Artist's conception of Santa Lucía airport.
A federal judge has overturned one of eight suspension orders against the Santa Lucía airport, providing a ray of hope for the government that construction of the project could soon begin.
The ruling by a Mexico City-based administrative court judge came in response to an application filed by the National Secretariat of Defense (Sedena) for the revocation of the injunction.
The overturned court order is one of eight granted to the #NoMásDerroches (No More Waste) Collective, a group that believes that reviving the previous government’s abandoned Mexico City airport project is “legally possible.”
Sedena, which has responsibility for the execution of the US $4.8-billion airport project, argued for its repeal on the basis that halting construction at the Santa Lucía Air Force base site could place national security at risk.
That argument was supported by the classification on August 29 of all the defense department’s movable and immovable property, including the airport project, as strategic installations.
“The request for the modification or revocation of the definitive suspension is lawful and well-founded,” the judge said in the ruling, which was made public on Tuesday.
“. . . The definitive suspension granted is revoked.”
The newspaper El Universal said that even though seven other suspension orders against the airport remain valid, the judge could repeat his judgement and revoke them as well.
The #NoMásDerroches collective has filed more than 100 injunction requests against the Santa Lucía airport, which President López Obrador says will be completed in a period of three years once construction begins.
Opposition to the project is politically motivated and amounts to “legal sabotage,” he argues.
López Obrador said on Monday that the government is ready to begin construction as soon as all the injunctions against it have been annulled.
“We’re ready, we have the whole project [ready to go], the machinery. I just hope that the injunctions don’t proceed . . . We’re literally on our way to waving the starting flag,” he said.
Source: El Universal (sp), Notimex (sp)
