History of the National Agrarian Registry of Mexico

By Decree dated April 24, 1928, published on May 16 of the same year, the first Regulations of the National Agrarian Registry were issued, establishing it as an office under the direction of the President of the National Agrarian Commission, in which the ejido property resulting from restitutions or endowments of land, forests or water would be registered, as well as the individual parcel property corresponding to each ejidatario.

By Decree dated January 16, 1934, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on the 17th of the same month and year, the Agrarian Department was created, which among its attributions was to keep the Agrarian Registry, having established in Title Seven of the Agrarian Code dated March 22, 1934, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on April 12 of the same year, which included from articles 109 to 116 inclusive, the functions of the National Agrarian Registry as well as the documents to be registered in it.

The Agrarian Code dated December 31, 1942, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on April 27, 1943, in its Title Six of Book Four, consisting of seven articles, included the functions related to the National Agrarian Registry as well as the documents to be registered in said Registry.

Subsequently, the Internal Regulations of the Agrarian Department dated July 26, 1944, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on August 23 of the same year, established in Article 44, the assignment of the National Agrarian Registry to the Directorate of Agrarian Rights, which within its attributions was to register the certificates and titles derived from presidential agreements and resolutions in the National Agrarian Registry itself.

By Decree dated June 15, 1960, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on July 1 of that year, the Internal Regulations of the new Department of Agrarian Affairs and Colonization were issued, establishing in articles 83 to 88, the functions of the various sections of the office of the National Agrarian Registry.

On November 11, 1963, a new Internal Regulation of the Department of Agrarian Affairs and Colonization was issued, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on the 26th of that same month and year, and in which the functions of the then office of the National Agrarian Registry remained unchanged.

Using a Decree published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on December 31, 1974, several amendments were made to the Law of Secretaries and Departments of State, among which the disappearance of the Department of Agrarian Affairs and Colonization and the creation of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform stand out.

By Decree dated September 20, 1977, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on September 22 of that year, the Internal Regulations of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform were issued, granting the National Agrarian Registry the level of General Directorate, establishing in Article 40 of said Regulations the powers of the Registry.

On May 4, 1979, the Decree of April 23 of that year was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, whereby the Internal Regulations of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform were issued, maintaining in essence the powers conferred to the Registry in the previous Regulations.

In 1980, two Internal Regulations of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform were issued on March 6 and November 25, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on March 19 and December 1, respectively; the National Agrarian Registry was attached in the first of them to the General Directorate of Land Tenure, as established in section XXV of Article 25 and, in the second of the Regulations, to the General Directorate of Agrarian Information as established in section XVIII of Article 17.

The Internal Regulations of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform dated August 26, 1985, and April 6, 1989, both published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on August 27, 1985, and April 7, 1989, respectively, return the National Agrarian Registry to the level of General Directorate, establishing in a similar manner in both the attributions of the Registry.

As of the reforms to article 27 of the Constitution published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on January 6, 1992, and with the publication of the Agrarian Law on February 26 of the same year, the operation of the National Agrarian Registry was established as a decentralized administrative body of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform.

On August 11, 1992, the Internal Regulations of the National Agrarian Registry were published, granting it technical, administrative, and budgetary autonomy, whose main objective is the control of land tenure and documentary security derived from the application of the Agrarian Law.

For the exercise of the Registry's functions, the Regulations contemplate the following administrative units: Chief Directorate, General Directorate of Titling and Agrarian Control, General Directorate of Registry and Legal Affairs, General Directorate of Rural Cadastre, Administrative Coordination, Internal Comptrollership Unit and the State Delegations of the Registry.

By decree dated April 26, 1993, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on April 27 of that year, several articles of the Internal Regulations of the National Agrarian Registry mentioned in the preceding point were amended, highlighting among other amendments the modification of the functions and nomenclature of some of the administrative units of the Registry (the General Directorate of Titling and Agrarian Control changed its name to General Directorate of Certification, Titling, and Registration of Corporations), Titling and Registration of Companies), the change of name of the agrarian folios, the modification of the procedure for the substantiation of appeals and the inclusion of the chapter related to the use of electronic means in the registry activity.

With the publication of the Internal Regulations of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform on July 11, 1995, the continuity of the National Agrarian Registry was established as a decentralized administrative body of the same, adding to it the functions of technical and cadastral assistance in the various procedures of the rural property regulation, in addition to the functions of safeguarding, collection, filing and documentary analysis of the Agrarian Sector.

