The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1885-02-20
VALUABLE INFORMATION
Upon the Laws OF Foreigners
Owning Property in Mexico.

Dear Sir: You will please do me the
favor to examine the law bearing upon
the titles to purchasers OF property
within the limits Of 60 miles Of the Rio
Grande, and also II non-residents OF
Mexico can purchase Mexican proper
ties without permit.
Yours very truly.
j. W. BRADLEY.
The following reply has been received
and is published for information OF the
public and the prospective purchaser OF
MEXICAN properties:
Colonel J. W. Bradley, San Antonio. Tex.
MONTEREY. Mex, January %, 1885,
Dear Sir; You will perhaps appreciate
my effort to give you the satisfaction OF
full Information upon the points OF IN
quiry In your letter, when l tell you
that | have spent the day In the re-
search, and that my translation OF the
law terms ana my contructions Of them,
are the result Of lengthy consultations
with one of the oldest and best infoi med
lawyers Of this city, Don Pancho Valdes
Gomez, and with the Oldest surveyor
IN the State, Don Pancho Leonidas
Mier. | write with the original Mexi-
can statutes before me, translating as
literally as correctness will allow, from
the Law Of the Republic OF Mexico, Of
March II, 1912:
PERMISSION TO FOREIGNERS TO ACQUIRE
REAL ESTATE IN THE REPUBLIC.
Article |. Foreigners located and resi-
dent In the. Republic may acquire and
possess city (urban) and rural proper
ties by purchase, adjudication, denun-
citation (of the GOVERNMENT or by any
other title established by the laws.
y nj
erty In mines, of gold, silver, copper,
quicksilver, iron and coal, Of which they
were the discoverers, with the provi-
sions Of the system OF tat department.
Art. 3. No individual foreigners shall
be able to acquire more than two i'm
proved real estate properties In The
same State without license OF the SUI
preme Government, and only under the
boundaries which they (the States) now
have In independence one OF the other.
[fhe word in SECOND line Of Article is
iincas; see your lexicon; means prop
erly, II rent producing property
Art. 4. In the acquisition OF improved
urban real estate In the cities, towns
and villages, as also Of the lands join
ing them, on which they wish to con-
struct other improvements, the renters
shall have the preference, other circun-
stances and conditions being equal.
Art. .. The foreigners who In virtue
OF this law acquire property remain alb
solutely subject in regard to 1t, to the
laws In force or which rule in the Re-
public over the transfer (conyeyance),
use, preservation and payment OF taxes
without being able to set up any right
OF being foreigners, In regard to those
points.
Art. 6. In consequence all questions
nf this p.tura xyhich NAV oriQa ahall ha
decided by the ordinary and common
methods OF the national laws, with the
exclusion of all other Intervention what
ever that may be.
Art. 7. Foreigners who acquire prop
critics, urban. rural or in mines. and the
foreigners who work In them as servants,
operatives or journeymen, are not
obliged TO lend the service of arms (mil-
itary) unless 1t be that of police; but are
obliged to satisfy the taxation which
may have the militia for its object.
Art. 8. II the property holding for
eigner shall absent himself with his fam
lily from the Republic for more than two
years, without obtaining permission OF
by inheritance or any other title, to the
power of person who is not resident
of the Republic. he Tor she) will be
obliged to sell 1t within two years,
counted from the day on which was ac-
complished the absence or the transfer
Of ownership. III 1t shall not have been
so done, a sale under the law, with all
legal formalities, shall be proceeded
with, and of the proceeds one-tenth
shall go to the benefit OF the denouncer
| (informer), and the other nine-tenths
shall remain In secure deposit su ject to
| the disposition of the owner. The sale
shall take place always when 1t shall be
proven that the owner of improved real
estate resides outside of the Republic
and that he who Is called the owner Ii
only in place OF the absent one.
| Art. o. These dispositions dosnot EN-
brace the States bordering on the from
tier with other nations, In respect tC
which there shall be provided especial
laws Of colonization, without which
property shall never be acquired III
Them 1.-THE border States) by foreigners
without an express permission of the
supreme Government. Of the Republic
Art. 10. In the States which are moi
border or frontier, and which have Sc,
coasts, foreigners can acquire rural prop
erty only at a distance of five leagueI
from them 1.-THE sea cOasts).
Art. IL. In order that foreigners wht
may have acquired property In the Re
|
shall suffice that they shall make IL evi
dent before the political authority o
their place of residence that they 'bav,
resided two years in the Republic, an,
that they have conducted themselve
properly. The record properly filled III
after this manner shall be forwarded Il
the proper minister (secretary), In orde
that he may deliver the letters of citi
zenship.
Art. II. Foreigners shall not be abb
to acquire public lands In any of tn
States Of the Republic without contract
ing for them with the Government
which holds this right In representation
OF the dominion of the Mexican nation
The foregoing law has, between tn
title and article !, long prologue by tn
President, Antonio Lopez de SAINT
Anna, who gives number OF his rel
sons for establishing and publishing
the people this law for foreigners.
On January 80, 1854, another law wa
promulgated to the Republic by Antoni
Lopez de Santa Anna, well deserving I
the country, Grand Master Of the M
tional and distinguished order of Guat
alupe, Grand Cross Knight OF the Roy,
and distinguished Spanish Order I
Charles Ill, and President Of the Mex
can Republic, under the title Of "UpO
Foreigners, and the Nationality OF til
Residents OF the Republic"
: Arts. All the parts Of the decree
March II, 1912, (the same heretofol
quoted) respecting the acquisition
real estate by foreigners, are declared
be In force, except in those cases
which any Of them may have been mod
, fled by treaties.