Americans in Baja California Evicted From Homes, Land

By JOHN RICE,Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (October 24, 2000 11:23 p.m EDT
Mexico's Supreme Court ordered removal of a handful of Americans from their Baja California homes, and a cabinet official said Tueday that he will obey the ruling, causing concern for hundreds of other Americans in the area.
Though the court decision directly affects only 23 houses, it appears to endanger the status of all 500 to 600 residents-most of them U.S. returees-with homes on a sandy spit called Punta Banda.
On Monday, Mexico's hightest court (Edited by Robin Hood...Highest Court, excuse me for laughing) ruled that because of a bureaucratic mistake nearly three decades ago, a Mexican company was wrongly stripped of land there. The retirees who live there acted in good faith, but they apparently will lose their homes because they were tricked into building on somebody else's land, the court said.
The court threatened to oust Agrarian Reform Secretary Eduardo Robledo if he does not carry out the ruling within 10 working days. On Tueday, Robledo's department said it would obey.
The batle over the Baja Beach & Tennis Club on Ensenada Bay has become a case study of the risks of land investment on Mexico's coast.
Courts here have ruled on several occasions that earlier Agrarian Reform officials misdrew the boundaries of a 1973 presidential land grant.
The Purua Punta Estero land was used to build a hotel, 18 cabanas and 23 houses, the court said, "most of them inhabited by foreigners who in good faith acquired a property from thosw who were not the legitimate owners."

The court said the agrarian secretariat had "engaged in delays, lies, evasions, contradictions' and disputes to avoid enforcing a 1997 Supreme Court injunction to return the land to its rightful owners. It pointedly authorized Robledo to use force, if necessary, to carry out the newest decision.
The secretariat said the delays were due to the fact that residents of Punta Banda had opposed efforts to evict them in the past. To avoid confrontation, the secretariat had sought to mediate a negotiated settlement between the residents and the plaintiffs in the case, without success, a press statement said.
A year ago, officials made a halfhearted effort to evict many of the residents but were turned back by the Mexican housing community which claimed the land and American retirees who had built homes-some worth hundreds of thousands of dollars-on leased property.
"We've never been fighting the fact that there are private landowners who ought to have the land back," said Leigh ZAREMBA said. "That has not happened."
He said the residents "are ready to make a huge noise' if officials try to evict them without compensation, and added that he would like to see a settlement that does not involve eviction.
Under Mexican law, foreigners can't own property within 65 miles of the border or 35 miles of the coast, but about 60,000 Americans in Baja California have bought 50-year, renewable leses that are held in a bank trust.
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Edited by Robin Hood...Forgive me for laughing, I do feel sorry for older Americans who have placed their entire life savings at the hands of Mexican authorities. They have been so mislead by their own government and the media here. On the other hand they should know better. This should be a portent of the future for those who are half-way awake, as to what the future will hold under open borders, NWO, and free trade.
The bedraggled immigrant who many are so sorry for here, will one day elect judges who will make these kind of decisions regarding their property and what the constitution really means.