Help us to Save the Cañada de la Virgen from
Illegal Expropriation
Cañada de la Virgen has been illegally taken by the Mexican government, at gunpoint, without due process and without compensation. These actions are criminal and are a threat to all of us. Help us to stop them.
FLASH ALERT!
ON MAY 20, 2026, SIX ARMED MEN UNDER THE DIRECTION OF AN EMPLOYEE OF THE SECRETARY OF CULTURE ENTERED THE CDLV PROPERTY, BEAT TWO CDLV EMPLOYEES, STOLE THEIR KEYS TO THE CDLV FRONT GATE AND GATEHOUSE AND EXPLICITLY STATED THAT THEY HAD BEEN SENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. THEY THREATENED TO PHYSICALLY HARM THE CDLV OWNERS AND THEIR CHILDREN AND STATED THAT THE GOVERNMENT WAS TAKING THE CDLV PROPERTY AND THAT THE EMPLOYEES SHOULD NEVER RETURN.
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Thank you from all of us at the Cañada de la Virgen for your support.
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If you would like to see more of what has happened, please click here to see our daily log
What is Happening?
December 31, 2025 - Illegal Expropriation Decree Issued
The Mexican government issued a degree of expropriation affecting 701 hectares at the Cañada de la Virgen (“CDLV”). The government claimed that it needed the property to protect the pyramid site and to advance indigenous culture.
January 22, 2026 - Government Enters, Demand Possession without Due Process
Officials from the Secretary of Culture, led by former senator Jesusa Rodríguez and archeologist Omar Cruces, came to CDLV with armed personnel and demanded entry and possession without a court order or without having paid any compensation as required by law.
The same day property owners in Queretaro contacted us to tell us that the Secretary was also trying to take their land without compensation, indicating that we are not an isolated incident.
January 23 and 25, 2026 - Government Sends Letters Demanding Possession without Payment
On January 23 and January 25,he Secretary of Culture issued letters demanding immediate possession, and threatening legal action against CDLV if we did not vacate the land.
February 5, 2026 - Government Enters, Destroys Property, Threatens Arrest and Forces Us to Flee our Home
On February 5th, 2026, armed members of the National Guard with representatives of the Secretary of Culture entered the property, forcibly took possession, cut locks, destroyed property and threatened CDLV employees at gunpoint with arrest. They barred us from accessing our home and compelled us to flee the property fearing for our physical safety.
May 20, 2026 - Government Agents Beat CDLV Employees and Threaten Violence Against Owners and Their Children
Armed men, stating that they were employed by the Mexican government entered the property, beat two employees and threatened the owners of CDLV and their children with violence. They stated that the government was taking the property and that we should never return.
May 24, 2026 - Government Takes Criminal Possession of CDLV, Refuses Owners Entry to their Home
The actions of the Secretary of Culture represent CRIMINAL ABUSE OF POWER, HARASSMENT AND INVASION under Mexican federal law. They are a threat to everyone in San Miguel de Allende.
Effectively, the government wants possession without paying compensation or observing due process of law.
If you would like to see updates, please scroll down for our daily log.
What does this mean?
Effectively, we are dealing with a state that does not respect the law. We have filed three injunctions and multiple criminal complaints against the behavior of the Secretary of Culture, but despite court rulings and the law, they have continued to take our property without legal basis using armed force and threats of violence.
We have been told that this is being done because people in the government want our land so that they can build developments near San Miguel de Allende for their own enrichment.
Regardless this is what they have done:
Threatened the lives of children
Beaten employees
Criminal invasion of private property
Criminal destruction of private property
Abuse of power
Illegal threats of arrest (without charge)
Theft of private property
Denial of due process
Denial of human rights
If our business, property and home are not safe from these people, how safe are yours?
Why is the government wrong?
First and most obviously, the government is trying to prevent due process and take possession of private property without compensation.
But more importantly, the law states that expropriation for public utility must be necessary and proportional.
The government is trying to take 701 hectares for archeological structures that cover less than one hectare. This would make the expanded site four times as large as Angor Wat, the largest archeological site in the world.
The government’s own studies show that there are no ruins beyond the existing pyramid site on the 701 hectares.
How is the seizure of 701 hectares for a 0.8 hectare site necessary or proportional, especially when there are no ruins on the land that the government wants to take?
Doesn’t the government need the additional space?
According to the Secretary of Culture’s own map, the pyramid and other ruins inside the archeological zone represent less than 5% of its total area.
So the Secretary of Culture has more than 15 hectares, or 38 acres, to use for improvements and expansion.
Two entire Louvre museums (the largest museum in the world), or two entire National Museums of Anthropology (that house Mexico’s cultural treasures) could fit in that space.
Just to put it in perspective
The white dot in the center represents the actual ruins in the CDLV archeological zone. They cover approximately 0.8 hectares.
