Justice was served for the inhabitants of Mismaloya yesterday when they received the news they had been waiting for for 40 years: they won the eviction trial against them.
At a press conference at the López Cotilla primary school in Mismaloya, it was announced that Beatriz Beltrán y Puga y Navarro, who promoted the trial, died on April 6, 2022, so the sentence to hand over the Mismaloya properties is therefore void.
Although it is not yet completely official that they won the battle, since they must wait 15 days in case any of the heirs seek protection against this unexecuted sentence, it seems only a matter of days before the inhabitants of Mismaloya can finally sleep peacefully.
César Octavio Yañez Centeno, representative of the Agrarian Attorney’s Office of the State of Jalisco, gave details about what was reported yesterday.
“By agreement of the Agrarian Court number 13, based in Guadalajara, a procedure was carried out to execute the sentence of file 417/1999, where it is ordered to deliver the lands of Mismaloya to an individual, in this case to Mrs. Luz Beatriz Beltrán y Puga y Navarro, who died last year (…) This process of execution of the sentence could not be carried out because there is no one who had legal rights to receive the lands,” he said.
The residents periodically received visits from their counterparts, with threats that at any moment they were going to be evicted, which kept them on high alert for several years.
Even yesterday, the guard on the highway was set up since dawn, with the entire town involved.
It was at the moment when the legal advisor of the defendants announced the death of Beltrán y Puga y Navarro, when dozens of people shed tears.
Thus, the town will continue to be the property of its residents and the new generations, who leave an important precedent of perseverance and fight for what belongs to them.