ABSTRACT
One of the most concrete manifestations of Mexico’s adoption of neoliberal economics in the 1990s was President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s alteration of state policy on communal landholding, as articulated in Article 27 of the Constitution. The ejidal system established that the federal government technically owned this land, but that peasants had the right to farm and profit from it in perpetuity. The largest distribution of this land occurred during the presidency of Lazaro Cardenas. In its development, the ejidal system had many shortcomings, including the poverty of the land the state sometimes distributed and peasants’ lack of access to capital to develop it. Salinas’s reform to this system removed the ban on private ownership of ejidal land. Conflicts over foreign incursions into national territory also arose in municipal centers. One of the most heated occurred in the scenic colonial town of Tepoztlan, Morelos, a gathering place for both domestic and international progressive organizations.
