Baja Bernie - 7-19-2004 at 05:49 PM
Ejido
I got interested in this subject, again, when I read a post that made the observation that Presidente Fox was responsible for the demise of the Ejido
System in Mexico.
I have had many Mexican friends who were officers in various Ejido?s in Baja California and after listening to them talk I had formed the idea that
Ejido?s and their officers work in very much the same way as American Big City politics as practiced in Chicago and under the Tammany Machine in New
York. That is they provided jobs and assistance in order to continue in their seats of power.
Here is an example of this that I watched in action. One of my friends managed a small Cantina and restaurant that employed, for many years, anywhere
from 6 to 8 people. The Presidente of the local Ejido came by and let it be known that he had a complaint from a couple of the members of the Ejido
and that he just might be forced to take the owners to court. Then he let my friend that should he hire one of his cousins that he would just
?forget? the complaints. My friend did and the Presidente did. This went on until the Cantina had a staff of 24 people including the Presidente of
the Ejido who was carried as a dishwasher although he never got his hands wet. The Cantina could not handle this much payroll and soon the owners
were forced to fire all but six of the workers. Yes, my friend was also fired.
This then landed the owners into court where they were ordered to pay well over $20,000 US because once you hire a Mexican it is very difficult to
fire him.
Basically an Ejido is a collective group of people who live and work on a piece of property as a community. Most of the ideas that created the Ejido
of today stem from the theories of democratic communism. The first Mexican Farm Act was the ?Ley Agraria of January 6, 1915. In 1917 the act was
made a constitutional guarantee but was basically ignored until the regime of Presidente Lazaro Card##as (he was the same man who nationalized the
railroads and the oil fields ? but that is another story) who wanted to provide a system that would remedy the social injustices of the past and to
increase production of subsistence foods. The land was owned by the National Government and was financed by a special national bank.
A very high percentage of Mexican real estate is classified as Ejido land. This land is not private property and cannot be bought nor sold.
The ?Ley Agraria? was reformed many times but in 1992 (before Fox) the government realized that what had worked for 80 years was no longer working.
Ejido members were leasing their farmland, selling their property, and signing contracts that were illegal ? remember that the land belonged to the
Government and was not private property.
That year the Mexican legislators approved the ?Nueva Ley Agraria?, the new farm act. Thus the Ejido became a legal entity and there are now legal
procedures that allow Ejido property to be sold or transferred.
I would strongly suggest that if anyone wishes to ?buy? land from an Ejido that they contact a very good Abogado