The Autonomous University of Hidalgo is at the center of a money laundering investigation.
The Autonomous University of Hidalgo (UAEH) is under investigation for money laundering after financial authorities detected that it received US $156 million from bank accounts in Switzerland and more than 20 other countries.
The Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) said in a statement this week that its Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) received a financial system report alerting it to unusual financial movements in different bank accounts held in the name of a public university.
“The financial system reported the execution of deposits and international transfers coming from more than 22 countries; Switzerland, Spain, the United Kingdom, among others. Among the most relevant movements, it was detected that an educational center received around $150 million from bank accounts located in Switzerland,” the SHCP said.
UIF chief Santiago Nieto revealed yesterday that the Hidalgo university is under investigation and its accounts have been frozen. He pledged that there would be no impunity in the case, even if people linked to Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, are found to be involved.
“At the moment, I can’t give more information, I can only confirm that it is indeed the university [of Hidalgo]. The president of the republic has told me that we must have zero tolerance with corruption and zero tolerance for impunity. It doesn’t matter what party it is, this affects the financial system,” he said.
The revelation that the UAEH is suspected of money laundering came at the end of a difficult week for the university.
Last Saturday, the son of UAEH council chairman and former chancellor Gerardo Sosa Castelán was shot and killed, while on Monday the university’s official Facebook page was hacked.
Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad acknowledged yesterday that “things have happened” since the homicide of Gerardo Sosa Cravioto in the municipality of Acaxochitlán and said he had instructed the state’s attorney general to do all he could to facilitate investigations into the crimes.
He also called on the family of the murder victim to provide any information it has that could help authorities in their inquiries.
Sosa Castelán, who is likely to come under investigation as part of the money laundering probe, is a former federal lawmaker with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) but distanced himself from the party after losing an internal contest to become the candidate for governor of Hidalgo in 2005.
He is now linked to and a supporter of President López Obrador’s Morena party although he is not a formal member, the newspaper Milenio said.
Current university chancellor Adolfo Pontigo Loyola yesterday denied that the university was involved in money laundering or other corrupt activities.
“We don’t have any money that is not the university’s nor have we received money from any country. Money that is deposited in university accounts . . . is strictly money of the institution,” he said.
Pontigo claimed that both state and federal authorities have completed audits of the university’s accounts and found no irregularities.
“The autonomous [university] of Hidalgo is among the best public education institutions in the country. We were never participants in the master fraud,” he said, referring to a corruption scheme in which federal agencies diverted government money through public universities.
“We’re among the best 1,200 [universities] in the world and above all, the Federal Auditor’s Office has audited us. We haven’t had any problem,” Pontigo added.
The chancellor said he was willing to support a wider investigation into the university’s finances but again stressed that authorities “won’t find any legal irregularity or extraordinary resources that shouldn’t be here and that are not of the university.”
Mexico continues to rank among the worst countries in the world on an index that measures the rule of law based on the experiences and perceptions of the general public.
For the second consecutive year, Mexico maintained a score of 0.45 on the World Justice Project (WJP) Rule of Law Index 2019. The index uses a scale from 0 to 1, with 1 indicating the strongest adherence to the rule of law.
While Mexico’s score remained the same, its position on the index dropped two places to 99th out of 126 countries.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico ranked 26th out of 30 countries, just ahead of Honduras, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Corruption, insecurity and impunity were all factors in Mexico’s low score and ranking, the WJP said.
In the “absence of corruption” and “order and security” categories, Mexico ranked 117th out of the 126 countries while for “criminal justice” and “civil justice” it placed 115th and 113th respectively.
Mexico’s achieved its best ranking in “open government,” placing 35th. Mexico’s next best place was 73rd for “fundamental rights” followed by 84th for “constraints on government power” and 87th for “regulatory enforcement.”
The top five countries on the index were Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Venezuela was the lowest-ranked country behind Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Mauritania.
