Catemaco invasions

One of the favorite pastimes of have-nots in beautiful uptown Catemaco and the rest of Mexico is a game of "invasion de predio". Loosely translated as "invasion of property" the game is to occupy a parcel of land that appears unoccupied or is known to be in the dire straits of Mexican title laws, usually because of inadequate intestate property rules or infrequently because of land hunger for federal or private lands by impoverished native peoples..

This game is usually supported by "haves" with political power who play this game for political reasons, namely future vote getting and a share of the profits.

These invasions occur in such touristic places like Cancun and Baja California but are much more popular in unmentioned corners of the other 30 states of Mexico.

A common version of the game starts when a few or few hundred persons decide to take posession of a piece of property by entering it, setting up a shack, fencing it and frequently posting armed guards (usually machete bearers). Usually it requires the knowledge of someone well versed in the local politics and deed registrations to pick properties to be invaded. And frequently that involves local government officials intent on vote getting and a share of the profits.

If there is no legal contest to the invasion, usually within a half dozen or more years, squatters receive titles to these properties.

If there actually is an owner, often sparks begin to fly to the point where land squabbles produced some of the highest kill rates in Mexico before the advent of the drug war madness.

A legal contestation will drag through courts 2 , 3 or more years. Many property owners therefore avail themselves of extralegal means such as paid off federal or state police agents to dislodge the invaders. That's where often the bloodshed comes in.

I have watched two of these confrontations in Catemaco and am now personally involved in one. And I do not understand the legalities which allow this perversion of land ownership from an owner's viewpoint, except under the Mexican concept of "guilty until proved innocent". Simply producing a current deed and getting the local sheriff to evict the squatters does not work here.
The legal machinery goes into motion and unless very well oiled with payoffs will cause nightmares to property owners.

So next time you see giants walls or fences around most every piddling piece of unimproved terrain in Mexico, maybe these remarks will provide you with a reason for their construction.

Catemaco Matresses

To fatten the Mexican treasury, lawmakers approved 2 new laws to enhance Mexico’s economic development.

ONE - they raised the gasoline tax - because they are bleeding the monopoly PEMEX oil company to death, and TWO - the Mexican equivalent of the IRS will collect 2% on any deposits totaling more than 25,000 pesos per month, probably because one third of the Mexican economy neither files nor pays taxes.

Consequently beautiful downtown Catemaco will see a surge of the traditional financial institution “Under the Mattress, S.A.”, and local merchants are hustling to place their orders.

Mexico Cucurrucucuuuuu..

The new 20 peso bill dropped the proud Mexican eagle for a chicken or a dove, depending on your gastronomic view point.

Next, the bureaucrats of Mexico will probably want to change the name of the country from “United Mexican States” (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) to “Mexico”, to stop this endless confusion of which Estados Unidos Mexicans would rather live in.

Rich Mexico

Mexico has 7 of them, including the third richest person in the world. The rest are just the usual bunch of oligarchs monopolizing most of the business in Mexico.

#003 Carlos Slim (MEX) 49,000 billion

#158 Alberto Bailleres (MEX) 5,000

#172 Ricardo Salinas Pliego (MEX) 4,600

#194 Jerónimo Arango (MEX) 4,300

#458 Emilio Azcárraga Jean (MEX) 2,100

#557 Isaac Saba Raffoul (MEX) 1,800

#583 Lorenzo Zambrano (MEX) 1,700

#618 Alfredo Harp (MEX) 1,600

#98,075,440 Alberto Ortega 0

From Huffington post:

Alberto,43, Mexico City, Mexico. Net worth: a pair of pet crickets.

Alberto comes from Michoacan where he raised corn on the family milpa, as his ancestors had for centuries. Post-NAFTA, hardscrabble Al couldn't compete with US-Congress-subsidized corn flooding Mexico, courtesy of Archer Daniels Midland. (Best known ADM partner Donald Tyson tragically fell OFF the current Forbes 400 Richest this year: couldn't make that $1 billion mark boo-hoo-hoo!).