The red circle represents the current archeological zone, which is 16 hectares.
The blue circle represents the land that the Secretary of Culture has illegally seized. It is 701 hectares.
That means that the land that the Secretary of Culture has taken is more than 876 times as large as the ruins.
You’d be excused if you thought that the seizure of so much land was a slightly excessive given the size of the pyramid ruins.
What about the Indigenous?
The treasure of local indigenous culture and people matters immensely to CDLV, too. That is why it is recognized by true leaders of the original peoples as a partner and as sanctuary and has welcomed and encouraged indigenous ceremonies. More importantly, CDLV has the complete support of the local communities who are the true people of this pyramid and this land in its fight to stop this illegal attempt at expropriation and has been joined in its battle against the illegal actions of the government by national associations of indigenous peoples.
But the government says that it is stopping development on this special land…
This is the government’s claim, but successive administrations at all levels have a history of taking land for seemingly noble purposes only to turn the properties over to private parties for development.
In the case of CDLV, the company donated the pyramid and 16 hectares around it and voluntarily committed to maintaining all land within line of site of the pyramid in a pristine state of nature. This is a commitment that we have kept for 26 years despite pressure from the government to allow development.
The government says that you restrict access
CDLV has never restricted the government’s access to the pyramid site in any way. We maintain a locked gate at night because CDLV is a ranch and livestock and plant theft are real and serious problems.
When the government has asked for nighttime access, we have never refused and even paid for guards for their personnel’s and visitors’ safety.
But aside from the government, CDLV has always welcomed and assisted, and always will welcome and assist, pilgrims crossing the property for Catholic, indigenous and other religious ceremonies. We often participate alongside the communities in these sacred journeys.
Franciscan brothers, Buddhist monks and Chichimeca and Nahuatl holy men have all come to CDLV for meditation and ceremonies that we welcome and encourage.
The government says that you tried to make the pyramid private
Nothing could be further from the truth. We actively solicited the Secretary of Culture to accept the donation of the pyramid. Other parties had plans to make the pyramid into a private site. We stopped this travesty and ensured that the pyramid would belong to the public, as it should and that it would remain in pristine nature.
But it is an Otomi site
Several studies show that the CDLV pyramid is Nahuatl. We have been informed the Jesusa Rodriguez insisted in 2023 that the pyramid be classified as Otomi despite the fact that there is no evidence to support this position.
So what will happen to the Cañada de la Virgen if the government gets its way?
The government wants to take most of our prime grazing land, our principal water sources and our main corrals, all without compensation. This will mean the end of the beef, capsules, agave and tea businesses.
It will also mean the end of the livelihoods for more than 600 local families in the area around us and in San Miguel de Allende.
It will also mean an end to the work at CDLV to restore the ecosystem, to protect and bring back endangered species like the golden eagle and the Mexican puma and an end to the efforts by CDLV to preserve and restore the precious groundwater of San Miguel de Allende.
It also means that a successful precedent will have been set to come after your home if someone in the government wants it.
Why should this matter to me?
If you are a resident of San Miguel de Allende, or a Mexican citizen, what is happening should matter to you. The Mexican government has created a pretext to take our land, we believe, because of its development potential and its value. It is acting against its own laws to seize our property.
If they break into our home, how long will it be until they come for your property or your assets?
Their actions would also put an end to everything that we have been doing to restore the land and the work to find real and partial solutions to our common problems of water and desertification.
For those of you who are visiting this beautiful country and this magnificent region from abroad, what is happening should matter to you because a government that does not respect basic rights will not likely protect you while you are here.
Its actions are also putting in jeopardy the innovative work that we are doing with US companies and institutions and constitute an uncompensated seizure of their assets and investment. But more importantly it represents a loss a loss of important research that is for the good of communities here, in the US and around the world.
Daily Update: May 26, 2026
Today the Secretary of Culture started fencing in the land that it has taken from us and denied us passage to our home.
Daily Update: May 22, 2026
The local Secretary of Culture today held a press conference announcing that it is re-opening the Archeological Zone despite the fact that it is under an order of closure from the federal Secretary of Culture. The following false statements were made to the press:
1). They are in dialogue with the owners of CDLV - FALSE
2). The secretary of Culture has actively sought an agreement with the owners - FALSE
3). That there are no injunctions filed and no legal impediments to the re-opening of the Archeological Zone - FALSE
4). Now the local Indigenous communities can have ceremonies at the Archeological Zone - Indigenous leaders have always been welcomed by CDLV. The only entity that could block their access to the Archeological Zone would be the Secteraty of Culture.
Daily Update: May 20, 2026.
EMPLOYEES BEATEN BY ARMED MEN UNDER SUPERVISION OF SECRETARY OF CULTURE EMPLOYEE AND THREATEN TO HARM CHILDREN
Given what transpired today, a bolded headline seemed appropriate.
