Living Without Electricity in Baja California

Living Without Electricity in Baja California

they live in today. They feel as if they live in remote places like in the mountains, away from energy services. In this regard, it is worth noting that, in the case of the town of Camalú, practically all the participants migrated from the south of Mexico, mainly from the state of Oaxaca and to a lesser extent from Tabasco, Chiapas and Guerrero. They moved to Baja California seeking to improve their quality of life but, paradoxically, they feel that they have not done so as they did have electricity in their places of birth, but not in their new homes.

Living in Lands Without Title Deeds

Irregularity in this case is related to the presence of an informal land market that borders on illegality. This is because sellers take advantage of people who want to own a property by deceiving them and promising them basic infrastructure on their land which never arrives.

It is for this reason that the national utility company, Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) cannot provide this basic service. We even witnessed that, in many cases, the CFE distribution network passes through the same street where the homes without electricity are located and, for what is stated here, they cannot connect electricity. The issue is that sellers of the land resorted to corrupt practices in the sense that they did not complete the necessary procedures to change the of property ownership. The land was communal property known as “ejido” in Mexico and, when it was subdivided for sale, the process of changing it from communal property to private property was not carried out, in such a way that the people who bought these lands were left in an irregular situation. In this regard, opinions such as the following were expressed: “Because of the scam, because they sold us with lies, at least in my case they sold me this place in cash, they told me that the promise was that in two months there would be electricity and water, I've already been here 6-7 years and I don't have electricity and I don't have water…”

6