Alberto moved to Mexico City where he lives in a drain with wife Concepcion; together they make a peso a week picking over waste at the local Wal-Mart de Mexico, thus trimming disposal costs for the Walton family (total net worth $78 billion, #6-#11 Forbes 400) and fellow Mexican Jeronimo Arango (net worth $4.3 billion, world's #194 richest man).

When Al has a nickel to his name he bets on the ponies, boosting off-track mogul Emilio Azcarraga Jean's bottom line (Net worth $2.1 billion, world's #458 richest man) and dreams of owning a share in a cellphone so he can keep in touch with Concepcion when she has to turn a trick, putting more dough in the pocket of Mexican Tel-com Bandito Carlos Slim Helu (at $49 billion net worth, world's #3 richest man - and that's in dirt-poor Mexico!)

Catemaco chicken

Here in beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz, the chickens apparently came before the eggs, instead of the other way around. Juicy rotissery grilled chicken, plus a handful of tortillas, rice and sauce command 30 pesos. Granted, these chickens are closely related to pigeons in size, but what the heck, this is a cheap feast for two.

Considering that the price of tortillas (made from corn) rose explosively, eggs (made from chickens that eat corn) jumped up 25%, and the price of tomatoes (used in the salsa) would make any farmer blush, the economic intelligentsia seems to be on a "let them eat cake" binge to placate the restive and angry local populace which is already marching around town with large protest signs demanding subsidies.

I don't understand what all the fuss is about. After all, everyone just got a 3.9% raise, (about 2 cents per day)! And many of Mexico's knowledgable economists are now proclaiming that the recent sharp rise in prices will not affect inflation figures.

That is because they don't go grocery shopping, take buses, go to museums, drive on toll roads, buy gas, or smoke. So, these economists are correct.

And they probably only eat juicy rotissery grilled chicken plus a handful of tortillas, rice and sauce for 30 pesos.

Catemaco spending spree

The work forces in beautiful downtown Catemaco are raucously celebrating the increase in the Mexican minimum wage in this area of 1.6 US cents to 47.6 pesos per day.

Actually, the daily minimum wage is calculated on a monthly basis, so the actual minimum wage will be 334 pesos for a 5 1/2 day work week, 61 pesos per work day.
At current exchange rates that is US $ 5.62 per day. So of course everyone is thankful that they have to work only 1/2 of a day to buy the equivalent of a gallon of milk, or 1/5 of a day to buy a 5 gallon water jug, or another 1/5 to buy a kilo of tomatoes. The current estimated weekly cost to feed a family of four in Mexico is 289 pesos.

Believe it or not, the minimum wage is intended to be the wage that would be sufficient to support a worker and his or her family for a day. Fortunately, at least by Mexican government statistics, there are only about 4% of employees that earn the minimum. It does not include the 35 million workers who are “disappeared” into the not counted economy - taco stands, shoe polishers, mini stores, peddlers, etc.

But, an increase is much more significant than the measly 1.6 cents that were granted for 2007. Much of Mexico is defined in terms of multiples of the minimum wage. So now the minimum income required to obtain an FM 3 visa went up also. It currently stands at 250 times the minimum wage in Mexico City. Traffic tickets are also defined in terms of minimum wages so the cost for red light running also rose (40 times the minimum wage). Other related items will also increase such as productivity bonuses, income tax brackets, service eligibilities, etc. Most other labor categories, (and Mexico pigeonholes most everyone), are also expressed in multiples of the minimum. So the other 96% of counted employees in Mexico also get pay raises.

But what is really revolting is the multiple of hundreds of minimum wages that are paid to politicians and high end bureaucrats. As an example, the Mexican Department of Transportation in 2005 paid each executive officer an average of 175,332 pesos monthly or 6,130 pesos (US $565) per day which is 100 times the minimum wage. That includes taxes, but does not include year end bonuses, 20 days vacations, and dozens of other benefits.

