“Mandarin hotel! Out of Puerto Rico!” was the refrain of dozens of demonstrators on 21 April 2025 as they took over the lobby of the tony Manhattan hotel. One protester walked around holding a Puerto Rican pro-independence flag, a sign of the anti-colonialist movement advocating for sovereignty from the United States. In the atrium of the nearby luxury mall, the Shops at Columbus Circle, organizers unfurled a long banner that read in Spanish “No to Esencia”. They scattered informational flyers on the mall’s floor about their opposition to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group project slated to open in 2028.
The hotel group plans to partially operate the $2bn Esencia, luxury hotel rooms and a residential settlement, in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, and activists held the demonstration to spotlight the multinational hospitality group’s expansion into a fragile coastal area. Puerto Rican demonstrators and their allies from the group Juventud Unida por la Independencia (JUPI) say that the project would reap environmental disaster by destroying more than 1,500 acres (600 hectares) of protected land with archaeological sites.
