Secretariat.

There are eight major protected green areas around the capital and they have all been hit with illegal settlements, according to the Mexico City government.

One of these is Xochimilco, a park covered by canals and swamps that has been named a Patrimony of Humanity by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. But Unesco has threatened to take that title away from "Mexico's Little Venice," unless the government cleans up the ramshackle huts and piles of rubbish that are multiplying on the banks of Xochimilco's waterways.

HELL ON A HILLTOP

Two miles from Bernal's shack on the slopes of the Ajusco Volcano is a sprawling shantytown called Jardines de San Juan Ajusco. Set up by a land invasion seven years ago, the community now has buses moving along its dirt roads that take residents on a two-hour ride to the city center. Bundles of electricity cables, illegally connected to the national grid, hang from wooden poles between the houses, providing residents the power to have fridges, electric cookers and stereo systems.

A pile of garbage, including hundreds of plastic bottles and the decaying corpse of a dog, lies among the Ajusco park's trees a hundred yards from the shantytown.

Most of the buildings in Jardines are strung together with wood and corrugated iron, but there are a growing number of houses made with cinderblock, such as the home of taxi driver Bernardo Cruz, an immigrant from a village in the State of Mexico.

"The government doesn't help us poor people. So we have to do things for ourselves," said Cruz, washing down his taxi on a sunny afternoon in the shantytown.

HINT OF OFFICIAL COLLUSION

However, environmentalists contend government officials are in league with land invaders and receive kickbacks to turn a blind eye.

"Invading land is a good business, and officials get their piece of the pie," prominent environmentalist Aridjis said. "There is a culture of abuse."

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Once settlements have been established, land can be sold on, sometimes to develop expensive houses for the city's wealthier residents, according to Aridjis. Along the main road through Ajusco there are many signs declaring land or houses for sale, often just yards away from signs warning it is a protected ecological reserve and building is prohibited.

Government workers also rally squatters to vote for their party's political candidates and use them as "shock troops" for their demonstrations, Aridjis said.

Local officials deny these practices.

"These type of problems existed in the past. But the present city government takes a firm stand to uphold the law," said Jesus Carrasco, environment director for the Tlalpan precinct, which oversees the Ajusco reserve.

NOT A PRIORITY

Preserving national parks is at the bottom of the list of priorities in a country where 50 million people live in poverty and the economy is struggling to grow, say environmentalists.

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"People in Mexico City have a passive, almost a fatalistic, attitude to the destruction of their ecosystem," said Aridjis.

Furthermore, analysts say evicting poor people from their homes is not a popular electoral strategy, especially for a Mexico City government that is run by a center-left political party claiming to represent the downtrodden.

Left-wing critics slammed Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador when police violently evicted squatters from the swamp city of Alamachico in Xochimilco in 2002. Likewise, many environmental groups are reluctant to attack the land invaders.

"It is a very difficult problem. These people have a lack of opportunities," said Greenpeace organizer Hector Magallon. Greenpeace Mexico's 2004 forest campaign will not focus on the destruction of woodlands around Mexico City, according to Magallon.

City officials downplay the problem, saying it is limited in scale with less than 4% of the parkland being occupied by squatters.

But Green Party assemblywoman Figueroa said authorities have not collected reliable statistics on the number of illegal settlements in the ecological reserves and are failing to confront the problem.

"First we need to carry out a comprehensive study, then we need to make a concrete plan of action," Figueroa said. "If the city government can't deal with the problem alone, we need to bring in help from the federal government or international organizations."

ANCIENT LAND CLAIMS

The situation on the national parkland is complicated by the fact local indigenous communities claim ownership of large swathes of the nature reserves, and in some cases have papers giving their villages communal rights to the land. It is still illegal for these groups to build on the parks, but authorities are reluctant to act when they do, environmentalists say.

However, the Mexico City government is working with these communities to develop environmentally friendly projects involving eco-tourism and sustainable agriculture.

"It is an encouraging program. There are a lot of communities interested." said precinct official Carrasco.

The most successful example is the San Nicolas Totolopan ranch set up between an indigenous community and the local authorities in the heart of the Ajusco park. The ranch has bicycle trails, nature tours and a campsite, all of which bring a solid income to the community without damaging the environment.

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"This project shows people can take responsibility for their parklands. We are very optimistic," Carrasco said.

But Mexico City resident Jorge Estrada, 37, who has lived near the Ajusco nature reserve all his life, does not share the city official's optimism about the park's future.

"This used to be a place where you could totally escape from the city," said Estrada, who camped on the park as a child.

"Now look at it," he said, angrily pointing at tin shacks, large elaborate houses and piles of garbage littered throughout the reserve. "Soon there will be nothing left."

Ioan Grillo is a correspondent in Mexico for the Houston Chronicle.

Photos by Antonio Nava