Diver’s Heir Fights for Stolen Legacy in Quintana Roo

QUINTANA ROO, Mexico — Devora Bravo, the daughter and heir of the internationally renowned Mexican diver Ramón Bravo Prieto, is awaiting a resolution from the judicial authorities of Quintana Roo to restore her rights to her father's plundered estate, more than 25 years after his death.

Ramón Bravo Prieto (1925-1998) was the most famous Mexican diver on the international stage. At the peak of their professional careers, he forged a friendly scientific relationship with the French underwater researcher Jacques Cousteau. He was the recipient of the National Journalism Award for his scientific dissemination of Mexico's riches on television. His visionary work in defense of marine ecosystems led to the creation of the Ramón Bravo Medal, awarded by the Government of Quintana Roo.

An underwater researcher and cameraman sought after by those looking for the best beneath the waves, he was also a deeply knowledgeable guide. His television program "Mundo Marino" was dedicated to showcasing the wonders of the Mexican seas: the sand waterfalls in Baja California Sur, the crystalline waters of the Mexican Caribbean, the sea lions of the Sea of Cortez, traversing the entire gulf in rubber boats.

Now, more than 25 years after his passing, his legacy remains present. However, his estate was subject to dispossession, fraud, influence peddling, and illegalities, to such an extent that the legitimate heirs have not been able to recover what is rightfully and legally theirs.

Members of the political class, lawyers, notaries, judges, and a host of individuals participated in permitting one more dispossession among the many documented year after year in Quintana Roo.

Consequently, Devora Bravo, nearly one hundred years after her father's birth, is publicizing this history of illegalities woven around her father's patrimony following his death.

Under strange circumstances, his land and his house, a Mayan work of art on Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, "were left in the custody of María de los Ángeles Vallejo Bernal and her lawyer, Ermilio Colonias Lizama, who, in collusion with the notary Lechón Rosas, among others, sold and divided his assets. This resulted in the loss of his house, his belongings, film recordings, international awards, antiques, souvenirs, and a great deal of research material on the seas he compiled from around the world."

Devora Bravo recalls that almost 20 years later, she was contacted by María Teresa de la Peña Linz and her lawyer, Juan Alberto Bermejo Varela. "I did not know how or why they were in possession of the lands, and thanks to them, I found out that my signature, my INE (which was the IFE), and those of my half-siblings were forged. The height of it was that supposedly Ramón Arturo Bravo Ruiz and Ruth Ivonne Bravo Ruiz had ceded their rights, dated in 2017, but Ruth died in November 2014. Did they bring her back to life?"

After more than two decades, "without any resolution from the authorities, I have been harmed by a host of dilatory tactics and other tricks, traps, and bribes to prolong this process and make me give up my inheritance. I turned to the authorities of Quintana Roo expecting justice. Since 2019, I have followed up in accordance with the law, but the years go by and keep passing, and there is no justice."

Devora Bravo resides in Jalisco, making travel to Cancún very complicated and costly. "These have been very difficult times since the pandemic," she comments.

She notes that her father would have turned 100 this October. "I have gone from anger to frustration, always with that bitter sadness of knowing that all the work of my father's life was looted, stolen, and thrown in the trash, in the hands of heartless and ignorant people who value neither nature, nor the wonderful Caribbean Sea, nor the beings that inhabit it. My father dedicated his entire life to rescuing reefs and endangered species. It bothers me immensely to see that money comes above everything and everyone."

She acknowledges that she has been patient and has done everything by the book, in a timely manner. "The evidence is on the judge's desk; I have already met all the requirements to clarify the dispossession that my siblings and I have been subjected to. I hope that making this robbery public will finally help me get what is rightfully mine. I am my father's last daughter."

The life and research of Ramón Bravo Prieto, as well as his love for nature, must be rescued and reevaluated today more than ever, in the face of aberrant political decisions that continue to destroy natural resources not only of the Caribbean Sea and the Mayan Jungle but of the entire national territory. This is happening under a neoliberal project that has no interest in the future of humanity's new generations, but rather in capitalist profits, for which they ally themselves with governments like that of the so-called Fourth Transformation.

As recalled by Alberto Friscione Carrascosa, "The fins, the mask, the snorkel, the camera, the paper, and the pencil were his main tools of work, but above all, it was the moral courage to publicize the threats looming over the ecosystems and, by extension, the planet. He knew he was fighting windmills, but his conviction that he was doing the right thing and his unshakable faith that he could improve things compelled him to move forward."