Source: Puerto Rico Digital Cadastre
Satellite images are from 2024 and were obtained from Google.
On March 13, the PRLA Board of Directors met to extend the lease of Finca Reunión to 30 years. The matter had already been brought to the Board's discussion in November 2023, just a month after leasing the land. The Secretary of Agriculture attended both meetings.
The March 13, 2024, Referendum Act indicates that leasing the PRLA’s land is necessary for this company to fulfill its contract with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (AEE, in Spanish) and secure financing for the solar farm projects.
Agriart LLC owns more than 1,800 acres of land between the Aguirre neighborhood in Salinas and the Jobos neighborhood in Guayama, according to document submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy. On 661 acres of these farms leased to Clean Flexible Energy, a two-phase energy production project is planned, with photovoltaic installations totaling 200 megawatts. The project aims to sell electricity to AEE’s distribution network.
By law, González Beiró, as Secretary of Agriculture, chairs the Board of Directors of the Land Authority. His signature at the bottom of the March minutes certifies that most members approved the meeting on the lease extension, but it does not specify how the vote was conducted.
It states that the "Board Chairman refrained from participating in the evaluation and voting on this matter." Still, it does not clarify whether González Beiró remained in the meeting room during the lease discussion or if he left when the matter was addressed, and if so, it does not indicate how he can attest to what happened in the minutes.
"I don't remember... I can't assure you if I left or not... but... I... and I'll explain to you because it's easier in words, I refrained, although this has nothing to do with me... nor does it have to do with my businesses, none of my business farms have anything to do with the Land Authority," said the Secretary when asked if he was present during the discussion about the lease to Clean Flexible Energy, with whom Agriart has commercial relations.
"Clean Flexible has projects elsewhere. You are assuming that [the lease of the two farms] is for Agriart's projects," González Beiró said.
The community of Aguirre, in Salinas, has organized educational events and protests to express their concerns about what they consider a threat to their environment.
Photo provided
Minutes from a Board meeting on November 16, 2023, mention that the topic of leasing Finca Reunión was discussed. However, no decision was made then, and González Beiró abstained from participating and voting. Still, it also does not specify if he stayed to listen to the discussion by other group members.
The Government Ethics Act prohibits a public servant from intervening, directly or indirectly, in any matter in which they have a conflict of interest that results in obtaining a benefit for themselves, a family member, or a partner. It defines a conflict of interest as a situation where personal or economic interest is or may reasonably conflict with the public interest.
La Oficina de Ética Gubernamental (OEG) establece que, ante un posible conflicto de intereses, el servidor público debe inhibirse de participar en el asunto que da base al mismo y aclara que la situación demanda no solo no participar ni votar, sino que el funcionario público no puede estar presente en la discusión del asunto que le genera el conflicto de interés.
"If you find yourself participating in a meeting where a matter arises that generates a conflict of interest, you will excuse yourself from the meeting and leave until the discussion concludes and determinations are made on that matter," says the OEG guidance document. "The agency should not consider your attendance for quorum purposes for voting on the matter that generates a conflict of interest. Your absence and the reasons for it should be recorded in the meeting minutes."
Board Secretary Dickson Ortiz Maíz, who retired in March under Act 80, also signed the March 2024 Board of Directors minutes. Other meeting attendees were the Secretary of Economic Development, Manuel Cidre Miranda; the President of the Economic Development Bank, Luis Alemañy González; and Luis Rivera Cruz, representing the Government Development Bank. The CPI and Bonita Radio requested an interview with Cidre Miranda, but it was not granted. The Land Act established that the Board of Directors must also be composed of three representatives from Puerto Rico’s agricultural and agro-industrial sectors for a four-year term. Still, those positions have been vacant since 2017.
The CPI could not corroborate what happened at that March 13 meeting because the PRLA does not broadcast or have a recording archive of its Board of Directors meetings, violating Act 159-2013, which imposes the obligation to record and maintain them on the public corporation's website. The legislation ensures that "the times of handling public affairs from dark rooms must be left in the past."
In response to the claim that not making the PRLA Board meetings available online violates Act 159, the Secretary stated: "Well, point it out." "As far as I know, I'm on other boards, and I never see them broadcast, really," he added.
The PRLA also does not publish its minutes on its website. The executive director of that public corporation, Irving Rodríguez Torres, delivered the minutes in April to the CPI and Bonita Radio after going to the San Juan Superior Court, given the public corporation's inaction on the information request made since February 2024.
