No. 354.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Mexico, August 15, 1878. (Received September 2.)
Sir: In answer to your dispatch No. 486, of the 17th ultimo, in relation to the existence of a Mexican law prohibiting American citizens from acquiring public lands in States of Mexico bordering on the United States, I have to state that such a law does exist. The law or decree was issued by President Juarez, on the 20th of July, 1863, and not on the 20th of July, 1869, as stated in your dispatch. The second article is as follows:
2. “Every inhabitant of the republic has the right to denounce, or locate (denunciar) up to two thousand five hundred hectares, and no more, of public land (terreno baldio), with the exception of the citizens by birth (naturales) of the nations bordering on the republic, and of those naturalized in them, who by no title can acquire public lands in the States which border upon them” (the nations).
In addition to this prohibition, the decree of February 1, 1856, regulating the ownership of real estate by foreigners, contains the following provision:
“Article 2. No foreigners shall be able, without previous permission of the supreme government, to acquire real estate in the frontier States or Territories within twenty leagues of the line of the frontier.”
In the other parts of the country, except rural property within five leagues of the coast, foreigners are permitted to acquire and hold real estate.
I have heretofore referred to these restrictions in my dispatches numbered 555 and paragraph 14 of inclosure, 597 and in closures 4 and 6, and 625. In my negotiations with Mr. Vallarta last year I proposed a treaty stipulation abolishing the invidious distinction as to the ownership of real estate in the frontier States.
I am, &c.,