Mexico, for the first time in nearly a century, is considering allowing foreigners own land along the country’s coastline, as well as near international borders. Currently, residents of the country are the only individuals allowed to hold titles to land in what is known as the restricted zone. Mexico’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto, now wants to relax these ownership laws in order to create new investments, with the help of a lawyer from mexico in the country.
However, there are other individuals who are starting to relive old fears of foreign invasions, which is what led to the law being put into place years ago.
Those who are in favor of the change say that Mexico is a real paradise. They say that the people are always so friendly, the climate, beauty, and coastal environment are absolutely perfect and truly can’t be put into words. The only problem is that they don’t outright own the titles to their homes in Mexico.
Mexican law currently forbids foreigners from owning land that’s located within 31 miles of the country’s coastline, as well as 62 miles from any international border. This means that these individuals essentially need to enter into special partnerships with banks in Mexico, which holds these titles in renewable 50-year trusts. Because of these prohibitions, many of these people are moving back to the United States, which is causing a great deal of discomfort.
Needless to say, however, that there is a great deal of relief that the ban may soon be lifted. The lower house of Mexico’s Congress easily passed the ban; however, it’s still facing some opposition within the Senate. There are some lawmakers who argue that these lands should remain in the hands of Mexican residents only.
One Congressman, Marco Rosendo Medina, is said to be strongly opposed to lifting the ban. His argument, which is considered to be overly nationalistic by many, is that Mexico lost Texas and much of its territory to the United States when the country allowed foreigners to initially begin settling at the borders. Despite this kind of arguing, Medina’s Party of the Democratic Revolution has been successful in the past at stalling this particular legislation and causing all sorts of problems for Mexico’s president, who has simply been trying to pass reforms to improve his country’s economy, which has been described as sluggish.
Voting on this law isn’t expected by the end of this year’s current legislative session, which means that approximately tens of thousands of Americans will now have to wait even longer to legally own their own homes in Mexico.