The top three countries in Latin America were Uruguay, Costa Rica and Chile, which ranked 23rd, 24th and 25th while in North America, Canada came out on top in ninth place overall followed by the United States, which ranked 20th.
A 2018 study by the WJP determined that the rule of law is weak in every Mexican state, particularly Guerrero and Baja California Sur, which were found to be the most lawless entities in the country.
While The Captured Tourist Woman (TCTW) and I continue to seek prices from contractors for our time and materials project, I have been pondering the history of the wider process of start to finish of what one day will be our Refugio de Olas Altas.
Purchasing a home in Mexico is not always a straightforward process, and if the property is in the restricted zone a foreign buyer can never get an actual title in the same way as it’s thought of in the first world.
The restricted zone is 100 kilometers from any border and 50 kilometers from any coastline. Foreign buyers within the zone must purchase through a trust instrument known as a fideicomiso. The bank holds the deed while granting most of the benefits of property ownership to the foreign buyer.
Having a bank hold title may seem a bit unconventional for those who live north of the border, but the process of generating the bank trust often turns out to be the least complex of the many and complicated machinations required to own property in a Mexican beach town.
My decade of experience as a contractor here had allowed me to see first-hand some of the horror stories about the purchase of Mexican real estate; they would rival those written by Stephen King. So, after living in Mexico a number of years, our present venture into Mexican real estate was cautious and very calculated.
Some repairs are in Bodie’s future.
TCTW and I had toyed over the years with the idea of purchasing a home here in Mazatlán. But our rent was quite reasonable, we had a great home in an excellent location with both city and ocean views, and off-street parking for both vehicles.
Good sense told us to leave things as they were. Plus, we had an excellent onshore breeze where we were, which helped to keep us cool in the warmer months.
Then one day a couple of years ago, when returning from a bike ride, I noticed a very new BMW with Jalisco plates parked close to our house. Arriving home, I went upstairs and looked across the large vacant parcel of land between us and the ocean.
There I saw two nicely dressed, 30-something men, pacing and gesturing, mostly towards the water, both with rolled up plans under their arms. I pointed this out to TCTW who responded with the kind of thunderous exclamation which sometimes gets attention in the local bars: “Oh, bugger!” She is an Australian so she often talks this way.
It wasn’t only that the (obviously planned) new construction would likely block a portion of our ocean view. It was also the thought of the dust clouds that would be carried into our drafty Mexican house by the excellent onshore breeze.
After contemplating for mere seconds the disaster that was about to befall us, I said “I think there might be a place for sale on the other hill, in an iconic position overlooking the bay of centro histórico, easy walking distance to all that’s fun in a cool Mexican city, and of course the view would be spectacular. “I’ll go check it out.”
My words piqued the interest of TCTW. To cut to the chase, I looked a few times, we made an offer and the game was on. Well, the word “game” implies some element of amusement or at least enjoyment.
Perhaps a better indication of our overall state of mind would be a constant sense of apprehension scratching at the recesses of the mind. The thought that the whole thing could go south at any moment, from some trivial, unknown, unexpected cultural or legal snafu was unsettling at best.
Instead of just choosing a notario, we researched and found a notario who also received one of his law degrees from Columbia University in New York. From time to time he litigated when things went wrong with sales or purchases, so he seemed to have built up a good knowledge of traps that could be avoided.
Since TCTW was a practicing attorney in her previous life and still thirsts for legal knowledge about anything she touches, she was confident he had a solid understanding of notarial practice, and both the law as well as all the vagaries of buying real estate in Mexico. He also turned out to be a negotiator extraordinaire.
Our first meeting with the sellers established the price of the property in pesos and the ensuing four meetings, which took place over the next month, hammered out the details — lots of details. Sitting across from us at the conference table during these meetings were four members of the family — three men and a woman, sellers of the property.
They happened to be one attorney, one accountant, one notario, and a real estate agent. So, along with TCTW and our notario/attorney, I was at a table that represented probably close to 25 years of relevant higher education, not to mention the levels of varying expertise.
