(México) The Mexican armed forces take control of the capital’s main airport, and the government plans to give the military command of nearly a dozen more across the country, as the president tackles the corruption and mismanagement.
Since his election in 2018, President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has entrusted the armed forces with a wide range of non-traditional tasks, raising concerns about the separation between the military and civilian life.
A new airport was built by the military outside Mexico City a year ago at a cost of $4.1 billion. It is run by the military, but little used.
Mr López Obrador says the old airport, the country’s busiest, will be run by the navy.
This one had taken charge of the security of the international airport of Mexico City, or Benito Juárez, more than a year ago. It will soon control everything else, from customs and immigration to baggage handling and bathroom cleaning, thanks to the imminent publication of a presidential decree formalizing the decision.
Mexico City’s airport list of problems has long included large drug shipments and illegal immigration. Infrastructure was dilapidated and a number of near-misses have been reported on the runways in recent years as the airport has increasingly struggled to manage flights.
The airport was also notorious for baggage theft, poor airline schedule management, lack of contracts, and corruption.
The airport, which is used by some 4 million travelers each month, will be “a business within a naval military entity”, said Rear Admiral Carlos Velázquez Tiscareño, the 73-year-old airport manager. during a recent interview. But, he added, “it won’t look like a military department.”
Unlike the capital’s other airport, Felipe Angeles, where National Guard troops take tickets from passengers at the gate, at Benito Juarez the only uniformed military are the 1,500 marines deployed since February 2022 for security.
The rest of the airport staff will be civilians, but “with clearer rules that govern with more order and discipline,” Velázquez Tiscareño said.
He mentions that the navy will create a company called Casiopea to manage the airport and six others which have “deficiencies” and are “in the hands of organized crime”. These airports include Matamoros, across the border from the United States, and Playa del Carmen.
Mr. López Obrador has already said that he plans to hand over a dozen airports to the army or the navy by the end of his mandate, in 2024. By the end of the year, the army should start operating its own commercial airline.
According to Rogelio Rodríguez Garduño, an expert in aviation law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the takeover of the airport goes against international aviation recommendations, which draw a clear distinction between the military and civilian. But the legal consequences of this decision remain unclear.
Earlier this year, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that the transfer of the National Guard from civilian to military control was unconstitutional. Mr. López Obrador left the guard under the responsibility of a civil department, but with a military operational chief.
According to Mr. Rodríguez Garduño, Mexican aviation needs more money, more training and inspection regimes, among other measures, to improve its competitiveness on the world stage.
He added that he was not sure if the army could help solve all these problems.
Throughout his tenure, President López Obrador turned to the armed forces for help, entrusting them with certain tasks related to immigration and the control of ports and customs.
They are also building major infrastructure projects such as a tourist train crossing the Yucatan Peninsula and a new airport in the same region. They even run nurseries and tourist trips to a former penal colony.