A Line in the Sand Over Opening Mexico's Beaches to Foreign Ownership Richard Fausset - The Los Angeles Times
go to original October 7, 2013

Artemio Rosas, a surf shop owner and real estate broker in Arroyo Seco, Mexico, thinks letting foreigners buy coastal land would help his business and create good jobs. Many other people oppose the idea. (Richard Fausset/Los Angeles Times)

In April, the lower house of Mexico's Congress overwhelmingly approved a proposal to lift the ban on ownership of residential property in the area known as the restricted zone, which extends 31 miles inland from the coast and 62 miles inland from the border. (A ban on ownership of commercial property would remain intact.) The proposal now is subject to the approval of the upper chamber, where the chances appear good, and then of a majority of state legislatures.

Complications would still remain for foreigners who want to live on coastal land held by ejidos, the agrarian communes that are legacies of the Mexican Revolution. Such land cannot be sold to foreigners, although over the years, many non-Mexicans have entered into dicey arrangements that provide them access.

Proponents of the constitutional change are hoping it will spur new foreign investment, which has been limited of late by concerns about drug cartel violence and the 2008 financial crash in the United States.

Opponents - 88,000 of whom have signed an online petition - insist that Mexico's beaches should remain solely in the hands of Mexicans.

Read the rest at The Los Angeles Times

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