75 Baja Residents Must Abandon Homes

At least 75 Americans caught in a property dispute in the Punta Banda seaside community south of Ensenada will have no choice but to abandon their houses because the site will be redeveloped, a lawyer for several Mexican landowners has confirmed. Although some of the mostly U.S. citizens of the community are renegotiating leases, attorney Mireya Sandez said three of the seven landowners plan to bulldoze existing houses. In August, about 200 residents of the 250-acre community were ordered off the land by Oct. 11. The evictions capped a battle during which landowners successfully challenged 1973 government land grants to peasant groups, who developed the property. The Mexican Supreme Court ruled the land grants invalid.