We hadn’t had electricity for a month when we had our first outage. Fortunately, it was localized to just one house, but still, I couldn’t help thinking–this was why we didn’t have nice things in La Yacata.
What happened, according to the neighbor was a large remolque (dump truck) was going up the hill and caught on the wire connecting to the main line to the house. The damage was bad. Fortunately, it didn’t tear down the main line, just the connecting wire, so there’s that, but still.
I moseyed up the road to take some pictures and sent them to Super Prez, who made a report to CFE. CFE assured him they would be out in 24 hours to fix it. Super Prez also called the owner of the house, who isn’t living there currently, to let them know about the issue.
24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours….came and went—no sign of the CFE repair crew. Two weeks later, the owner called and asked me if I could get Super Prez to follow up. Every time she called CFE asked for a copy of the electricity receipt, which we hadn’t gotten yet. So I sent a message to Super Prez, and he called.
Not an hour later, a CFE truck zoomed by the house. Sadly, they disappeared into the horizon and did not stop to check the line. Later that evening, or the next, I forget which, a CFE truck was driving up and down the roads and finally stopped to ask for directions. Super Prez happened to be here with an update on other matters and got them orientated. However, since the entire pole had been mangled, it would need replaced and they didn’t have that on hand and it would have to be ordered.
While we waited for repairs, the owners of two of the five houses that weren’t included in the original CFE project because of their location approached us to ask about getting the electricity connected. Measurements were taken and considered. Technically, they both were just under the 50-meter maximum from the last installed post. The problem was that the line would need to cross a road and that might cause CFE to say no to their connections. But, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
So, both owners went to CFE to ask about it, but both were refused. They came to me with the new requirements, which I reviewed and sent to Super Prez.
Requirements for Contracting:
- For Tenants:
- Mandatory submission of:
- Copy of the lease agreement.
- Copy of the INE (official ID) of both the landlord and the tenant.
- Mandatory submission of:
- Power of Attorney:
- If the owner cannot be present to sign the contract:
- Submit a simple power of attorney signed by two witnesses.
- Copies of the INEs of the witnesses.
- If the owner cannot be present to sign the contract:
- Ownership Documentation:
- Valid proof of ownership issued by the local delegate (applies to rural communities).
- Copy of the current property tax receipt.
- Valid proof of the official property number.
- Official Identification:
- Copy of a valid INE, passport, or professional license (both sides).
- Tax Identification and Fiscal Status:
- RFC with homoclave or current tax status certificate (issued within the month prior to contracting) when service invoicing is required.
- Mandatory for businesses.
- Contact Information:
- Email address and phone number with national area code.
- Technical Preparation:
- Printed photographs of:
- Electrical connection box (mufa).
- Base.
- Grounding rod.
- Circuit breaker.
- Printed photographs of:
- Visibility of Official Number and Meter:
- Printed photo of the official property number visible on the facade and/or meter base.
- Photo of the nearest neighbor’s meter number.
- For Legal Entities:
- Copy of the certificate of incorporation.
- Copy of the INE of the legal representative.
- Copy of the notarized power of attorney.
As we are neither an officially sanctioned independent community nor part of the municipio, the collection of documents was a bit hodgepodge. These included the new application, a copy of the property certificate, which served as the valid proof of ownership issued by the local delegate (Super Prez), a copy of the INE (official ID) of the owners, a copy of the articles of incorporation, a copy of the INE of the legal representative (Super Prez), a copy of the power of attorney, a copy of the current property tax receipt, and printed photographs of the electrical connection box, base, and the meter number of the nearest neighbor.
I organized this packet of paper into individual folders for the applying colonos and had them come and pick it up along with the photos of the various items requested in the list. One colono served as the guinea pig and took it to the CFE office where they were told that in addition to the paperwork turned in, he must present the número oficial vigente (official address number), which we didn’t have.
Our application for those numbers had already been given to the presidencia and they were sitting on the paperwork. So, Super Prez went to the CFE office in Salvatierra to find out if there was a workaround.
The downed line did eventually get fixed, but little did we realize that this was just the beginning of our issues with CFE.
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Need to catch up on our first failed attempts at modernization in La Yacata? Then La Yacata Revolution is where you should start!
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