Many of us lament the poverty of Mexico. We are probably just envious of the many Mexican who are so rich!

New 45 Peso Bill

Beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz just became a lot clearer to see, financially. A new plastic 50 peso bill has arrived, similar to the now common 20 peso bill.

Like the 20 peso bill, It has a little plastic window, so you can see what you are spending your money on. At the rate things are going in Mexico, they should have made this window a magnifier. (Prices of milk, gas, tortillas, cigarettes, etc. just went up.) Nevertheless, after the introduction of plastic 20 peso bills, supposedly lasting several life times longer than the old crinkly bills, I presume most Mexican money will soon be plastic.

Unfortunately that darn 50 peso bill still maintains more or less the same colors as the 500 peso bill and is easy to spend by mistake. But more than likely you never receive the correct change, in case you are stupid enough to confuse the two.
This is not boring “In God we trust” money, José María Morelos y Pavón, whose portrait graces the bill is quoted “May slavery be banished forever together with the distinction between castes, all remaining equal, so Americans may only be distinguished by vice or virtue”.

As anyone spending money in Mexico knows, any bill with any defect is rejected by most shopkeepers, although the official rules are not as strict:

If you have any of the following bills, they are supposed to be retired by a bank:

Bills that got wet or are bleached.

Stapled bills.

Supposedly the following bills are supposed to stay in circulation:

Bills with spots of fat, blood, paint, etc unless they hide some imprint on the bill.

Bills glued back together with transparent tape.

Bills marked with messages such as “Pedro loves Maria”, but nothing political.

Bills marked with bank stamps.

Throw these bills into the garbage:

Bills fixed with tape that is not transparent.

Bills marked with political messages such as “I love Peje”

Catemaco Stocks

There is no stockbroker within 100 miles of Catemaco, Veracruz. Nevertheless the vagaries of stock manipulations also effect this isolated community.Primarily me!I used to day trade in stocks and thought I could continue to do so while moving to beautiful downtown Catemaco.

Bad Idea! - at least when I first came here - because both satellite and land based intenet connections were not suitable to by the minute transactions. Instead I learned how to differentiate tree ferns and other vegetable varieties. Connections are a lot better now but I have become addicted to the other green stuff.

The Mexican Bolsa (stock market) recently hit an unprecedented high, which was predictable but is not followable.
The “MARKET” loves governments incapable to make changes affecting business as usual. And that is what the election of Calderon means to the market.

This current 6 year Mexican government is projected to be another Fox presidency without a constituency or parliamentary votes to make any major changes. Mexico’s oligarchs are unitedely stroking their undertaxed wallets, and stock players are betting on appreciations.

Catemaco Luck

Catemaco has many billiard tables, but no poker tables. No horse, dog, auto or turtle races. The only unofffical races are the lancha operators racing to see who gets the tourists first to monkey island. There are no “numbers runners”, no slot machines in the grocery stores, no clandestine bookies taking football wagers, no native Indians buying fancy cars off their reservation casinos, and no little old ladies spending their grocery monies on bingo.

Gambling is outlawed in Mexico.
Except to the alleged journalist killer Jorge Hank Rhon, currently Tijuana mayor, and his chain of off track horse betting, sports wagering and now bingo parlors “Caliente”. Despite initiatives to legalize slots and casino-class gambling in Mexico, casinos are still forbidden by law, with the usual loopholes.

Caliente controls 80% of the gambling market in Mexico, but recently began being hounded by another small company and the almighty televison chain Televisa which miraculously obtained permits to open a competitive chain of betting parlors. Meanwhile, Caliente is well represented in Veracruz with casinos in most major cities, including Xalapa, Veracruz City and Coatzacoalcos.

Advocates of fulltime casinos contend the gaming palaces will aid tourism in US-Mexico border cities and Mexican coastal resorts. That’s probably why someone in the Veracruz government permitted a US promotor to pay out more than a million dollars to buy a dilapidated ferry from the Virgin Islands to convert into an off shore casino in Mexico.

