Since April 30, a helicopter has been making 13 to 14 round trips per day between a staging area in Miraflores and the upper reaches of the Sierra de la Laguna Biosphere Reserve, apparently carrying heavy construction materials into one of the most ecologically sensitive zones in Baja California Sur. No permits, environmental impact assessments, or community consultations have been made public. A local environmental group filed a formal complaint on May 2 with PROFEPA, Mexico’s federal environmental enforcement agency, demanding that the flights stop and that authorities explain who authorized them.
Sierra La Laguna Construction Allegations Name Former Green Party Figure
The complaint was filed by Rescate de los Pueblos, Tradiciones y su Economía, a Baja California Sur advocacy group. It names Jorge González Torres as the owner of land parcels in the reserve’s buffer zone where the construction activity is believed to be concentrated. González Torres is a politically significant figure: he founded the Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM), Mexico’s Green Party, in the early 1990s and served as its president for years. The party has long drawn criticism from Mexican and international environmental organizations for operating less as an ecological movement and more as a political vehicle for business interests.
González Torres has owned ranch land in the Sierra La Laguna area for decades. In 2007, journalists and environmental groups raised alarms when aerial photographs showed construction on a property attributed to his family inside the biosphere reserve. CONANP, Mexico’s national commission for natural protected areas, investigated at the time but no lasting enforcement followed. The current complaint echoes that earlier episode almost exactly: unexplained construction activity, political connections, and an institutional response that residents fear will arrive too late or not at all.
The helicopter departs from a site linked to a company called Frondoso, near the community of El Romerillal in the Miraflores delegation, according to the complaint. Ranchers and residents report that the aircraft operates daily from roughly 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., flying loaded into the mountains and returning empty. The group says it has cellphone photographs and video documenting the flights.
The Reserve Feeds Aquifers Supplying Los Cabos and La Paz
The Sierra de la Laguna is not just a conservation area. Designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1994, the mountain range rising to over 2,000 meters is the primary water recharge zone for much of southern Baja California Sur. Rainfall that filters through its granite peaks and oak forests feeds the underground aquifers that supply drinking water to Los Cabos, La Paz, and dozens of smaller communities and rancherías in between.
Those aquifers are already under severe stress. CONAGUA, Mexico’s national water commission, has classified the San José del Cabo aquifer as overexploited since 2013. Los Cabos has grown from roughly 106,000 residents in 2000 to over 350,000 today, and the tourist corridor adds tens of thousands of daily water consumers on top of that. OOMSAPAS, the Los Cabos municipal water utility, has struggled for years to keep pace with demand. La Paz faces similar pressure, with rationing episodes becoming more frequent during dry months.
Any development in the upper sierra, especially involving foundations, grading, or permanent structures, risks disrupting the filtration pathways that channel rainwater into those aquifers. The reserve’s buffer zone allows some limited, regulated activity, but large-scale construction requires a Manifestación de Impacto Ambiental (environmental impact statement) approved by SEMARNAT, Mexico’s environment ministry. No such filing has appeared in SEMARNAT’s public registry for the parcels in question.
February 2026 Reform Loosened Protections for Natural Areas
The complaint also flags a legal change that may be relevant. On February 19, 2026, Mexico’s Congress approved a reform to Article 46 of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection. The amendment, backed by PVEM legislators, allows the reintroduction of species not native to an ecosystem within natural protected areas under certain conditions. Environmental groups in Baja California Sur argue the reform could serve as a legal backdoor to justify infrastructure and land modification inside reserves, framed as habitat restoration or species management.
The reform passed with little public debate. Rescate de los Pueblos cited it in the PROFEPA complaint as part of a broader pattern: green rhetoric from the PVEM paired with legislative and economic moves that weaken protections for the very areas the party claims to defend.
The group’s formal petition demands that federal agencies halt the helicopter flights immediately, compel disclosure of any permits or authorizations, and launch a full investigation. The petition also calls for the defense of water resources as a matter of national security and for effective consultation with sierra communities before any development proceeds.
PROFEPA received the complaint on May 2. As of publication, neither PROFEPA, SEMARNAT, nor CONANP has issued a public response. The organizations have called on the state government, both chambers of Congress, and the office of President Claudia Sheinbaum to intervene. This story was first reported by Colectivo Pericú.