José María Morelos, Quintana Roo — Land speculation has stalled development in the Santa Cruz neighborhood, where most properties remain abandoned with only a handful of families living permanently in the area.
According to resident José Alberto Denis Medina, authorities originally distributed the land to ejidatarios—communal landholders—about ten years ago following a community assembly agreement. Over time, many of those landowners sold their parcels.
“When we entered the area, a commissioner distributed the land; there was an agreement in the assembly and it was given to the ejidatarios who knew it was being distributed,” he explained.
He said many of those plots ended up in the hands of people who don’t live in the neighborhood, purchased at low prices with the expectation they would increase in value over time.
“There are people who buy cheap land because they know that someday it will have value and they’ll make their money there,” he noted.
This situation has left numerous plots unused and uninhabited, preventing the neighborhood from developing properly.
“They buy them and abandon them; not everyone works them, only a few. That’s also why we don’t prosper,” he lamented.
Medina added that currently only five or six families live permanently in the neighborhood, despite the settlement covering approximately 100 hectares.
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