By Carmen Rioja
In an exclusive interview with Atención, Lic. Ángel Marín Díaz, legal consultant and founder of INMTEC Legal Services, talks to us about the current challenges for Mexico and the United States.
Carmen Rioja (CR):
When there is success in a city like Queretaro or San Miguel Allende, it also attracts many new settlers. There is a strong migration from the United States, Canada, and other states of the country, like Mexico City. Some say this is due to the recent earthquakes or because the pandemic allowed many to work from home recently. It is mostly because Queretaro and San Miguel have definitely proven to be places with a high quality of life.
But what are the challenges we will face in the future?
Ángel Marín (AM): One of the challenges I see will be how to accommodate the migration —yes, national, because of the issues you mention—but also because of American and Canadian, Belgian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish migration. The world is a macro market. If we do not forget that these are micro-markets within the macro, we can understand the situation.
I have separated the political controversy in the United States into two camps: policies that are totally bizarre and other policies that are totally unbelievable. I do not believe common knowledge or historical knowledge can or would help us to understand the current political situation north of our Mexican border.
On the other hand, there are ways of looking at the markets; they are indicators, such as inflation and the American recession, which started this March and will be made public next March. Then the migration will begin in full form. Regardless of what happens in the United States politically, if the Republicans win, Democrats come; if the Democrats win, Republicans come. When there is a full-fledged recession, both parties migrate south for obvious reasons.
Our Mexican immigration policies are very open-armed; we are a country that welcomes everybody, and nobody starves here. It is really part of our culture.
Violence in Mexico has gone down to intermediate levels, and it has increased in the United States. It has evolved to the point where getting gas for your car can collateral violence. It’s amazing the insecurity Americans are suffering. You put it together with the incomprehensible political policies, economic policies, energy policies, inflation, stagflation, shrinkflation, and impending recession and you see it in a macro-picture. It is no longer a question of going to Asia to build or to manufacture. The issues that are already on the table and in the mouth of the American president are Armageddon and a global food shortage—conversations never before had at these levels in our lifetime.
Mexico has 25 million hectares suitable for agriculture. Only 5 percent of the 25 million are technically suitable to plant all year round, not only in the rainy season. Mexico could multiply food production tenfold just by adding water systems to the agricultural land.
Our country is a food basket for export to the United States and worldwide (not only avocados and lemons). In Mexico, the range of products is very wide, including proteins and starches such as wheat, several seeds, and grains, not only white corn (maize).
CR: Then, is it necessary to invest much more to make this agricultural production possible?
AM: That would be the easiest thing. When we look at areas in the United States with mass production and subsidized government support to keep the price low, we see that it does not work. Since they keep millions of tons to maintain the market, the price does not rise.
Meanwhile, there is hunger and homelessness; it is illogical. It is a model of trickledown economics where the few have more, and the 1 percent are the owners of the 99 percent.
It is an old model for Mexico, but what would appear to be uncommon knowledge is that the United States is still doing this, and there are many motivators. Another keyword is «motivator.»
In the same way, the interest paid on American savings accounts in the United States was removed to «motivate» the transition from savings to investment. When interest rates dropped to a third of one percent or less and were called a motivator, what did they motivate? It was a transition of over 21 billion US dollars that were previously in protected savings accounts with FDIC insurance and were put into gambling with risk in the American stock market. What happened there? They «motivated» the markets.
Now our laser focus is on taking care of the foreign migration and guest community coming to Mexico. INMTEC has new offices in Guadalajara, and we will have offices to serve the «guest community» from Hermosillo to Manzanillo. We will soon be in Merida to serve the whole southeast of Mexico. All of our offices will work with the accompaniment of the notary offices, such as Notary Office 29 in Queretaro, Notary Office 12 in San Miguel de Allende, and Notary Office 72 in Mexico City. There are only three offices in Mexico that work in this efficient way, and all of them are INMTEC.
CR: And what distinguishes you is precisely the care that your company offers to the client that his real estate investment or estate planning is legally protected. In a way, I believe that many North Americans who are interested in investing in Mexico have apprehension that they will not do well with a property that has not been properly certified as transmittable, meaning with «the appropriate due diligence.»
AM: Of course, that’s where we started, with the famous saying, «We don’t know what we don’t know.» Often, we don’t know what we don’t know about buying here in Mexico or Latin America. Often, it’s like we leave our common sense at the border and involve ourselves in substantial financial transactions without the appropriate legal representation. By providing information, clarity, and transparency, it is possible to buy property in Mexico safely. To purchase in restricted zones (beaches and borders), there is an instrument called a trust (fideicomiso). It is a perfect instrument that the United States uses as well. It is a model through which, if you as a foreigner wish to purchase property, you are allowed to own the Mexican trust, which owns the Mexican land or asset, allowing the buyer all rights of ownership, i.e., the right to sell, rent, or bequeath. A little «good» information goes a long way.
(To be continued)
