Speaking about the right....

[D'kian]

Last year Mexico City's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, signed a law called "domain extinction." Essentially it allows the city's government to expropriate any and all property suspected of being related to a crime or to criminal activity. The property owner has a chance to prove in court this is not so, but only after the property is taken away. To top it off, the government does not have to provide compensation for the properties seized (that's the extinction part).

This is massively unfair. First a mere suspicion or accusation is enough to deprive a man of any of his property (mostly the law deals with real estate). Second it puts the burden of proof on the wrong side. It also leaves the door wide open for government to abuse this power. If at any time it wants a property, it can just accuse someone of having used it in a crime. Then it can take it and not even pay a token compensation.

Mr. Ebrard is a member of the left-wing Party for Democratic Revolution (PRD by its initials in Spanish). Such things, bad as they are, can be expected due to his politics, right? Well, yes.

The National Action Party (PAN) has long been the right-wing part in this country. It won the presidency in 2000 and again in the next term in 2006 (Mexican presidents are restricted to a single 6 year term). THe current president, Felipe Calderon, propposed a very similar law, with the same name, to be applied nationaly in cases invovling kidnapping and drug dealing.

So much for the Right being concerned about property rights.

Enter the other major party, the Party of Institutional Revolution (PRI) which ruled Mexico uninterrupted at every level, in every post, for well over 70 years (until 2000). This party, as sole ruler, wavered left and right throughout time. President Portillo antionalized all banks in 82, but President Salinas re-privatized them, plus he privatized the phone company monopoly and other state enterprises, opened up the borders to trade, lowered and eliminated tariffs, etc. Both from the same party.

It took a leftward lurch in 200, but that seems to be ending. This year it is strongly opposed to Calderon's extinction law. it does favor seizing properties belonging to kidnappers and drug dealers, yes, but only after they're found guilty in a trial, and only properties belonging to them, not properties they may have used (Example: I rent a house to you, you use it to deal drugs. By Calderon's law the government could seize my house because it was sued for criminal activity).

Better yet, the PRI's national leader, Beatriz Paredes, claims her party opposes this alw because 1) it vioaltes property rights and 2) it violates the presumption of innocence.

I've been voting the straight PAN ticket since 1997. I've been dreadfully dissappointed. To be sure both PAN presidents ahve had good notions that would have freed the economy a little bit if implemented, from tax reform to energy reform, but they largely haven't been able to pass such reforms. It may just be time to vote PRI. We ahve mid term elections this July.

To be sure the PRI is a corrupt party, but so are the PRD and the PAN (in that order).

[EC]

I feel for you man, but you are talking about *Mexico*. It's not exactly known for being the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[TuringAI]

Last year Mexico City's mayor, Marcelo Ebrard, signed a law called "domain extinction." Essentially it allows the city's government to expropriate any and all property suspected of being related to a crime or to criminal activity. The property owner has a chance to prove in court this is not so, but only after the property is taken away. To top it off, the government does not have to provide compensation for the properties seized (that's the extinction part).

This is massively unfair. First a mere suspicion or accusation is enough to deprive a man of any of his property (mostly the law deals with real estate). Second it puts the burden of proof on the wrong side. It also leaves the door wide open for government to abuse this power. If at any time it wants a property, it can just accuse someone of having used it in a crime. Then it can take it and not even pay a token compensation.

Mr. Ebrard is a member of the left-wing Party for Democratic Revolution (PRD by its initials in Spanish). Such things, bad as they are, can be expected due to his politics, right? Well, yes.

The National Action Party (PAN) has long been the right-wing part in this country. It won the presidency in 2000 and again in the next term in 2006 (Mexican presidents are restricted to a single 6 year term). THe current president, Felipe Calderon, propposed a very similar law, with the same name, to be applied nationaly in cases invovling kidnapping and drug dealing.

So much for the Right being concerned about property rights.

Enter the other major party, the Party of Institutional Revolution (PRI) which ruled Mexico uninterrupted at every level, in every post, for well over 70 years (until 2000). This party, as sole ruler, wavered left and right throughout time. President Portillo antionalized all banks in 82, but President Salinas re-privatized them, plus he privatized the phone company monopoly and other state enterprises, opened up the borders to trade, lowered and eliminated tariffs, etc. Both from the same party.

It took a leftward lurch in 200, but that seems to be ending. This year it is strongly opposed to Calderon's extinction law. it does favor seizing properties belonging to kidnappers and drug dealers, yes, but only after they're found guilty in a trial, and only properties belonging to them, not properties they may have used (Example: I rent a house to you, you use it to deal drugs. By Calderon's law the government could seize my house because it was sued for criminal activity).

Better yet, the PRI's national leader, Beatriz Paredes, claims her party opposes this alw because 1) it vioaltes property rights and 2) it violates the presumption of innocence.

I've been voting the straight PAN ticket since 1997. I've been dreadfully dissappointed. To be sure both PAN presidents ahve had good notions that would have freed the economy a little bit if implemented, from tax reform to energy reform, but they largely haven't been able to pass such reforms. It may just be time to vote PRI. We ahve mid term elections this July.

To be sure the PRI is a corrupt party, but so are the PRD and the PAN (in that order).

It has often been the case in politics that it is not about property rights vs non-property rights, but WHOSE property rights to violate.

I am glad you are speaking about this. It also goes to show that three parties are better than two.