By Raul O"Farril
Most Americans and Canadians who have visited Mexico have heard of the term Restricted Zone, the parts of Mexico where non-Mexicans can presetly only own real estate through a bank trust.
The Restricted Zone is any real estate that is within 30.5 miles of Mexico's coast, or 61 miles of Mexico's border with any other nation. this law is quite old, and is enshrined in Article 27 of the mexican Constitution. Anywhere outside the Restricted Zone (for example: Mexico City, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Alamos, etc.) anyone can buy property on a fee simple basis, and it is both legal and common for non-mexicans to own property in those areas through Fee Simple ownership mechanisms.
To an American or Canadian these distances--and even the existance of the law itself--may seem odd and arbitrary, but there is a rational basis that is rooted in Mexico's history. The Restricted Zone was created to help protect Mexico from invasion. At the time of the Mexican revolution and the drafting of the modern Mexican Constitution (1917) the effective range of the largest artillery was 25 kilometers, and the mutiples of two and four times that distance were deemed a prudent buffer against the possibilty that nations could acquire land and pre-position troops. While this may sound like a ridiculous scenario today, it is important to remember that Mexico has experienced several invasions, wars, and tremendous losses of territory in its history (for example; all of Central America including Guataemala, El Salvadore, Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Oregon, and parts of Idaho, Colorado and Utah! Plus a United States invasion in 1914 that occupied both Veracruz and Mexico City!). The Restricted Zone is really nothing more than a legacy of this history.
Now, with nearly a century of peaceful relations with its neighbors and the exictence of long range weapons, Mexico's restricted Zone obviously doesn't have any security value, but like many outdated laws worldwide, it remains on the books and in the patriotic hearts of the population despite the fact that virtually no one even remembers why it was enacted in the first place.
But change is in the wind. Sonoran federal Senator, Carlos Zatarian of the PRI party has submitted a Constitutional amendment to Mexico's Senate that would recind all of the existing bank trust requirements and essentially abolish The Restricted Zone and allow Fee Simple ownership everywhere in Mexico.
This remarkable move hascome about for one simple reason: there is a growing awareness within the highest levels of MExican government, which extends to our newly elected PAN party President, Harvard educated economist and free market advocate Felipe Calderon--that even the perception of "restriction" is a hinderence to the development of our majestic coasts.