This afternoon, six men armed with pistols beat, held and robbed two employees of CDLV, one of whom is a 65 year-old grandfather.
We have been informed that armed men were supervised by Omar Cruces of the local Secretary of Culture’s office.
The armed men explicitly stated that they had been sent by the government and that they would take the CDLV employees to Mexico City if they did not tell them where the owners of CDLV were. They also told the CDLV employees to tell the CDLV owners that they knew how to find their children and that they could be taken.
They then took the employees phones and the keys to CDLV and told them that the government was taking possession and that the employees were never allowed to return.
Daily Update: May 19, 2026
Today, officials from the Guanajuato Secretary of Culture’s office again cut the locks to the CDLV property and entered with armed members of the Guanajuato Police and the National Guard.
They brought surveyors and were actively surveying the private property of CDLV and property that it leased to a US business.
The officials of the local Secretary of Culture’s office threatened the CDLV employees with arrest without charge and with physical violence.
They also stated checking cars entering and exiting the CDLV property and brought in a mobile command center.
Several people speculated that the command center would be used to illegally seize the CDLV property.
Daily Update: May 18, 2026.
Today, after a period of calm that lasted almost two months, the Guanajuato Secretary of Culture’s office again cut the locks of the CDLV property and went to Archeological Zone with several trucks of armed members of the Guanajuato State Police.
The local Secretary of Culture’s office did not inform the management of CDLV that they wanted to enter, as is required by law.
Daily Update: March 21, 2026.
This morning, while the managers and employees of CDLV attended a sunrise equinox ceremony hosted by the international Indigenous organization, Consejo Nacional de Pueblos Originarios, Omar Cruces, an employee of the Secretary of Culture’s office, again cut the lock of the CDLV property and despite the fact that the Archeological Zone remained closed by order of the Federal Secretary of Culture’s office. Omar entered the Archeological Zone, apparently with a group of friends and camped there in a private event held on federal property that was closed by a federal order.
Daily Update: March 6, 2026
Despite the fact that the Archeological Zone is officially closed, today, officials from the Guanajuato Secretary of Culture’s office came to the CDLV property with approximately 20 buses of people from the surrounding communities. Led by Omar Cruces, an employee of the Secretary of Culture, they cut the lock to the CDLV property and proceeded to the Archeological Zone.
Despite the fact that the employees of CDLV did nothing to impede the visitors, and warmly welcomed them, the local Secretary of Culture’s office brought approximately 12 trucks of armed police and National Guard.
Given that the actions of the local Secretary of Culture’s office in bringing visitors to a closed site constituted a potential safety hazard, and that it constituted a violation of the Federal Secretary of Culture’s order closing the Archeological Zone, the army was called and escorted the visitors off the CDLV property.
Daily Update: February 26, 2026
Today, CDLV found that the area that the Secretary of Culture has seized under the unlawful expropriation decree does not include the front gate. So when Jesusa Rodríguez and Omar Cruces came to CDLV and instructed the Secretary of Culture officials to cut our front lock, they were cutting them off of a gate that was private property and not subject to the illegal expropriation decree as you can see from the images below. Not only was their forced entry at gunpoint illegal and abusive under Mexican law, it was incorrect.
Daily Update: February 24, 2026
Today, TV Independencia posted video of Municipal President of San Miguel de Allende, stating that in his opinion, the attempted expropriation of the CDLV land is abusive and that there is no justification for taking 701 hectares of land. He also states that the seizure is damaging San Miguel de Allende.
Daily Update: February 18, 2026
Today , the Secretary of Culture posted on its website a statement that we did not object to its first attempt on October 30, 2025 to expropriate the 701 hectares, which is not true. We filed the necessary injunctions with the Secretary of Culture’s office.
The Secretary of Culture also does not state that the head of the department, Claudia Curiel de Icaza, signed a presidential decree and not President Sheinbaum, making the decree null and void.
The government then issued a second decree on December 31, 2025 that the statement fails to mention.
The Secretary of Culture claims that it had the necessary documentation to take the property. It never produced the required court order, nor the proof of payment for the property.
It also denies that the legal charge of abuse of power. We are not sure how you would define illegally cutting the locks on someone’s property, breaking into their buildings and taking their land without payment or due process, but that certainly seems like abuse of power to us. In common parlance, it is usually referred to as theft.
If the government is so sure of its position, why did it close the pyramid because of legal issues?
Unfortunately, it seems that the Secretary of Culture is now resorting to lies and omissions to try to cover up its unlawful actions.
It also raises the question - if they are doing this to us because they want our property, how long will it be until someone from the government decided that they like your house or property?
Daily Update: February 12, 2026
Today a national organization representing multiple indigenous groups offered to file an injunction against the decree stating that they had not been consulted in its drafting and it did not represent the indigenous peoples nor their interests.