I didn’t actually feel daunted, but I thought it best to simply smile and nod at the appropriate times while saying nothing, while of course ensuring TCTW and the others knew she had my support on all her points of view.
We knew early on that the original owner’s estate had not been probated since his death more than five years before. We learned during negotiations that his wife had also died and her estate had never been probated either.
In wealthy Mexican families this is fairly standard so we weren’t put off, but we did know it would probably take a number of years for the court proceedings to complete before the usual Mexican sale hijinks could even begin. Of course we had heard many horror stories about dead owners with dead relatives and probates that involved squabbling relatives, situations which took years to resolve if ever; this was not encouraging information.
But by now, we were committed, we weren’t going to walk away from a great house in such a fantastic location. At the heart of the deal, which was finally and amicably hammered out, was a binding agreement in which no cash was expended by us, and which allowed us occupancy of the property after six months if the deal was at that time not yet able to progress because of the probate proceedings.
It was during this six-month period we learned of a third probate which was also required to be completed prior to the sale. Needless to say, at the end of the six months we were in the house and getting interesting tidbits from time to time from the lawyer on the particular steps attained and obstacles overcome, along the way to the granting of the probates.
While we came closer to real ownership over 22 months, sizeable concrete pieces of the house were engaged, increasingly, in a losing battle with gravity. Our dread of the deal falling apart for any number of reasons was only exceeded by our dread of being maimed or killed by falling plaster and concrete.
In accordance with our concerns within a day of moving in, we closely scrutinized the severe cracks infecting the second-floor balcony, and we christened it The Balcony of Slow Death. The cantilevered shade structure above that balcony was named The Concrete Awning of Instant Death.
The first instance of a near-death experience from The Concrete Awning of Instant Death happened while I was heating up my barbecue in the only place it could be on the second floor, in a corner of The Balcony of Slow Death.
When I stepped back into the house to acquire another adult beverage, I heard a thunderous crash and felt a small shock wave ripple through the floor as 60 or 70 kilograms of concrete had detached itself from the shade structure and landed directly next to the barbecue at the spot where I stand while tending the barbecue! After several therapeutic shots of tequila, I ordered a pizza.
After waiting for almost two years, and constantly watching increasing numbers of pieces fall, the deal was finally consummated on January 18 this year, and we gave a collective sigh of relief. Soon the substantial building work could be begun. Of course we decided to celebrate with a night on the town.
In pursuit of that goal, we stepped out our door, and closed it firmly, not a slam mind you, but a firm close. This dislodged about 20 kilos of concrete from the eve of the parapet directly above us. Luckily we were chatting and moving slowly so we hadn’t gone far. Consequently the deadly missile which landed at our feet missed us by mere inches. Undaunted by the latest attempt by our house to kill us, we had an evening on the town with great food and a decent bottle of dago red.
And we’ve made a pact, that until the renovations are all done, that upon any occasion the house attempts to kill either one or both of us, we will celebrate, in similar fashion, foiling the grim reaper once again.
The writer describes himself as a very middle-aged man who lives full-time in Mazatlán with a captured tourist woman and the ghost of a half wild dog. He can be reached at [email protected].
The National Archives will be the new home of police files.
The federal government will release thousands of previously-classified police files next week including those relating to political persecution, human rights violations and corruption.
President López Obrador signed a decree this week that will see files predating 1985 that were held at the recently-disbanded Center for Investigation and National Security (Cisen) made available to the public at the National Archives (AGN).
Speaking at his morning press conference, the president said today that there will be complete transparency in the opening of the files but stressed that the government will not seek to prosecute people named in them, explaining that “scapegoats should not be sought.”
However, if people who were politically persecuted or spied on want to file criminal complaints, that will be a matter for them, López Obrador said, explaining that “within the framework of the law” they have complete freedom to do so.
The president explained that the only limitations on access to the files will be those established by law and related to the protection of children and family members of victims.
Files which “may affect or harm people’s dignity, their human rights” will not be released, López Obrador said.
