Public will decide future of Mexico's $13 billion airport
70 views · Published 30 October 2018 · 3:23 · Indexed 7 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(25 Oct 2018) The future of Mexico City's new airport, already about a third completed, comes down to a public vote this week. The political high-wire act by the country's president-elect could shut down Mexico's largest infrastructure project in recent memory. President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promised to let the people decide the fate of the 13 billion US dollar project. The leftist had also said earlier he would cancel it if elected, his victory being a referendum in itself. Over four days beginning Thursday, citizens will cast ballots asking whether to continue the new airport or update the existing one and another two hours away in Toluca, while building two new runways at a military base 50 minutes north of the capital's existing airport to convert it to commercial use. Supporters of the new airport say it is needed because Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport handles more traffic than its designed capacity and a solution is urgently needed to satisfy growing demand. Surrounded by residential neighbourhoods, the old airport has no room to add new runways. And supporters point to a study by U.S. corporation Mitre saying that while the alternative plan is technically feasible, it presents important logistical problems and overall is unviable. Opponents counter that not only is the new airport a potential sinkhole of corruption, but it is an environmental disaster, threatening a decades-old effort to restore the lakes that originally covered the valley in which the capital sits. Locals also say they were not consulted. Lopez Obrador has said he wants to remain impartial, but he and his Cabinet picks consistently make the case against the new airport, characterising it as too expensive and a windfall for corrupt interests. On a recent morning, Lopez Obrador's pick for transportation minister stood above an open pit mine as trucks dumped muddy sediment from the new airport site about 10 miles (16 kilometres) away. Surrounded by residents of communities near the project, Javier Jimenez Espriu said he was gathering information and helping to inform citizens about the project and its impact. His talk was interrupted by Felipe Alvarez Hernandez, a member of Peoples in Defense of the Earth Front, a group that has been fighting proposed airports in the area for nearly two decades. "If they are affecting our life, with our life we shall defend it," Alvarez said. "We will defend this nation and we will defend this town and all towns." In San Nicolas Tlaminca, where Alvarez was talking, residents worry the mud being dumped is toxic and will contaminate their ground water. Residents of other nearby towns say the project requires so much basalt and another reddish volcanic rock that mines are altering their landscape. At the site of the new airport, work continues full-steam ahead. The schedule calls for construction to wrap up toward the end of 2021. The site was a hive of activity on a recent morning. Fifteen of the 21 massive "funnels" that will support the terminal were under construction beneath more than a dozen cranes. An army of ironworkers positioned rebar for the ground transportation center next to the terminal. Two floors of the control tower rise at the center of the more than 12,000-acre site - more than six times the area covered by the capital's existing airport. Lopez Obrador has been labeled both a leftist populist and authoritarian. Letting the public decide the airport's fate would seem to lean toward populism, but analysts believe the way the questions are asked can steer the result. Asked another way, a majority voted to continue it. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/1e3a00c8a32101db1ad07039c46a91c4
