Baja California faces a challenge regarding land ownership, as 95% of its territory is of ejidal origin. Despite the legal changes that allowed the transition from communal property to full ownership, approximately 50% of the region’s ejidos remain invaded, especially in the Eastern Zone of the city.
Teodoro Reyes, general secretary of the Pro-Municipalization Movement of the Eastern Zone, explained in an interview that the extent of invaded land in that part of the city varies between 50% and 80%.
The confusion of the residents can be seen, because many of them have the documentation that they obtained to acquire the property in good faith. However, a ruling issued by the Superior Agrarian Court in 1996 invalidated these documents.
“Although the land is legal, they live irregularly, because they invaded the ejidos. Then people, for example, from Maclovio Rojas, say: ‘ 20 years, 30 years, we own the land, but they don’t know the Agrarian Law, article 74 of the agrarian law. says that an ejido is inviolable, immovable and inalienable,” he said.
He explained that the ruling 11/93 annulled the validity of the existing documentation and gave the ownership of the lands to General Francisco Villa Ejido, which created confusion for those who bought the documents in good faith before the decision .
“That title was rendered invalid by the judgment of the superior agrarian court. Many times they ask me: ‘How do we do this? we have paid’. There are two ways, one is to report the person who bought you, and the other, now buy, because now you have legal certainty, which will leave a benefit to your family,” he explained.
Reyes also mentioned that neighborhoods such as Terrazas del Valle, Maclovio Rojas, Aarón Joaquín, Piso de Piedra and La Morita are facing this situation. To obtain a property title, residents must initiate procedures at the Ejidal Commissariat and pay the value of the land to the ejido.
