The Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) will continue its legal battle against the construction of a new airport at the Santa Lucía Air Force base, a project that was launched after what it calls one of the worst presidential decisions ever made.
Speaking on Saturday to an assembly of youth supporters of the conservative National Action Party (PAN), Coparmex president Gustavo de Hoyos called the decision by President López Obrador to cancel the Texcoco airport one of the worst actions taken by a Mexican executive in history.
“No president has deliberately taken an action with this level of cost, not one, not even the worst president we’ve had in the past,” he said. “So even if they don’t like it, even if they get angry, even if they call us conservatives or legal saboteurs, we’ll continue filing injunctions so this project won’t be abandoned. That’s what we’re fighting for.”
De Hoyos also claimed that President López Obrador lied to the business community when he said there was no interest from private investors in completing the project.
“The president lied to us repeatedly, because there have been or are dozens of offers to finish this great project.”
The decision also did severe damage to Mexico’s reputation as a place in which to invest, he said.
“No government in the modern era of our country has received a country with better growth opportunities . . .” but those conditions do not exist today.
De Hoyos was responding to accusations by the president that injunctions against the Santa Lucía airport were politically motivated.
President-elect López Obrador decided to abandon the Texcoco airport after a controversial referendum last October, in which voters in an essentially ad-hoc public consultation chose to build an airport outside of Mexico City in Santa Lucía and upgrade the existing one.
But construction at Santa Lucía has been held up by legal challenges led by a group called #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste), a coalition of civil society organizations that includes Coparmex.
In June, a lawyer for #NoMásDerroches told reporters that preventing the construction of the Santa Lucía airport is part of a strategy to revive the Texcoco project, which they believe is still possible.
Source: Milenio (sp)
