TWO protesters have been arrested for refusing to identify themselves as tensions flared over the destruction of protected farmland on the Costa del Sol.
The pair, a 45-year-old Spanish woman and a 30-year-old Italian man, were detained after allegedly refusing police orders while demonstrating on the Vega de Maro, east of Malaga, on Wednesday. They were later released without charges, sources told The Olive Press.
The protest was organised by campaign group Asociacion por Maro y su Agricultura (AMA) after powerful developer Sociedad Azucarera Larios (SALSA), which owns the land, sent in heavy machinery to flatten around 100 trees on a 5,000-square-metre plot.
The landowner ultimately intends to clear the Vega to pave the way for another golf mega-project featuring around 680 luxury villas and three hotels, according to multiple reports and planning documents.
Dubbed ‘Maro golf,’ the project is expected to force roughly 80 farming families off the land they have worked, and in many cases lived on, for decades – erecting a water-hogging complex in an area that has struggled with shortages for years.
According to AMA, the detainees remained at the site awaiting SEPRONA – the Guardia Civil’s environmental protection unit – to check whether the works were legal, and refused to leave when ordered by officers.
In a follow-up statement, AMA blasted the arrests as ‘disproportionate,’ insisting there had been no violence or public disorder, and accusing authorities of failing to take effective environmental action despite repeated requests.
“The Vega de Maro is an agricultural, cultural and environmental space that must be protected,” the group said. “We demand transparency, legality and accountability.”
AMA added that an official complaint is already underway over a possible breach of environmental regulations.
A photo later released by AMA shows the plot stripped bare, the trees completely wiped out once the felling was finished.
The clash is just the latest in a string of flashpoints since December 2025, when Larios announced plans to terminate around 400 long-standing farming leases across the Vega de Maro over the course of 2026.
The scheme hit a roadblock earlier this year after Nerja council ruled it breached updated Andalusian planning regulations.
But Larios is pressing ahead with evictions regardless, with reports suggesting it now plans to convert the land into a vast avocado plantation while it reworks the golf development.
Earlier this year, in January and February, at least three properties on the Vega were demolished – one of them allegedly with tenant Loli Rodriguez’s belongings and two cats still inside.
Tensions in Maro remain at boiling point, with dozens of families continuing to protest as eviction deadlines draw closer.
Residents gathered outside Maro town hall on Sunday in a peaceful demonstration that, locals say, was met with ‘total indifference.’
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