The president also said that “my file will be released next week but let it be clear that it will be [that with information] from 1985 back.”
Zoe Robledo, an Interior Secretariat undersecretary, said that in about a month the government will announce details about the release of police files relating to years from 1985 to the present time.
All government secretariats that currently hold such files will also have to submit them to the AGN, she said.
“All of the files that were protected will be . . . opened so that citizens can have access to them, particularly researchers. It’s part of the program to strengthen our historic memory,” Robledo said.
The undersecretary charged that the release of police files by past governments was only a simulation because it was Cisen itself rather than the AGN that stored and managed them.
Now, Robledo said, “the aim is maximum publicity, putting public interest and the truth first,” pledging that “no kind of simulation will be allowed.”
Carlos Enrique Ruiz, director of the National Archives said the agency “will apply a process to order and classify the files so that everyone interested can access what they’re looking for.”
The public will be able to start making requests to access them as of Monday, he said.
The town of Álamos in southern Sonora has opened a new convention center that is expected to help drive tourism in the region.
Álamos conventions director Danitza Rodríguez Sotelo told the newspaper El Economista that the state government invested 78 million pesos (US $4 million) as part of a larger plan to attract business tourism.
Work on the center, which has a capacity of 6,000 people, began in 2017. Rodríguez said that Álamos was the only location in the region with more than 300 hotel rooms.
He added that he expected the center to be a strong motivation for the construction of additional hotels in Álamos and in nearby Navojoa, amplifying the economic spillover.
The conventions director said that southern Sonora was uniquely equipped for hosting business meetings because of highway infrastructure and its proximity to large industrial and manufacturing centers, like Ciudad Obregón.
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“Every year, Álamos hosts the Álamos Alliance event, which is the most important event in the northeast for economists. Our new convention center will be its headquarters. Scientific tourism is another of the new sectors that we want to integrate, along with conventions for the manufacturing industry.”
He added that in addition to the investment in the convention center, authorities have made efforts to involve residents in Sonora’s southern region in new business models and ventures for the past three years.
Rodríguez said that despite problems caused by the disbanding of the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) as well as budget cuts to the magical towns program, Álamos will continue to implement vital infrastructure projects with the help of private support and a new-found kinship among conventions directors region-wide.
“. . . we support one another,” he said. “We are working together to create internal promotion programs. There is regional unity here; I mean that in the northern states, we support one another.”
Adela Breton's watercolor of the east façade of the 'Nunnery' at Chichén Itzá.
In 1894, a man living near the famed ruins of Teotihuacán, 50 kilometers from modern Mexico City, discovered a small, pre-Hispanic house whose walls were covered with beautifully colored murals.
The place was called Teopancaxco or “La Casa de Barrios.” The paintings were the first of their kind found at Teotihuacán and visitors considered them spectacular.
Weather and time eventually did their damage to the murals and today we would have little idea of how they once looked if it were not for an extraordinary Englishwoman named Adela Breton who had fallen in love with Mexico’s ruins and who painstakingly reproduced these murals as watercolors.
Mary Frech, author of Adela Breton, a Victorian Artist Amid Mexico’s Ruins, says, quoting James Langley:
“Adela made the most comprehensive record of the murals at Teopancaxco. Her re-creation of the colours of the murals is unsurpassed compared with the few colour reproductions available, and thus constitutes an irreplaceable memorial of the now destroyed masterpieces.’”
Adela Breton, English explorer and artist.
What was an unmarried Victorian gentlewoman doing in Mexico before the turn of the century, 5,500 miles from home?
Exploring, painting, sketching, measuring and photographing not only Mexico’s best-known archaeological sites like those at Chichén Itzá but, it seems, even obscure ruins from the extensive Teuchitlán Tradition of western Mexico which, it was generally believed, were unheard of before archaeologist Phil Weigand gazed upon the Guachimontones in 1969.
