Four Tijuana property owners were allegedly forced off their land at gunpoint after a member of the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM) labor federation used a forged court document to seize their holdings, according to the owners’ attorneys.
Lawyers Vicente Peña and Patricia Guzmán told Semanario ZETA that the alleged scheme was orchestrated by Erika Miroslava Limón Enciso, known as Erika Limón, who serves as the CTM’s state coordinator for social and political affairs. The attorneys accused Limón Enciso of exploiting a fraudulent precautionary embargo order, which Baja California’s Registro Público de la Propiedad y Comercio (RPPC), the state Public Registry of Property and Commerce, accepted and registered without verifying its authenticity.
Forged Document Tied to Unrelated Labor Dispute
The forged document listed José Luis Salcedo Barrón, a Mexico City resident, as the plaintiff and Arsenio Otáñez as the defendant. The embargo targeted a 47-hectare parcel on Boulevard García in Tijuana. According to the lawyers, neither Otáñez nor his property had any connection to the labor case cited in the document.
Otáñez had years earlier sold portions of the land, totaling roughly 3.5 hectares, to the four people now affected. The RPPC registered the embargo without notifying the current owners or confirming the document’s legitimacy with the issuing court. The filing lacked even a basic case reference number, the attorneys said.
Armed Eviction With Police and National Guard
The physical eviction was carried out with the participation of National Guard troops and Tijuana municipal police, according to the victims’ legal team. The owners were removed at gunpoint from properties they had legally purchased and occupied.
Peña and Guzmán said Limón Enciso has publicly displayed connections to Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda, her ex-husband Carlos Torres, RPPC director Carlos Murguía, and Tijuana city council member Arturo Aguirre González. The lawyers are now asking the governor and State Attorney General María Elena Andrade to intervene so that their criminal complaints move forward.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Baja California
The case follows a pattern of property fraud in the region. In late March, the Baja California State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) arrested two leaders of what authorities call the “real estate cartel” in Tijuana, charging them with aggravated extortion, unlawful dispossession, and criminal association. The group specialized in commandeering occupied properties through legal manipulation and intimidation.
The RPPC is the institution that records and guarantees legal title for all real estate transactions in Baja California. Its failure to verify the embargo order before registering it is at the center of the victims’ complaint. Property owners in the state can request a certificate of no liens, known as a certificado de libertad de gravamen, to check for unauthorized claims against their titles.
The case was first reported by Semanario ZETA on April 24.