Daily Update: February 10, 2026.
Today, the Secretary of Culture announced that the CDLV archeological site would be indefinitely closed because of legal issues. When the news was announced through local San Miguel de Allende news outlets, comments immediately indicated a suspicion among the local population that the government had closed the site so that it could start survey work and construction of a hotel or residential development.
Daily Update: February 7, 2026
Today, Secretary of Culture architect Omar Cruces stationed an armed National Guard vehicle inside the gate of CDLV preventing access by the owners and threatened employees with arrest.
Daily Update: February 6, 2026
Today, the CDLV cowboy who normally mans the front gate of the ranch was re-assigned to the gate of Xotolar.
Despite the fact that he was on ejido property and not at the CDLV gate and made no attempt to enter the ranch, he was threatened with arrest by Secretary of Culture archeologist Omar Cruces.
Later in the day, the Secretary of Culture’s personnel stationed an armed National Guard vehicle at the coral gate inside preventing the owners from accessing their home.
Daily Update: February 5, 2026
Today, Secretary of Culture personnel, led by former senator Jesus Rodríguez and archeologist Omar Cruces forcibly entered the ranch with armed members of the National Guard and:
Cut locks on gates and tore open fences that keep the livestock safe
Smashed open doors to warehouses
Destroyed private property
Poured concrete monuments on the property
Threatened CDLV employees at gunpoint with arrest
Barred us from accessing our home and compelled us to flee the property fearing for our physical safety.
Email addresses and email text
We apologize that you could not use the email link and thank you for continuing to this point. You can use the following email addresses:
President Claudia Sheinbaum: contacto@cjef.gob.mx
Ambassador Ronald Johnson: ACSMexicoCity@state.gov
Please use the following text for your email, or your own words:
Señora Presidenta:
Le escribo para expresarle mi profunda preocupación por el decreto de expropiación de fecha 31 de diciembre de 2025, mediante el cual se expropian 701 hectáreas del rancho Cañada de la Virgen.
El decreto parece no cumplir con los requisitos constitucionales y legales aplicables en México. En particular, preocupa la aparente ausencia de: (i) una utilidad pública debidamente acreditada conforme a los principios de necesidad y proporcionalidad; (ii) una orden judicial que autorice la ocupación; y (iii) la acreditación de una indemnización previa, como lo exige la ley.
Asimismo, de acuerdo con declaraciones públicas de la Secretaria de Cultura, los terrenos ya habrían sido tomados en posesión. De confirmarse dichas irregularidades, tales actos constituirían un abuso del poder público y una afectación al Estado de derecho. Resulta especialmente preocupante que no se hayan considerado las opiniones de las comunidades locales sobre su patrimonio cultural y territorial.
Respetuosamente, solicito que este asunto sea revisado con estricto apego a la legalidad.
Atentamente,
Señora Presidenta:
Como residente en México, le escribo para expresarle mi seria preocupación por las acciones adoptadas por autoridades gubernamentales en relación con el decreto de expropiación emitido el 31 de diciembre de 2025, que afecta al rancho Cañada de la Virgen en San Miguel de Allende, así como por la posterior toma de posesión del inmueble por parte de la Secretaría de Cultura.
La información disponible públicamente indica que dicho decreto no cumple con los estándares constitucionales y legales aplicables en México, en particular en lo relativo a la debida justificación de la utilidad pública, la proporcionalidad de la medida, la existencia de una orden judicial y la garantía de una indemnización previa.
Asimismo, estudios de la propia Secretaría de Cultura señalan que no existen restos arqueológicos fuera de la zona actualmente protegida. La ocupación del inmueble sin debido proceso ni compensación aparente genera serias dudas sobre la seguridad de la propiedad privada en México.
Respetuosamente, solicito que este asunto sea revisado con rigor y con pleno respeto al Estado de derecho.
Atentamente,
Dear Ambassador Johnson,
As a U.S. citizen, I write to express my serious concern regarding actions taken by the Mexican government in connection with the expropriation decree issued on December 31, 2025, affecting the Cañada de la Virgen ranch in San Miguel de Allende (“CDLV”) and Casa Agave Inc. (“CAI”), a U.S. corporation operating at CDLV, as well as the subsequent seizure of CAI’s assets by the Secretaría de Cultura.
Based on publicly available information, the decree does not appear to satisfy Mexico’s constitutional and legal standards governing expropriation. The seizure of U.S. business assets without due process or evident compensation raises significant concerns regarding the security of property and investments owned by U.S. citizens in Mexico.
I respectfully request that the United States Government review this matter and take any appropriate diplomatic and legal steps to help ensure the protection of U.S. citizens and their property and U.S. businesses from unlawful or uncompensated seizure.
Respectfully,