What is Ejido land and can it be purchased safely?
The Ejido system was initiated in Mexico in 1934 by President Lazaro Cardenas. Originally intended to provide land to the landless masses, it effectively deprived the masses of the benefits of property ownership. An Ejido is a constitutional and legal concept which allows groups of people to organize and jointly hold the rights to land granted by the federal government under procedures established in “Agrarian Law”. Nearly all of the land in Baja was or is under the Ejido system. It was intended that the land would be “owned” and used jointly and could never be sold. Finally recognizing the detrimental results of the system, the government, in 1993, enacted changes to the Mexican Constitution which created a process whereby Ejido land could be divided amongst the Ejiditarios, (members of the Ejido), and titles of ownership created for their parcels. This system made it possible to sell land and actually remove it from the Ejido. However, in order to benefit from this system, called Pro
