Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Mexicans Pursue Illegal Dreams in US, But Legal American Dreams in Mexico Shattered !!!

The ANNOTICO Report

 

 "Gringos go home. This is Mexico." is what Americans, south of the Border are faced with. "Gringos" has long been an offensive disparaging term in Mexico for particularly Americans, and of course is in common usage in the USA. [See origin below].

 

While Mexico President, Vincente Fox  DEMANDS  the RIGHT of  his Citizens to ILLEGALLY "flood" over the US border, and that they be able to DEMAND FREE Health Services, Education, Low Cost Housing, Welfare Payments, etc. the Mexican Government  permits and participates in the "Economic Raping and Pillaging" of US Citizens LEGALLY crossing into Mexico, who are enhancing Mexico's Economy by buying and living in Homes in Mexico, when their Limited Resources will no longer allow Retirees to afford decent housing in the US. 

 

There is Corruption in Each Branch (Executive, Legislative, Judicial)  and on Every Level (Federal, State, Local) in Mexico. I have lived 250 miles North of the Border for 50 years, and each time I visit with great trepidation. The police are little more than extorting "thugs", that will throw you in jail on a whim. The Politicians and Bureaucrats are minions of the Rich and Powerful, and if they want to take anything of value, they  will, and you have NO Recourse!!!!!

 

Even the US Consulate (in Tijuana), that is Extremely Reluctant to Criticize any Host government states "There is a history of problems ( of US Citizens buying Homes in Mexico).

 

Their  suggestion: "We ask people to go in with their eyes open.", and others involved in the business, who state:"If done properly and carefully it can be a very attractive investment,"  is fruitless, because regardless of how much you research, or even if you hire an attorney, it does NO GOOD, because if the Powerful want something , they will take it. 

 

Mexico doesn't permit Non Mexicans to buy land along the Coastal Zone, so you have to purchase it through a "Trust" arrangement, which is fraught with dangers.

Additionally, Mexico's murky land record system exposes foreigners to complex title disputes in courts that may not give them a fair shake,and allow their homes to be seized, the most notorious being the "Punta Banda Seizure in 2000" . The so-called ejido land, or communal farmland that has in the past been seized by the Government or by the Powerful, with the assistance of the government, has further  complicated ownership. In such disputes, some Americans have even landed in jail. Many fear for their lives.The luckiest have been the many would-be buyers who have merely had brokers disappear with their deposit money.

 

 

DREAMS SHATTERED IN MEXICO

Some Americans who bought homes or leased land were helpless when developers and brokers moved in.

Ocean views can be fleeting.

 

Los Angeles Times

By Marla Dickerson
Times Staff Writer
May 10, 2006

LA CRUZ DE HUANACAXTLE, Mexico — Doug and Dru Davis sold their San Diego County home several years ago to buy a $200,000 house on the beach here.

The value of their new place not far from the resort of Puerto Vallarta increased fivefold — until some developers moved the beach.

The couple's serenity was shattered last fall when construction crews began dredging the bay in front of their property to reclaim land from the sea. A planned marina, hotel and high-rise condos now threaten to block their ocean view.

Instead of watching whales glide just a few hundred yards off their patio, the couple fear they'll soon be looking at garbage bins, a service road and beer trucks.

"This is sending a terrible message to investors," said Doug Davis, 61. "You think you're buying oceanfront property and then the [Mexican] government lets someone build in fr! ont of you."

Flush with equity from the steep run-up in U.S. real estate prices, American boomers are snapping up properties in Mexico, helped by a change in rules that has made it easier to purchase in coastal zones that were once off limits to foreigners.

But some buyers are finding out the hard way that consumer protection hasn't kept pace with soaring demand.

No agency on either side of the border keeps statistics on the number of Americans who have encountered problems. But interviews with homeowners, real estate experts and government officials reveal real estate deals gone sour and a host of potential pitfalls.

Some would-be buyers have had brokers disappear with their deposit money. Others have had their homes seized in land disputes. A few have even landed in jail.

U.S. officials warn that Mexico's murky land record system exposes foreigners to complex title disputes in courts that may not give them a fair shake.

"There is a h! istory of problems," said Liza Davis (no relation to Doug and Dru Davis), public affairs officer at the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana. "We ask people to go in with their eyes open."

The most high-profile dispute in recent years was the eviction of dozens of U.S. citizens from the Punta Banda peninsula south of Ensenada in Baja California in 2000.

