MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s armed forces are taking management of the capital’s most important airport, and the federal government plans to offer the army management of practically a dozen extra throughout the nation because the president takes goal at corruption and mismanagement.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been setting the armed forces to a variety of nontraditional duties since he was elected in 2018, creating issues in regards to the separation of the army from civilian life.
A brand new airport was constructed by the military outdoors Mexico City a yr in the past at a price of $4.1 billion. It is run by the army however little used. López Obrador says the outdated airport, the nation’s busiest, shall be run by the navy.
The navy took cost of safety at Mexico City International Airport, or Benito Juárez, greater than a yr in the past. It will quickly have management of every little thing else, from customs and immigration to dealing with baggage and cleansing loos, with the approaching publication of a presidential order to make that official.
The checklist of issues at Mexico City Airport has lengthy included main drug shipments and unlawful migration. Infrastructure was in disrepair, and various shut calls had been reported on the runways in recent times because the airport more and more had hassle dealing with flights.
The airport additionally had a popularity for stolen baggage, mismanaged airline schedules, enterprise with out contracts and corruption.
PHOTOS: Mexican army to take over airports as president takes goal at corruption, mismanagement
Meanwhile, López Obrador has gone to the armed forces for assist all through his time period, giving them some immigration duties and management of ports and customs. They are additionally constructing main infrastructure tasks comparable to a vacationer prepare via the Yucatan Peninsula and a brand new airport in the identical space. They even run plant nurseries and vacationer journeys to a former penal colony.
The airport, which is utilized by some 4 million vacationers every month, shall be “a company within a naval military entity,” Rear Adm. Carlos Velázquez Tiscareño, the airport’s 73-year-old director, stated in a latest interview. But, he stated, “this is not going to look like a military department.”
Unlike the capital’s different airport, Felipe Angeles, the place National Guard troops take passenger tickets on the gate, at Benito Juarez the one uniformed army are the 1,500 marines deployed since February 2022 for safety. The remainder of the airport personnel shall be civilians however “with clearer rules … that govern with more order and discipline,” Velázquez Tiscareño stated.
The navy will kind an organization referred to as Casiopea to run the airport and 6 others which have “deficiencies” and are “in the hands of organized crime,” Velázquez Tiscareño stated. Among them shall be Matamoros, throughout the border from Texas, and Playa del Carmen on the Gulf of Mexico.
López Obrador has already stated that he plans to have a dozen airports within the fingers of the military or navy by the tip of his administration in 2024. And by the tip of this yr, the army is scheduled to start working its personal industrial airline.
The Mexico City takeover runs opposite to worldwide aviation suggestions that clearly distinguish between army and civilian, stated Rogelio Rodríguez Garduño, an aviation legislation skilled at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. But the authorized penalties of the transfer stay unclear.
Earlier this yr, Mexico’s Supreme Court dominated that the switch of the National Guard from civilian to army management was unconstitutional. López Obrador left the guard underneath a civilian division however with a army operational chief.
While navy operational management might assist some safety points, specialists don’t imagine it’s going to resolve different issues. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration downgraded Mexico’s aviation security ranking in 2021, stopping Mexican airways from increasing flights to the U.S.
FAA security scores of different international locations are designed to measure these international locations’ oversight of their airways however don’t imply that the airways are unsafe.
In Mexico, corruption acquired to the purpose years in the past that coded messages had been despatched utilizing airport inner communications to carry up baggage inspections so drug shipments might move untouched, in accordance with testimony throughout the U.S. trial of former Public Security Secretary Genaro Luna. He was convicted of drug trafficking in February.
Mexico City has the nation’s most necessary airport, and the navy is the department of Mexican safety forces during which the U.S. authorities have probably the most confidence, however the U.S. has not commented on the growing energy of the Mexican army.
“There are various airports in the country that have had big problems for many years, and they had to be fixed,” stated Velázquez Tiscareño, himself a retired pilot.
In the previous yr, the navy’s safety oversight has shut down some unlawful enterprise contained in the airport, improved inspections and diminished stolen baggage, Velázquez Tiscareño stated. Some airport employees verify that, however word too that complaints about flight delays proceed.
“The navy has put things under greater control, but now we need to see how they’re going to work,” stated José Beltrán, 72, who picks up trash on the airport.
“It’s more peaceful,” stated Luis Martinez, who’s been working on the airport for 25 years, serving to passengers who want wheelchairs. But, he stated, “people have the same complaints: flight delays and problems with luggage.”
Rodríguez Garduño stated Mexican aviation wants more cash, extra coaching and inspection regimes, amongst different measure, to boost its competitiveness on the worldwide stage.
He stated he was unsure if the army might assist clear up all these issues.
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