Trustees, AG seek to void 2003 land transfer to nonprofit

Group, AG argue 2003 transfer of 218 acres illegal

Trustees of a historic Tierra Amarilla land grant and the state attorney general are asking a state District Court judge to void the 2003 transfer of more than 200 acres to a Colorado nonprofit, arguing the deal was illegally carried out by people with no authority to do so.

The complaint is the latest in a centuries-old dispute over ownership of the land grant, Merced de Los Pueblos de Tierra Amarilla, which once was a 600,000-acre community-owned parcel established in the early 1830s by Mexico to encourage settlement of the area.

The land grant — guaranteed protections under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War — has been steeped in controversy that dates back to the late 1800s, when a powerful Anglo attorney and land speculator began buying interests in it. For several decades, descendants of the settlers and activists have tried to reclaim ownership of the property, saying the community-held land was not individually owned and therefore could not be bought and sold.

Most notably, the land grant was the center of a dispute that prompted activists to storm the courthouse in Tierra Amarilla more than 50 years ago in an effort to free members of their group. The raid left two law enforcement officers injured and gained national attention.

Years later, in the late 1980s, the land grant was the center of a monthslong armed occupation by residents hoping to hold on to hundreds of acres claimed by an Arizona developer. A judge eventually sided with the developer.

But in a federal court settlement, Tierra Amarilla people received a com--

bined 218 acres. A nonprofit, El Consejo de la Tierra Amarilla Inc., was created to hold the land in trust “for the common and beneficial use of the people.”

This week’s lawsuit, filed in the First Judicial District Court in Rio Arriba County on behalf of the board of Merced de Los Pueblos, says a state audit in 2016 found the transfer of that parcel, about a mile west of Tierra Amarilla, to Al Frente de Lucha Inc. in 2003 was done without authorization of the El Consejo board.

“The deed to Al Frente was signed and executed by persons who were without lawful authority to do so, because they were not the proper duly elected officers and directors of El Consejo,” the suit says.

Colorado-based Al Frente, according to its website, “is an anti-colonial organization dedicated to the struggle for the self-determination and liberation of all oppressed people.”

It hosts a weeklong cultural immersion program for Mexican youth on the “liberated land” in Tierra Amarilla. During the camp, the website says, young people learn about social justice and build leadership skills.

No one from the organization responded to an email to comment on the complaint.

El Consejo’s corporate charter was revoked in 2006 and the nonprofit was dissolved, but the group was chartered again under state law last year. “By quitclaim deed executed July 15, 2018,” the suit says, El Consejo granted the 218 acres to the plaintiff in the case, the Merced de Los Pueblos de Tierra Amarilla Board of Trustees.

The Attorney General’s Office is arguing, on behalf of the Merced de Los Pueblos board, that “the court should declare the deed as void, and that the land in Rio Arriba County should be recovered by Merced de Los Pueblos” and held in a trust, the agency says in a news release issued Thursday.

“My office will fight to preserve the history and culture of land grants throughout New Mexico,” Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a statement. “This land must be returned immediately.”