Originally the ejidos were land parcelled out among groups of campesinos following the Porfiriato, revolution, etc ... first Ley Agraria passed about 1921, acted on very quickly, more or less following the general principles of the Plan de Ayala of Zapata. In places populated at that time, much of the land was just returned to the same people who had been there all along, their rights were simply returned to them, having been stolen in previous years by Díaz and company, much of it for the purpose of planting sugar large-scale, much of the rest for speculation and maintenance of [effectively] the encomienda system. In what were then outlying areas, like ours, great fincas were expropriated and settled by ejidos in the 20s. Much of it was jungle at the time, never before used since the Mayas walked away a thousand years ago. The politics of these ejidos are less complicated by inter-group rivalries, in general, as few claims to pre-existing rights come into dispute.
The word 'communes' has been used but imho the word 'co-operatives' is more accurate. Indians never owned land individually, nor bought or sold it, they worked it co-operatively, and it changed hands only in war. An ejiditario who misses three meetings of the counsel must pay a fine or lose the rights to his land. Only a mexicano/a can be an ejiditario/a. His main residence must be in the ejido, no absentee ownership. Use it or lose it, there used to be a rule against renting potreros even, but that is gone now. Slowly the rules now favor more individual rights and responsibility, but still all ownership transfers must be passed by the ejido counsel. One day i think each ejido will have the right to opt out and convert to propiedad pequeña, which is more or less a fee simple system, but until then actual title to the land resides with the ejido, if not with the federal government, can't remember. Rights to potreros and solares are registered against the title, though, and it is a secure form of tenure if you follow the rules and treat your neighbors reasonably.
Tried again to pull up the legislacion vigente of gob.mx, but it's off for Christmas i guess. My point was that if there is anything like the ejido system in Tambo Grande, an overwhelming majority of consent within the ejido would seal any deal Manhattan could negotiate. If a fee simple system, the last to settle would get the best price, maybe eh .... How old is the town, do you know when it was first settled?.... cheers |
