On the Internet or from realtors, you can receive a tempting offer to purchase land in Mexican territory, located in attractive locations, and at a good price. Then it may turn out that these lands belong or previously belonged to the ejido. Refrain from acquiring such lands.
Ejido — this is a complex concept. It is a collective community organization and the land that belongs to it. This is an independent legal entity. By analogy, this is a collective farm. The ejido is a product of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which, in order to resolve social contradictions, expropriated land from haciendas and leased it to ejidos for farming and raising families. Large tracts of private land were broken up into smaller ones, and the land was returned to the people, providing labor for poor farmers. The plots were passed down from generation to generation, remaining for a long time the exclusive property of the government. The activities of ejidos are regulated by agricultural legislation. In the current period, the ejidos “have legal personality and their own property and are considered the owners of lands donated to them or acquired by them.” So you understand, more than half of Mexico's land resources — this is the land of the ejidos.
Initially, the land provided to farmers for farming was not in the most attractive areas. But as tourism developed and small towns expanded, it turned out that ejido lands perfectly matched the needs of investors, for example, being located near the coast. There are quite a lot of such lands along the Caribbean coast in the state of Quintana Roo, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the state of Yucatan.
In most cases, members of the ejido — people are not rich and are happy to sell their plots. Most of their lands are on the coasts — This is a jungle, not a developed area. You won’t get any profit from farming with them, and there is no desire to engage in guest-power projects. The buyer has the right to «purchase» such a plot, begin construction, and later discover that it has no real ownership rights. The buyer has the ability to be evicted from the property without any legal recourse.
It is incorrect to assume that the legal status of ejido lands is not regulated, and therefore they are “disputed lands.” In the original version, according to Article 27 of the Constitution, ejido lands were not subject to sale at all, since they were considered public property. Ejidatarios (ejidatario - member of the ejido) do not have deeds of ownership, but they have land certificates according to which they only have the right to use. In most cases, they have two certificates: for land use rights and for the plot. Consequently, ejidatari are in principle considered only the holders of their land, and not the owners.
In 1992, Mexico tried to streamline the process of turning over ejido lands. The law governing the application of Article 27 of the Constitution recognizes the legal personality of the ejido and the right of ownership of the said lands. But an ejido, not an ejidataria. The land of the ejido is not capable of being sold, leased or transferred to anyone who is not an ejidatariy — member of the same ejido. Permission to use the land can be transferred to other Mexicans, but not to foreigners. And for sale or transfer for use, certain processes must be followed and the decision of a meeting of all members of the ejido community must be followed.
The only way to sell the land is to the ejido — is to go through a privatization process, after which the property is transferred to the Mexican citizen through a title, or deed of ownership. Converting ejido property into private ownership is a labor-intensive process and there is no guarantee that it will be successful.
Visitors who exploit ejido land are breaking the law. If you are a foreigner, before purchasing a plot or property, make sure that the land on which it is located does not belong and has not belonged to an ejido. But they have the opportunity to offer you to buy land not from the ejido himself, but from the Mexican who bought it from the ejido. Another common scenario is that the transaction is registered in the name of a Mexican, and a foreign citizen receives the right to use.
In recent years, new laws have streamlined the sale of ejido lands, and demand for them from foreign investors has increased markedly. Once possible, after a long and expensive process taking several years, the land will be removed from the National Agrarian Register and re-registered in the State Property Register, receiving a title. Most often, large investors can do this. The land is now private property, but problems remain. The pre-emptive right to purchase land by other members of the ejido, neighboring farmers and any member of the ejidatari's family has not gone away, and violation of this right can very well lead to the recognition of the transaction as invalid.
As a result, it is not recommended to get involved with the purchase of ejido land unless you, as an investor, have extra money, time and legal representation. There are plenty of other sites on the coasts of Mexico, albeit not at such a low price, but with transparent ownership.
And there are also lands of indigenous communities, it’s better not to go there at all.