On April 4, 1997, a new Internal Regulation of the National Agrarian Registry was issued, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on April 9, 1997, which establishes the rules of organization and operation of the National Agrarian Registry, as a decentralized body of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform, with technical and budgetary autonomy, by the powers and faculties expressly conferred to it by the Agrarian Law, It is mentioned in the First Title related to General Provisions, that to achieve the control of land tenure and documentary security concerning rural properties, the Registry will be in charge of the registry, technical assistance, and cadastral functions. Likewise, it is established that the Registry will be in charge of the safeguarding, collection, filing, and analysis of documents of the Agrarian Sector, being of vital importance for the fulfillment of these functions, the General Agrarian Archive.

This new Regulation contemplates changes in the organization and nomenclature of the administrative units of the RAN: Chief Directorate (remains the same); General Directorate of Titling and Documentary Control (loses in its nomenclature the term "Certification", transferring to the General Directorate of Registration the functions of the Directorate of Registration of Corporations, and incorporating the Directorate of Rural Information, previously under the General Directorate of Rural Cadastre); General Directorate of Registration (newly created, the Directorate of Rural Information, previously under the General Directorate of Rural Cadastre, is attached to it); General Directorate of Registration (newly created, the Directorate of Certification and Documentary Control is attached to it): The Directorate of Registry Regulations, formerly under the General Directorate of Registry and Legal Affairs, and the Directorate of Registration of Companies, formerly under the General Directorate of Certification, Titling and Registration of Companies, are attached to it).

General Directorate of Legal Affairs (newly created: it is constituted with the Area Directorates of Consultation and Litigation, formerly part of the General Directorate of Registration and Legal Affairs); General Directorate of Rural Cadastre (changes: the Area Directorate of Ejido Cadastre changes its name to Directorate of Rural Cadastre.

The Directorate of Rural Information now reports to the Directorate of the General Directorate of Titling and Documentary Control, while the Technical Directorate is formalized in the approved structure); General Directorate of Finance and Administration (change of nomenclature: previously called Coordination of Administration); General Directorate of Delegations (newly created: inherits the functions of the Coordination of Delegations, an instance previously not formally contemplated as an administrative unit).

Delegations (added functions that are reflected in a new internal organizational structure and new nomenclature of sub-delegation and department heads); Internal Comptrollership Unit (changes: this Unit has particularities, both in the manner of appointing its head and in the powers and functions corresponding to it, as contemplated in Article 37, section XII of the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration).

In 1997, the Internal Regulations of the National Agrarian Registry were published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, which establishes that this institution will create a General Agrarian Archive that will be in charge of the custody, classification and cataloging of documents on agrarian matters, with the purpose of facilitating the organization and consultation of such information.

On January 15, 2008, the new Internal Regulations of the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform were issued, which mention in Chapter I, Article 2, paragraph B, of the National Agrarian Registry as a Deconcentrated Body, which would operate in accordance with the provisions of Articles 148 of the Agrarian Law, 17 of the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration and other applicable regulatory provisions.

In 2012, a new Internal Regulation of the National Agrarian Registry was issued, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on October 12, 2012, with the purpose of formalizing actions that would allow the Modernization Program of the National Rural Cadastre (PMCRN) to become a reality, Among them, the administrative and organizational modernization to increase efficiency in the attention to users, which resulted, among other aspects, in a comprehensive restructuring that consisted in the merger of the General Directorate of Titling and Documentary Control with the General Directorate of Registration, becoming the General Directorate of Registration and Documentary Control.

The Interinstitutional Coordination Office was created to assume the functions of strategic planning, evaluation, linkage, internal control and coordination of the 32 State Delegations; the General Directorate of Rural Cadastre changed its nomenclature to General Directorate of Rural Cadastre and Technical Assistance; The General Directorate of Operation and Systems was created to be responsible for the operation, security and maintenance of the information and communications technologies required to support registration activities and the legal security of the information that is incorporated, processed and stored; the responsibilities of the Delegations were redefined in line with the changes made at the central level, and the Internal Comptrollership Unit was renamed the Internal Control Organ.

Likewise, at the Directorate level, the Directorate of Corporations and Assembly Agreements was cancelled; the Technical Directorate was cancelled, the Directorate of Information Technology was relocated and the Directorate of Rural Information was created, in addition to various changes in the name and assignment of the sub-directorates, sub-delegation, and departments.

By Decree of December 26, 2012, various provisions of the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration were amended, added and repealed, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on January 2, 2013, among which Article 41, which corresponded to the Secretariat of Agrarian Reform, was amended to become the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development, which according to the Tenth Transitory Article, will be the agency that will continue to address pending agrarian matters, in terms of the provisions of the third transitory article of the Decree by which article 27 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States is amended, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation of January 6, 1992, situation by which the National Agrarian Registry, in accordance with the referred article 41, section III, will be administered by the mentioned Secretariat.