Mostly retirees, the homeowners built their dwellings on so-called ejido land, communal farmland that has been the source of complicated title struggles nationwide. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that the group from which the Americans bought their land was not the rightful owner, forcing some of the Americans to abandon homes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars....

In La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, the Davises and other homeowners said they did meticulous research before purchasing. They just never imagined that someone would be allowed to drain their ocean like a bathtub and build on land reclaimed from the sea, ef! fectively elbowing them off the waterfront.

Doug Davis said he was stunned by the lack of transparency when he and other homeowners, mostly Americans, began asking questions about the $50-million project, whose Mexican developers are four well-known local businessmen.

The 17 affected property owners had to hire attorneys to obtain basic information about building and environmental permits.

The homeowners said the original plans called for a much smaller marina development and that officials had yet to show them permits authorizing the expansion in front of their homes.

Armando Zepeda Carrillo, an official with Mexico's Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, said the expanded project obtained all the necessary permissions. The agency has not responded to requests by The Times to view those documents.

The local prosecutor denied the homeowners' request to halt the project until the developers and government could demonstrate that ! all approvals were in place.

Heavy-equipment operators continue to dig and dredge just yards from the homeowners' seawalls.

Dru Davis said she was taking antidepressants to cope with the stress. The couple fears that their property, which they calculate was worth more than $1 million, could end up losing half that value.

About 1,400 miles north in Baja California, Bob Torres says the $63,000 he lost on a modified trailer home was nothing compared with being deprived of his liberty.

In March, the Van Nuys cinematographer and his wife were arrested, shackled and held in a Tijuana prison because of a legal dispute with the owner of a Rosarito trailer park who was trying to evict them from their prized oceanfront lot.

Released on bail after three sleepless nights, they fled to the United States with no plans to return to their favorite getaway.

"Rosarito has a bitter taste for me now," Torres said. "I would not invest in Mexico again."
!
Torres, 60, said the decision was particularly painful because he and his wife had vacationed in Rosarito since they were children. Many of those years were spent in a seaside trailer park called La Barca, where the couple in 2002 secured a $300-a-month long-term lease on a lot with a spectacular ocean view.

Starting with a 35-foot travel trailer, they added on little by little, eventually creating a two-story, four-bedroom structure with a deck. Weekends and vacations were spent barbecuing with other longtime residents, mostly Americans, who formed a little expatriate family south of the border.

Torres said things changed dramatically last year when Fidel Valdespino, son of the park's longtime owner, took charge of a major portion of La Barca after his father's death the year before.

Torres said he arrived one weekend in September to find the water pipes to his dwelling had been severed.

Other former tenants, speaking on condition of anonymity,! said that about the same time, their water and electricity were cut, access to the public beach was blocked with debris and the park was swept by a rash of burglaries. An abandoned trailer sprouted graffiti in English that read: "Gringos go home. This is Mexico."

The word around La Barca was that Valdespino was trying to pressure the tenants to give up their bargain-priced, long-term leases to make way for a more profitable condominium development. Many fled as conditions deteriorated.

Among the holdouts were the Torreses. Arriving at La Barca on March 18 for what they thought would be a relaxing weekend, they were arrested after Valdespino claimed that they had damaged the water pipes at the trailer park. A local judge found them guilty without hearing their testimony, according to their attorney, Jose Heing Chig Bazua.

The frightened pair spent three days and nights in the notorious La Mesa penitentiary in Tijuana. They were released after signing an ag! reement with Valdespino to remove their dwelling from La Barca within 30 days.

Valdespino denied making the allegations against the couple, saying the agreement for them to leave was a mutual one.

Informed that the structure mysteriously caught fire over the Easter weekend, the Torreses had a contractor haul it away for scrap.

"I am not going to fight it," Torres said. "I fear for our lives."

 

 

[The word "Gringos" existed in Spanish before this particular sense came into being. In fact, gringo  may be an alteration of the word griego, the Spanish development of Latin Graecus, "Greek." Griego  first meant "Greek, Grecian," as an adjective and "Greek, Greek language," as a noun. The saying "It's Greek to me" exists in Spanish, as it does in English, and helps us understand why griego  came to mean "unintelligible language" and perhaps, by further extension of this idea, "stranger, that is, one who speaks a foreign language." The altered form gringo  lost touch with Greek but has the senses "unintelligible language," "foreigner, especially an English person," and in Latin America, "North American or Britisher." Its first recorded English use (1849) is in John Woodhouse Audubon's Western Journal: "We were hooted and shouted at as we passed through, and calle! d 'Gringoes.'"]

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