elgatoloco
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Article on Serinidad
Land fight unresolved as hotel reopens
By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 1, 2004
To all outward appearances, it's business as usual at the Hotel Serenidad in Mulege by the Sea of Cortez. The 50-room hotel, long popular with U.S.
tourists, reopens its doors today for a new season after a month of repairs.
But a bitter property dispute simmers. Nancy and Donald Johnson, who have operated the hotel for more than 35 years, have been ordered to vacate the
5-acre parcel and return it to a local land cooperative, or ejido.
Two agrarian courts ? one in Baja California Sur and an appeals court in Mexico City ? have backed the ejido's claim to the land.
Now the Johnsons are making their final appeal ? to an administrative court in Mexico City.
Six hundred miles from San Diego, Mulege, founded in 1705 by Jesuit missionaries, is one of the oldest communities on the Baja California peninsula.
It is on a river two miles from the Sea of Cortez.
The town of 5,000 survives on tourism and fishing. Hotel Serenidad has long attracted a loyal U.S. clientele, among them pilots who land on the
property's 3,000-foot airstrip.
"We've had 36 years in this hotel," Nancy Ugalde de Johnson said. "We are morally in disagreement with what is happening."
She is a fourth-generation Mulege native; her husband, Don, moved from California 43 years ago. Together, they have been operating the hotel since
1968.
Residents say the protracted quarrel has spilled into the community, stirring discord among neighbors and blocking progress.
No one disputes that the hotel's parcel, just outside town, originally belonged to the ejido as part of a 27,000-acre area under its control. Ejidos
are land cooperatives created under Mexico's 1917 constitution to distribute land among millions of landless peasants. To this day, much of Baja
California Sur is in the hands of ejidos.
For years, the Johnsons paid rent to the Ejido 20 de Noviembre, created in 1924 by presidential decree.
But in 1982, a government land agency, known by the acronym Corett, sold them the hotel property as part of a 207-acre parcel expropriated by the
agency in 1976 for purposes of development. The Johnsons say they have proof: a contract of the sale and a subsequent federal judge's order granting
them title.
The ejido challenged the validity of the sale, insisting the hotel is not in the expropriated parcel.
"Corett can't have sold it because it was never theirs," said Alvaro Padilla, president of the 93-member collective. "This has been our battle for the
past 25 years."
In July 1996, ejido members took over the hotel, staying for 11 months until they were removed on orders from state officials, and the Johnsons were
allowed to reopen.
Corett's office in Baja California Sur referred questions to the agency's legal division in Mexico City. An attorney there said he needed to study the
case before responding.
Jes?s Arteaga, a private Tijuana attorney who specializes in land issues, said similar cases have come up before, and can take years to resolve.
Petitioners have successfully challenged expropriations by Corett years after the fact.
Miriam Aydee Luna, attorney for the ejido, said it could take six months for the administrative court in Mexico City to rule. The court's ruling, she
said, will be final.
The ejido intends to keep the hotel open, Padilla said, and will invite outsiders to invest and operate it.
If the Johnsons have their way, that will never happen; the hotel will stay in family hands.
"We have great faith that all will turn out all right," Nancy Johnson said.
Padilla said the cooperative is equally determined. "Every acre of our ejido is important."
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capt. mike
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i think they'll be ok.....but if not -
i got a pretty nice trailer and a lot of gear down there that may be available for $$'s CHEAP!!! depending on what the Eijido does. You can bet they
don't know dick diddly about running that resort nor maintaining and operating the strip so leasing my spot from them could be a disaster! i'm paid
thru april. maybe i'll just become a squatter! yeah....that's the ticket........ 
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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Keri
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Posts: 1393
Registered: 10-31-2002
Location: La Mision, Baja Norte
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Hey Mike
I have first dibbs , don't forget. We may be there later this month. I'll let you know / What's cheap. You still haven't given me a price/ u2u
me,k
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capt. mike
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
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Mood: Sling time!
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Keri - when? i plan on 2 trips in oct
first is next weekend. then likely 23-24.
why don't we look at it 1st. if you lock it in with a deposit it can be yours. i'll PM you with my thoughts on its worth.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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