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Builders Hurt Protected Areas in Climate-weary Puerto Rico

Properties are being built at the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Puerto Rico's Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into destruction in the ecological reserve that protects one of the island's most extensive mangrove forests. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
Properties are being built at the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, in Salinas, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Puerto Rico's Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into destruction in the ecological reserve that protects one of the island's most extensive mangrove forests. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (DÁNICA COTO)
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Salinas, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Jacqueline Vázquez was sitting on the couch when her phone rang.

She had just returned from a government office where she filed a complaint about illegal construction in an ecological reserve. The reserve is dedicated to one of the island's largest mangrove forests near her neighborhood in southern Puerto Rico.