Unfortunately the promotor hired a captain unfamiliar with Veracruz waters, and soon after the ship’s arrival, it managed to ground itself upon one of the many beautiful fragile reefs protecting the Veracruz shore.
As of today it stills sits there. Maybe Hank Rhon hired a dive team to cement the ship onto the reef.

Meanwhile the poor, who lack the fancy clothes of the gamblers at Caliente, are limited to buy national Mexican lottery tickets. Biggest jackpot is 30 million pesos.
Big deal!! - the government take is 150 million. And the ticket costs 30 pesos, about 2/3 of the minimum wage in Catemaco. Most of the usual Mexican lotteries pay out much less, and cost upwards of 400 pesos to get a chance at the top win.

Catemaco banking

There is one inept office of Bancomer in Catemaco, and 3 other banks have ATM machines, one of which, Banorte, has a permanent cash shortage.

For any serious bank action you get to visit San Andres Tuxtla. There you learn that to do any serious banking, maybe Veracruz can help you, or maybe Puebla, but more than likely Mexico City.

That behemoth of neoliberalism, Walmart, known in Mexican financial circles as Walmex, just received approval to start banking in Mexico.

Personally, in my book, Walmart has not added anything special to Mexican retailing, except for putting spikes up the butts of Mexican national chains, and fooling their shoppers with their "lowest prices" campaign. Perhaps they will do the same to local banking, because all of the Mexican banks need a very LARGE spike .

Curiously, there is only one major bank remaining in Mexican hands. All others are multinational conglomerates, whose overseas or US customers would probably start a revolution over the local fees and inept handling of accounts.

So sorry to say, Muy Bienvenido "Banco Wal-Mart de Mexico Adelante".

What a name!

Catemaco Corruption

Mexico possibly has one of the best governments anyone could buy. And cheap, too.

In the 1840`s, the then Mexican president tried to sell what is now most of the southern US. ( Mexicans love to forget that fact). In the 1960's another Mexican president bought Acapulco, or at least the part worthwhile having. A later one, turned out to be one of the richest men in the world.

That's the big stuff.

The little stuff is that many municipal employees or their mothers buying two cars and a nice house within a year of their getting a municipal job, on a usually considerably less than 25,000 pesos a month salary. Of course, everyone knows that they skipped their lunches.

Corruption is so ingrained in small town politics in this part of Mexico that it is usually shrugged off by locals as "asi es." (that's the way it is)

Both Mexico and the state of Veracruz are working hard to establish a system of government transparency. Equally, there are just as many local computer programmers working hard to circumvent the system.

The proverbial "asi es" conditions affect monetary shortages in every level of government, from so called paracaidistas, (parachutists who only drop in for kicked back paychecks), to the traditional under the table 10% rebate for any municipal construction work.

Officially (there is no officially, just a transparency.org estimate) Mexico loses 10% of its possible government expenditures to bribery. On a local level I would venture a guess of a lot closer to 20%.

Considering this theft of money, multiplied by a dozen of previous administrations, can anyone imagine how much better many of the affected communities could be, without of course the former municipal president's castles in town or Cancun, Huatulco or wherever they hide their money?

Catemaco Notarios

Aside from dental visits, municipal licenses and highway police stops, the most painful visits in Mexico are with Mexican notarios. These notarios have absolutely no relationship with American notaries who probably received their rubber stamp titles from Walmart.

In Mexico, a notario is next to god. After completing a law degree and further studies, plus time in an existing notario’s office, he, (very few women), is appointed by a state governor to a specific district, for life. Of course he has to be a Mexican by birth.

A notario is the gatekeeper to all public records in Mexico, including property titles, testaments, contracts, and power of attorneys. Supposedly he is impartial and neutral to all facts. His signature on a document is equivalent to proof of authenticity of the facts visible to him. No more! No Less!. In Spanish he is considered to “dar fe” which really does not translate into English, but more or less translates into “testifying to the truth”.

