MEXICO CITY, April 28 — The Mexican Congress voted late Thursday to strengthen antitrust laws, a measure advocates say will bolster the economy's flagging competitiveness by restricting a company's ability to dominate a crucial industry.
The vote came just before midnight Thursday in the final hours of the legislative session. The Senate unanimously approved the bill, following the lead of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, which had done the same on Tuesday.
The measure passed despite lobbying by Carlos Slim Helú, whose control of Teléfonos de México, the country's dominant telecommunications company, has helped him become one of the world's richest men.
But Eduardo Pérez Motta, Mexico's top antitrust regulator, said that political parties had an eye on the July 2 general election when they passed the law.
"We have to put the interests of consumers at the center of the country's public policy," said Mr. Pérez Motta, who heads the Federal Competition Commission, Mexico's antitrust regulator.
Luis de la Calle, a business consultant and columnist who worked to support the law, said that increased competition would help the economy modernize.
Mexico's economy has performed poorly since President Vicente Fox took office six years ago. Economists have said that the growth rates of less than 4 percent were too low to create new jobs for an expanding work force. Many economists argue that a reason is the lack of competition in many sectors of the economy.
Many of Mexico's leading industries are dominated by one or two companies that use their market power to block new competitors.
Telmex, for example, controls 95 percent of all local lines. Mexico's two brewers have a lock on almost all distribution channels. Two companies control almost everything viewers can watch on broadcast television. Energy remains in the hands of two state monopolies.
Foreign competitors like MCI and the brewer SABMiller have complained about the difficulties of trying to break into the market.
But the competition commission has been hamstrung by weak laws. Companies have paid only 15 percent of the fines that have been imposed and have tied up many of the commission's actions in legal actions.
The new law quadruples fines, to as much as $5.5 million, for antitrust violations. In the case of repeated violations, the competition commission could fine a company as much as 10 percent of its sales and ultimately even move to break it up.
Mr. Pérez Motta said the simple fact of higher fines might spur many companies to change.
"Once you know the fines are higher," he said, "you just don't run the light."
It will also make the commission's opinions binding on other regulators. In particular, many critics argue that Mexico's telecommunications regulator has done little to check Telmex's power. Now, the commission will have a say in writing regulations as new technology enhances the possibility of competition.
The commission also plans to look at airports, railroads and customs brokers: all potential bottlenecks that add to the price of finished goods, Mr. Pérez Motta said.
The new law creates protection for whistle-blowers and allows the commission to conduct searches. It also eliminates ambiguities that companies have used to win repeated injunctions against the commission.
But the law will do little to affect the state-owned oil and electricity companies, which are protected under the Constitution.
Apr 28, 2006 — MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Owning marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if the drugs are carried in small amounts for personal use, under legislation passed by the Congress.
Police will not penalize people for possessing up to 5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of opium, 25 milligrams of heroin or 500 milligrams of cocaine, under a bill passed by senators late on Thursday and earlier approved by the lower house.
People caught with larger quantities of drugs will be treated as narcotics dealers and face increased jail terms under the plan.
The government says the measure allows police to focus on major drug dealers, and President Fox is expected to sign it into law.
"This law provides more judicial tools for authorities to fight crime," presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said on Friday.
Hundreds of people including several police officers have been killed in the past year as drug cartels battle authorities and compete with each other for control of lucrative cocaine, marijuana and heroin smuggling routes from Mexico into the United States.
The violence has raged mostly in northern Mexico but in recent months has spread south to cities like vacation resort Acapulco.
Under current law, it is up to local judges and police to decide on a case-by-case basis whether people should be prosecuted for possessing small quantities of drugs, a source at the Senate's health commission told Reuters.
"The object of this law is to not put consumers in jail, but rather those who sell and poison," said Sen. Jorge Zermeno of the ruling National Action Party.
Fifty-three senators voted for the bill with 26 votes against it.
Why Mexico Has Come Of Age As Retirement Property Market
David Devoss Thu Apr 20, 7:00 PM ET
Fifteen years ago, San Felipe was an impoverished Mexican village at the northern end of the Sea of Cortez. Its fishing industry was moribund. Its farmland lay fallow.
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American snowbirds who arrived every winter were about the only reason the town of 16,000 had a cash economy at all.
