Government Admits Mexico's Indigenous Often Cheated Out of Their Lands Angelica Enciso L. and Jose Antonio Roman - La Jornada
go to original August 22, 2013

There have been abuses in the purchase of ejidos, indigenous communal lands, for the development of mining, industry and housing. These purchases have not benefited the owners of the ejidos, informed the head of the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu), Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín. Some of the communities have complained that the agrarian delegates, who are Sedatu employees, are favoring the sale of these lands, when they ought to be defending them. Instead, “they have become the main advocates for the buyers”, said the official.

He added that the Sedatu employees often make the initial contact with the buyers of these lands and “are those who offer the means to remove the land owners who object from their ejidos; this is the worst part. These people have owned the ejidos all of their lives, but when it is decided to sell their land, they are removed from the community assembly and replaced with others who have never been ejido owners. These weaknesses in the law have to be corrected.”

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