In Spanish law, the forerunner of Mexican law, he was an absolute necessity for a population incapable of reading. Current notarios, in my experience, still cleave to those god-like attributes.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco does not have a notario.

Instead, Veracruz State has established the 19th district, including Catemaco, San Andres Tuxtla, Santiago Tuxtla, Isla and possibly some other un-reported municipios.
Here we have 9 notarios. 6 practicing in San Andrés Tuxtla full time, 1 in Santiago Tuxtla, and 1 splits his time between San Andres and Isla. The one missing was disbarred a while back and the office has not been filled. Another office, also lacking “fe”, was recently filled by the Veracruz governor.

Although, I read that some states have fixed notarial fees, my personal experience has been unable to extract an exact figure of fees from a notario, and that is after maybe 30 transactions. The answer always is depending on “this or that”. The actual notario fee is almost never divulged. And that fee can be VERY surprising.

After a notario has affixed his signature to a document, supposedly that document is ready to be recorded in the Civil Registy (registro civil), usually done by the notario, but occasionally requiring bribed interference.

Disbarment of regular attorneys is much more frequent than disbarment of notarios. Nevertheless, although a notario is supposedly impartial, and most Mexicans will swear their trust by the limbs of their first-borns, it would behoove any Gringo to double check documents with an experienced attorney. Especially in Catemaco, where the relevant scores of “fe” against inquisition are 9 to 2.

Catemaco Pesos

US dollars are white men’s money. That is white, as in WASP (white anglo saxon protestant men)

Here in beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz, you get to spend racially mixed Pesos, with even a woman to fondle.

20 pesos - Benito Juarez - Zapotec Indian. He twice served as Mexican president in the mid 1800’s.
50 pesos - Jose Maria Morelos - Mexican of probable African/Spanish descent. Succeeded Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico’s fight for independence from Spain and was shot as a Spanish traitor.
100 pesos - Nezahualcoyotl - Indian ruler of the Acolhua (Texcoco) tribe. He joined the Aztecs in their Triple Alliance on their way to dominate Mexico.
200 pesos - Juana de Asabaje - Also known as Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz - Mexican of Spanish ancestry - a catholic nun, forerunner of the equal rights for women anywhere movement.
500 pesos - Ignacio Zaragoza - Mexican of Spanish ancestry born in Texas before secession from Mexico - As a general he defeated the French on Cinco de Mayo.
1000 pesos - Miguel Hidalgo - Mexican of Spanish ancestry - Chief instigator of Mexico’s war of independence from Spain.

The now abandoned US 1,000 dollar bill featured Grover Cleveland, famous for having to pay child support and warring on Indian tribes.

Catemaco ATM

This is a personal experience from beautiful downtown Catemaco and is probably true anywhere else.

You stick your card in the ATM, punch in your code and amount desired, the machine does "crunch crunch" and NO MONEY comes out.
You kick the machine, yell for the manager and find yourself facing a blank wall.
You check your balance on the internet, and sure enough, your money was deducted.

This scenario has occured to me and an acquantance repeatedly in Catemaco. Both Bancomer and Serfin are culprits in this scam.

This scam only occurs when using a US debit card. It has never happend to me using a Mexican debit card. The Mexican bank, just like its compatriots in the US, will tell you, that it is not their problem and you have to contact the bank that issued the card. Usually that bank will resolve the problem anywhere between 1 and 5 days depending on the quality of the bank. (Screw Bank of America).

The more serious problem arises when you decide to repeat your transaction more than 3 times. Then the Mexican bank machine will hold your card and the management will chop off a piece.

To avoid that, use an ATM that permits you to just slide your card through a reader and returns it to you immediately. If you give your home bank a hard time, they will cancel your card and reissue a new one, which is very unhelpful while vacationing in Mexico and your taste for tacos and beans while sleeping in a hammock is not on your "to do" list.