File No. 812.5034/24
Mr. Parker,
representing American interests, to the Secretary
of State
No. 530
Mexico City,
September 27, 1916.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of the Department’s telegraphic instruction No. 424 of September
18, 7 p.m., directing me to forward translations and official copies of
certain decrees relative to orders to notaries in regard to
incorporation, especially oil lands, and in regard to the renunciation
of national rights in application for incorporation, and in compliance
therewith to transmit triplicate copies of the official bulletins, El
Diario Oficial, of June 17, August 25, and September 5, 1916, containing
the decrees in question, together with the translations of same.
I have [etc.]
[Page 774]
[Inclosure 1—Translation]
circular no. 36
Circular No. 19, transmitted by this Ministry, under date of February
17, 1916, to public notaries and register judges of the Federal
District and Federal Territories, prohibits the authorization of
contracts of purchase and sale of real estate wherein the seller is
Mexican and the purchaser a foreigner.
In view of the fact that, for the purpose, of that disposition the
declaration made before a notary public in the form of a clause in
the contract that the foreigner hold himself as Mexican in all and
for all the rights and obligations he assumes in his condition of
proprietor of real estate in the Republic of Mexico, for the special
case in question, is sufficient according to the case and the
judgment of the Ministry of Justice, the First Chief of the
Constitutionalist Army, in charge of the Executive Power of the
Republic has seen fit to dispose:
- 1.
- In all matters relative to the transfer of real estate in
which the seller is Mexican and the purchaser foreigner, the
Ministry of Justice may give its conformity according to the
case and always provided that the application contains the
statement that the purchaser waives all his rights of
nationality and holds himself as Mexican in all and for all
the rights and obligations he assumes in his condition of
tenant of real estate in the Republic.
- 2.
- A similar application to that set forth above should be
sent to the Ministry of Justice, which shall have the
faculty to decide the case when it relates to the
acquisition of real estate by a foreigner and the seller
also being a foreigner.
- 3.
- With relation to the formation of corporations for the
purpose of exploitation or exploration of oil lands and
similar cases, application for a permit shall be applied for
before the Ministry of Justice for the corresponding
registration, without in any way altering the dispositions
emanating from the Department of Fomento, Colonization and
Industry, in order that through it the office of the First
Chief may give the resolution pertaining thereto.
I bring the foregoing for your
knowledge and effects.—Constitution and
Reforms.—Mexico, June 17,
1916.—The Secretary of State and of the Office of
Justice.
Roque Estrada
[Inclosure 2—Translation]
circular no. 38
The First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army, in charge of the
Executive Power of the Republic, has provided that paragraph third
of the circular No. 35 of this Department, dated June 17th last, be
increased in the sense that, in order to be admitted and passed
upon, the petitions for the formation and registration of
corporations in general and those whose object is the exploration
and exploitation of oil lands in particular shall contain the
following requisites: that in a clause of the charter of the
company, it be stated that the foreign stockholders renounce their
nationality for all the effects of the company; and that the
certificates of stock mentioned in article 178 of the Commercial
Code, contain an expression to the effect that whoever acquires the
same necessarily implies the waiver of nationality of the foreign
purchaser, as owner of the said certificate.
The foregoing is made known to you for its compliance.
constitution and reforms
R. Estrada,
The Secretary of State and of the Office of
Justice
[Inclosure 3—Translation]
[Untitled]
No. 81. The First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army in charge of
the Executive Power, considering that as a consequence of our
fundamental laws whereby foreigners must enjoy in Mexico the same
privileges as the Mexicans, it is natural and legitimate that they
should have the same obligations, with a view that the liberality of
our democratic institutions should not be understood nor carried to
the extreme that foreigners, as owners of property in
[Page 775]
Mexico, be in better
juridical conditions than Mexicans, as it has unfortunately happened
and which would occur if they, besides the enjoyment of the rights,
actions and resources offered by the Mexican laws in regard to
property and its juridical relations, could formulate claims before
their respective Governments; the same First Magistrate of the
Republic, in view of the extraordinary faculties in him vested, has
seen fit to direct the establishment of the following dispositions,
obligatory in all the Republic.
1. Foreigners pretending to acquire real estate or national lands,
mining claims, waters of federal jurisdiction, or permit for the
exploration or exploitation of the natural riches, as forestal
products, oil, fisheries, etc., in the Republic of Mexico, shall
present beforehand in writing, before the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, a formal express declaration that in their capacity as
proprietors or concessionaries and for all the effects and relations
of the property which they desire to acquire, they consider
themselves Mexicans, waiving their rights as foreigners and
privileges of appeal for protection or claim to their respective
Governments.
Foreign corporations cannot acquire rights on any of the properties
specified in this circular, unless they nationalize and submit to
the Mexican laws making the aforementioned declaration.
2. It is an indispensable requirement for the Ministry of Fomento,
Colonization and Industry in order to admit any denouncement or
application made by a foreigner or any of the matters referred to in
the previous article, even for a simple permit for exploration, that
he should present to it with the first communication a certificate
issued by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, bearing the declaration
mentioned in the previous disposition. Without this requirement the
application must be refused emphatically and all proceedings made
before the presentation of this certificate will be null and void.
There shall appear in all property titles as well as in the permits
on the properties aforementioned, which should be granted by the
Ministry of Fomento to foreigners, as well as in the contracts or
deeds authorized by public notaries, the full text of the
certificate prescribed in the first disposition, besides the
reproduction of the text thereof as a special clause. Failure to
insert the certificate or that clause will cause the annulment of
the title, permit, contract or respective deed.
3. In all matters already moved by foreigners which may be before the
Ministry of Fomento or its administrative agencies with relation to
any of the properties referred to in this disposition, the
proceedings will be suspended and shall not be renewed until the
presentation by the interested parties of the certificate in
question. If within the period of four months beginning from the
date of these dispositions the certificate is not presented by the
interested parties they shall be regarded as desisting from their
purpose and their applications will be filed, the interested parties
not having a right of appeal against this resolution.
The present dispositions are obligatory in all the Republic of Mexico
and shall be published in El Diario Oficial for its knowledge and
due compliance and shall be in force on the day of its issuance.
constitution and reforms
Pastor Rouaix,
The Subsecretary in charge of the office of the
Ministry of Fomento, Colonization and Industry