The Board of Directors delivered 57 minutes and assured that these are the only ones that exist corresponding to the meetings from 2017 to 2024. Among the documents delivered, neither the minutes nor the record of the meeting where it is alleged that the PRLA authorized the first 15-year lease of Finca Reunión to CleanFlexible Energy is included.
González Beiró said this transaction did not occur before the Board of Directors because "the contracts are handled by [the Office of] Real Estate, [then] a Committee reviews them, they are passed to the Executive Director, [and] the Director signs them. The term of the contract is 15 years. For many years in the Authority, if someone needs a longer contract, then that term is consulted with the Board."
The Secretary of Agriculture stated that there is no "moral or legal conflict" in approving leases of public agricultural land to facilitate the installation of solar panels on land owned by a corporation where his son is vice president and has an economic stake. Agriart is not responsible for the solar panel installation, but it is the lessor to Clean Flexible Energy, which will develop and operate the business. González Beiró insisted that there was no conflict if the Reunión and Josefa farms were not leased to any corporation in which he directly participated.
The installation of solar panels is taking place in a fertile agricultural area suitable
for the cultivation of sweet potatoes, yams, and plantains.
Photo by Ricardo Arduengo | Center for Investigative Journalism
González Beiró has an 18% stake in Agriart LLC since 2020, according to OEG documents. The other directors of Agriart LLC are its president, Michael McCloskey; the vice president, Ramón González Bennazar, who is the Agriculture Secretary’s son; the secretary, Dan Dowling; and the treasurer, Manuel Pérez, according to a corporate resolution from June 2021.
In an interview for the CPI and Bonita Radio, González Beiró said he does not know "what they want [the Authority's farms] for. I don't know that. They want two plots, one in Guayama and the other, I don't know where it is."
The official insisted that there is no conflict of interest as he managed a Blind Trust in which his businesses, including Agriart LLC, are listed to avoid intervening in their administration while holding office. He clarified that, as a farmer, like other members of his family, "all the decisions I make as Secretary — good or bad — will positively or negatively affect our businesses."
In an interview for the CPI and Bonita Radio, González Beiró said he does not know "what they want [the Authority's farms] for. I don't know that. They want two plots, one in Guayama and the other, I don't know where it is.".
Farms Where No Food is Grown
The permits for the solar farm project are registered in the file of the Office of Permit Management (OGPe) and the Planning Board, where it is established that at least three of the lots where construction is proposed are classified as Specially Protected Rustic Land (SREP-A) at 95%. This categorization implies that these lands have use restrictions because they are considered highly productive agricultural land.
The PRLA’s mission "is to acquire, safeguard, and manage the most highly productive lands to promote self-sustainable and profitable agriculture, enhance the socio-economic development of Puerto Rican society, and ensure the permanence of the best farmland for future generations."
Using these lands for energy production also violates the Planning Board's Land Use Plan (PUT), which classified them "as protected for the purpose of planting food, not solar panels," said former Planning Board President Luis García Pelatti.
According to the PUT, the area has a diversity of soils classified as Agricultural-Productive, Mechanizable Agricultural, Resource Conservation-1, and Watershed Conservation. Water resources such as the Patillas irrigation canal, the Amorós stream, and the Guamaní Oeste irrigation canal intersect in the sector.
García Pelatti explained that the alteration of restricted use has occurred during the administrations of Ricardo Rosselló, Wanda Vázquez, and Pedro Pierluisi, arguing that the installed infrastructure will eventually be removed, and for that, they have used changes to the Joint Regulation.
"The problem is that we have contracts [for solar farms] of up to 30 years. That alienates the land for its use, which is harvesting," the planner emphasized.
The Secretary of Agriculture said he supports "the generation of energy through the installation of solar farms and their combined use with agriculture" and stated that "solar farms are allowed on land classified as Specially Protected Rustic" because, in his opinion, "the impact on the land in these installations is minimal and completely reversible at the end of the project's useful life."
The properties owned by Agriart LLC in that area are distributed in 13 lots, identified with 12 different cadastral numbers, purchased on February 17, 2021, from Mycogen Seeds, when González Beiró was already nominated as Secretary of Agriculture.
The coordinator of the Jobos Bay Ecological Development Initiative (IDEBAJO) in Salinas, Roberto José Thomas Ramírez, said the conflict of interest of the Secretary of Agriculture and President of the ATPR Board of Directors is undeniable and, in his opinion, borders on corruption.