Still, former Marriott Corp. executive Patrick Butler saw only potential when he got there in 1993, just before the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
San Felipe was off the beaten path, though just a six-hour drive from Phoenix and less from San Diego. The town's fishermen were poor, but they enjoyed a quaint port on a tranquil sea 15 degrees warmer than the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Butler realized any warm-weather beach town near a large population is bound to appreciate in value. So he bought 200,000 desolate acres for $12 million and named his new property El Dorado.
Today, Butler's Club Acquisition Co. presides over two hotels, a gated community of 750 homes and lots, 700 condominiums and a seaside golf course. These generated over $80 million in revenue from property sales, rentals and management fees last year. Revenue is set to top $110 million in 2006. No longer sleepy, San Felipe has a population of 25,000, including 5,000 Americans.
Those Americans account for 70% of all spending and are seeing their retirement properties appreciate 10% a year.
"NAFTA reforms and new laws protecting foreign investment are fueling a booming market in retirement property," said Butler, 61. "More than 1 million Americans live in Mexico. And that number will grow, if only because over the next 20 years 10,000 baby boomers every day will reach age 50."
In response to America's demographic, luxury developments are sprouting along Mexico's Pacific coast. Near Mazatlan, Butler's company is building an 816-acre gated community called Estrella del Mar.
Ground zero in the Mexican land rush lies between Rosarita Beach and Ensenada on Baja's west coast. Condos, town homes and detached villas there are appreciating 20% a year.
In Ensenada -- where 40,000 Americans own property -- English is the lingua franca, the dollar is the currency of choice at big box stores and most new homes have infinity pools and fast Internet access.
Mexico has always offered the prospect of comfortable retirement. But investing in a home there was long seen as risky. Land titles were murky, banks charged exorbitant interest and Mexico's judiciary rarely ruled in favor of a foreigner.
"In the past, a buyer would pay 30% down and the seller, or developer, would finance the balance," said Juan Moreno, a real estate attorney with international law firm Bryan Cave. "The danger was that the buyer did not get title to the property until the loan was fully paid. Because he didn't have title he couldn't get title insurance. And if his payments were delinquent for two consecutive months he could lose everything."
Reforms that have made Mexican real estate investing more secure began in 1993. The country's Agrarian Law was amended that year so members of ejidos -- peasant collectives that received land after the Mexican Revolution -- could sell their individual parcels once the land was privatized.
NAFTA's passage the next year created dispute-settlement provisions to protect direct foreign investments. In 2000, Mexico's Negotiable Instruments Law and Commerce Code were changed in ways that allow expedited foreclosure procedures. Reforms in 2003 provided for regulation of Mexican real estate agents, ethical guidelines for property developers and recognition of U.S. title insurance.
As the result of those reforms, a number of U.S. firms including First Capital Mortgage, General Electric (NYSE:GE - News) unit GE Capital and CS Financial now offer mortgages to U.S. citizens buying in Mexico.
"Mexico's laws were changed several years ago," Moreno said. "But it takes time for U.S. investors and lenders to develop trust in the new system."
Buying property in Mexico is now easier. A foreigner can do it on the mainland outright by direct deed, except in what's called the restricted zone: 32 miles from the coast or 62.5 miles from the U.S. border.
Buying there, or anywhere on the Baja Peninsula, takes a Mexican bank trust called a fideicomiso. The bank, for an annual fee of about $400, serves as a trustee holding legal title for up to 50 years.
A permit to set up a bank trust is around $1,000. When the government approves the trust, an appointed attorney called a notario prepares the deed. Taxes, normally 2% of the purchase price, must be paid.
Then the deed is recorded and title insurance can be purchased through companies such as First American Title Insurance, a unit of First American (NYSE:FAF - News); Fidelity National Title, a unit of Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF - News); and Stewart Title Guaranty, a unit of Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC - News).
As a beneficiary of the fideicomiso, a foreign owner can use, improve, sell or bequeath his property. Co-owners can be listed to avoid probate. And the trust can be extended indefinitely.
Cost is a major factor driving Mexican real estate. An ocean-view condo in the planned community of Las Palomas at Puerto Penasco, a booming resort town across the Sea of Cortez from San Felipe, sells for $300 a square foot. Similar properties on San Diego's Coronado Island go for $2,000 a square foot.
Developed by Abigail Properties of Phoenix, Las Palomas is 60 miles south of the Arizona border. It will consist of 200 golf course homes and 1,800 condos. Half the condos, priced from $325,000 to $2 million, are already sold. Thirty-year fixed loans from U.S. lenders at 6% interest are available.
