Mexico and the World
Vol. 5, No 4 (Fall 2000)
http://www.profmex.org/mexicoandtheworld/volume5/4fall00/prefacio.html
Prefacio
This is a study focusing on the three legal land reform periods in Mexico. The first period of legal land reform in Mexico (1853-1909), began in 1853 with the purpose of determining to know which lands belonged to the nation, thus opening a major process of privatization of land. The attempt of Presidents Juárez and Lerdo to crush the power of the Church and create small properties, added to the demarcation of land boundaries, propitiated the consolidation of large private land properties.
The second period of legal land reform (1910-1991) consisted of government policies which divided large extensions of private land. The policy of land distribution as an obligation of the state not only encouraged the creation of “minifundia” and the fragmentation of land but allowed political control of the peasants. Presidential terms since 1910 --which were characterized by a greater distribution or redistribution of lands-- were accompanied by marked economic recession, unemployment and/or political instability.
The third period began in 1992 when the 1991 amendments to Article 27 of the Constitution were implemented. This third period has not resulted in a fast drop in land tenure on the social sector, as pessimistic critics of reform predicted, nor has it produced the massive investment of private capital announced by government sectors. “Ejidatarios” and communal land holders undoubtedly benefited from the mere acquisition of land titles, and certificates of rights to communal land and parcels, making them eligible for credit. Chapter one deals with the periodization of Mexican land tenure law and the importance of legal revolution in land tenure since 1992. Chapters 2 and 3 assess the colonial background and the first and second legal revolutions of land tenure and the “return” to the “ejido”. Chapter 4 refers to the privatization of “ejidos” and lands and the ongoing debate on land reform, as well as the enacting of the new land tenure law of 1991. Chapter 5 explains the implementation of the new agrarian law, its problems since 1992 and it illustrates a case study on Oaxaca.
RVB
UCLA
Noviembre de 1999 |