"[The Secretary] is paid with public funds to protect the lands, and what he does is take advantage of his power assigned by Governor Pedro Pierluisi in this Department," said Thomas Ramírez.
"He is enriching himself and failing in the ministerial duty assigned to him to protect public lands. People like Ramón González, who have been owners of Salinas as part of their family for years, and who operate almost like landowners, have no interest or importance in what happens to the population because he and his family benefit," he added.
Roberto José Thomas Ramírez, coordinator of the Ecological Development Initiative
of Bahía de Jobos (IDEBAJO) in Salinas.
Photo by Ricardo Arduengo | Center for Investigative Journalism
The community leader said industrial solar farms like those in Salinas affect communities in multiple ways.
"It is not a model that will solve our problems with the island’s electrical system," Thomas Ramírez pointed out. "If we continue planting panels, we deepen the food access problem. It makes it impossible and creates other problems like flooding. You create a path for water by removing all vegetation and compacting the soil. You waterproof the land, and the water cannot enter through the soil," he explained, highlighting that this is already happening in communities like El Coquí in Salinas, where Ciro One Salinas has another solar farm project.
The Businesses of González Beiró and His Family
González Beiró, nominated as Secretary of Agriculture in January 2021 by Governor Pierluisi and confirmed on May 10, 2021, by the legislature, has been confronted in several journalistic reports for possible conflicts of interest between his official duties and the businesses involving him and his family members. Among them are equipment purchase transactions acquired by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and its subsidiary, the Agricultural Enterprise Development Administration, from González Agro Inc., owned by his father, Ramón González Rodríguez.
Among the possible conflicts are also equipment sales to farmers that Agro Power, another company chaired by his son Ramón M. González Bennazar, has achieved through grants from the federal Re-Grow program, funds supervised by the Department of Housing, according to a previous CPI investigation. The tractors sold by Agro Power are even exhibited to farmers at events sponsored by the Department of Agriculture, where the Secretary attends to talk about the programs his agency has available for land workers. According to OEG documents, González Beiró had 100% ownership in this company.
Another journalistic investigation revealed that the PRLA, under González Beiró's presidency, allowed the Municipality of Toa Baja to sublease 501 acres of agricultural land to Coastal Farms, a company integrated by Christopher Dowling and Manuel Pérez, who hold the positions of secretary and treasurer in Agriart LLC.
Near the towns of Salinas and Guayama, agricultural areas where agronomist González Beiró developed his personal capital, which is around $2.1 million, there is talk of the influence that 'Pirul,' the nickname by which the Secretary is known, has on the businesses conducted with government land.
Three sources of information who have followed the trail of solar farm businesses in the Salinas area say that González Beiró "orders and goes" in all these companies and that his children are at the front.
"The last thing Pirul himself acquired are those lands where the seed company [Mycogen] was," said a source who did not want to be identified, referring to the row farms grouped behind an OGPE sign in the name of Clean Flexible Energy. The CPI confirmed that, according to the Municipal Revenues Collection Center’s (CRIM, in Spanish) Digital Cadastre Registry, all transactions took place on February 17, 2021.
Additionally, upon reviewing the public CRIM registry, it is evident that the corporations González Agro — registered in 1967 — and Agrícola Fortuna — from 1979 — have over 15 farms and about five plots registered in their name in the Aguirre neighborhood of Salinas. The Agriculture Secretary’s father owns these two companies. In González Agro, the Secretary's sister, María del Rosario González Beiró, is listed as vice president, secretary, and treasurer.
The Secretary of Agriculture, Ramón González Beiró, also chairs the Board
of Directors of the Land Authority.
Photo provided
Agriart LLC was incorporated in the Department of State on July 14, 2020. Its president, McCloskey, originally from Pittsburgh and of Puerto Rican mother, arrived at age seven, was raised on the island, and became a veterinarian. Today, he lives in Indiana, where he runs a milk production business. He is a beneficiary of Act 22, now Act 60, which seeks to attract millionaire investors to Puerto Rico.
González Beiró, who has been president of the Puerto Rico Farm Bureau twice, acknowledged his willingness to remain at the helm of the Department of Agriculture if requested by the person who will occupy La Fortaleza next January. Pierluisi appointed the Salinas farmer, who he supported in the New Progressive Party primaries. However, after the governor’s defeat in the race against Jenniffer González Colón, several sources assure that the Secretary continues to seek support within the PNP gubernatorial candidate’s campaign group.
"I have always been available to serve Puerto Rico’s farmers," the Salinas agro-entrepreneur concluded with a smile.