Meridian Development Group in Reno, Nev., is building two of the larger Baja communities under construction. Halfway between San Diego and Ensenada on 33 acres overlooking the Pacific, Brisamar will be a private residential club of 300 Mediterranean-style units.
Farther south, just outside Ensenada, the even larger Porto Hussong is planned. Ocean promenades and garden paths will connect a 250-slip marina and retail area with a five-star inn and four towers with 270 condos. They range in price from $550,000 to $1.8 million. Though construction won't start for four months, two-thirds of the 150 units in the first phase are sold.
Migration of Mexicans into the U.S. receives most of the attention. Chris Merson, the 62-year-old CEO of MDG Resorts, says the flow of American baby boomers to Mexico is also significant for property developers.
"California is the sixth largest economy in the world, and we're sitting right under it," said Merson. "All we have to do is wait for the richest generation in the history of America to retire."
A control system maxim each and every Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) politician always had to obey was avoidance, at any cost, of doing anything that might cause a public outcry.During the more than 70 years the PRI governed and kept social peace in Mexico, no party member was allowed an indiscretion in the handling of policy or the economy that might cause the people to take to the streets demanding justice.
But today sleeping Mexican-Americans in the United States have awakened, and their presence is being noticed worldwide.Like it or not, we are facing one of the most important popular movements in recent years, one that will make a future difference on two worlds that areirreversibly entwined by geography and economies, and less and less separated by their people.
The uncontrollable desire to live in a free and democratic nation is what has united large numbers of people, those who are asking to live legally in a country that is growing daily.They hope to live in the United States without fear, without hiding, in a country that many now hold as dear as their own, a country for which many have given their lives.
People have become aroused by bills such as the U.S. Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, the Sensenbrenner Bill, with 300,000 people demonstrating on Phoenix, 100,000 in Washington, 50,000 in Atlanta, and around 30,000 in New York.Thousands of others marched in San Diego, Las Vegas, Houston, and Los Angeles, as well as in states like Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee.
And so far, what the Sensenbrenner Bill has done most is to finally unite a people, a political, economic and social force, who had been languishing in the shadows.
A bilingual and bicultural community without a government but with a great desire to belong, a migrant community that has abandoned Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and other countries in order to embrace the American dream, and dreams of freedom and democracy.A people who remember the history of their origin, who have religion and culture, and who know that the countries where they were born were unable, or did not know how, to create that which is needed to live with dignity.
As for Mexico, the government did wrong by pretending to be heard by those who, for many years, have known they are forgotten.
The large concentrations are giving these Latinos, who have shown above all that they are peaceful, an identity.They go to the demonstrations with their children, workers who respect the laws and institutions of the United States – even though earlier they may have violated the border.And with pride they display the U.S. flag, together with that of Mexico and the banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
So, are we at the beginning of Mexico’s integration with the United States, or vice versa?And are the government’s and their representatives equal to a reality that is being seen in the cities of the First World?
The decisions they must make will be quite sensitive, considering that a real social movement is now alive in cities and in the streets.It would be most damaging to provoke other groups into taking reprisal actions, while the need is to come up with basic proposals that seek true solutions to the consequences of migration and its causes.
That is, if jobs were created in Mexico the people would not have reason to emigrate.If labor conditions similar to those in the United States existed in Mexico the people would not emigrate.These must be the objectives of public policy in both countries.
It is better to have 20 miles of highway in Michoacán than 2,000 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and no wall will detain emigrants anymore than the deportation of 4 million people would be successful.
Whether we like it or not, these issues are realities that must be addressed.As for the movement, up to now it does not have a political leader – it has yet to be identified with a Martin Luther King of the Latinos.But there are those who will try to take advantage of people and groups that are so far associated with grassroots organizations or churches on both sides of the border.
As well, in Mexico the next president will now have to deal with this problem, and hopefully he will do so with more knowledge and respect than that which has been done by the current administration.
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Enrique Andrade, a Mexico City-based attorney and business consultant, writes a weekly column for MexiData.info.He can be reached via e-mail atenriqueag@andradep.com.
see:yomexico.com.............................
yomexicoNEWS....News about Mexico with an positive leaning....
Oh Pinon! News INVITING COMMENTS...Slanted to my opinon, of course..........................
The Pinon Tree of New Mexico that fed the generations is now, because of drought and the pressures of over-development, endangered, as it appears, are we all.