Proof of Adela Breton’s keen observations in Jalisco came to light when the Museum of Bristol decided to digitize many of her works and publish them on the internet. For the first time, people outside Bristol could see Breton’s sketches of the now famous Circular Pyramids of Teuchitlán in Jalisco.
“Accurate drawings of the Guachimontones made in 1896?” exclaimed Jalisco archaeologist Rodrigo Esparza. “That’s amazing!” Even more amazing was the discovery, again thanks to the Bristol Museum, that Adela Breton had taken the first known photographs of the three largest “Guaxi mounds,” as she labeled them.
Did Breton publish anything related to the Guachimontones? The answer is yes, but apparently only a few words. Here is what she says in a paper delivered at the International Congress of Americanists in 1902:
“Teuchitlán is a small town at the foot of a long spur of [Tequila] volcano . . . . At Teuchitlán, obsidian rejects are thickly strewn over a great extent of ground. In addition to the obsidian, it has a most interesting ancient site on the summit of the hill, and the remarkable mounds and circles called Huaerchi Monton half-way up.”
Tracing of a mural painting from Upper Temple of the Jaguars.
Breton was able to reach this remote corner of Jalisco thanks to a train line built only a few years before, a modernization project of President Porfirio Diáz. She brought with her plenty of trunks, her horse and her ever resourceful guide, Pablo Solorio, who somehow learned that a mound housing an untouched tomb had been discovered near the town of Etzatlán and had recently been opened.
After visiting the Guachimontones, Adela went to the Mound of Guadalupe and gives us what is probably the first description of the unearthing of a burial site in western Mexico. “Unfortunately,” she reported, “there was no skilled supervision, no data were secured and most of the figures were broken.”
Fortunately, however, the resourceful Adela was on hand for the event and recorded, according to Mary Frech, that “the mound was about 40 feet high and held a burial with pots, jewelry, clay ‘portrait’ figures ranging from 12 to 20 inches tall and other artifacts.” Of course, she sketched a number of those broken figures and even photographed the Mound of Guadalupe, of which today little is left to see.
Adela Catherine Breton was born in London in 1849. After the death of both her parents she was “easily convinced” by pioneer in archaeological techniques Alfred Maudslay to travel to Chichén Itzá to make sketches which would allow Maudslay to check the accuracy of his own drawings, before publishing his Biologia Centrali-Americana. Thus began her curious career as an archaeological artist.
Upon arriving in Yucatán, Adela developed a turbulent relationship with Edward Thompson, the United States consul there. According to the Harvard University Archives, Thompson wrote to Fredric Putnam, curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, accusing Breton of “meddling” at Chichén Itzá.
Says Thompson: “To my horror I found out the day I left Chichén that she proposes to return to Chicheen shortly for another period of time. She certainly is an artist as regards landscapes at least and she has made one painting in the intervals of her work for Maudslay that is really very nice. She brought out the artistic points of the ‘Nunnery’ in a wonderful manner.”
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After a few months, he writes again to Putnam: “She has a very peculiar character but I think that she is one of those persons that improves as one knows them better. She most certainly is a true artist.”
In the opinion of Matt Williams of the Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, Adela “developed into a world-renowned archaeological copyist thanks to her drawings of friezes, carved reliefs, painted plasters and other cultural treasures – some of which are now the only records that remain of items long since lost to vandalism and decay.”
According to Williams, Adela was a well-seasoned traveler and she once wrote: “I used to live chiefly on air and a few peanuts for the long riding journeys — 30 miles without any breakfast.”
“Adela chose not to marry,” he adds, “as it was the only thing that guaranteed a woman’s independence in those days. She wanted to be free to travel and chart her own destiny.”
According to Kate Devlin, a writer for Trowelblazers.com, Harvard anthropologist Alfred Tozzer once said, “You look at Miss Breton and set her down as a weak, frail and delicate person who goes into convulsions at the sight of the slightest unconventionality in the way of living. But I assure you, her appearance is utterly at variance with her real self.”
Adela Breton died at age 73 in Barbados in 1923, and left most of her work and collection to the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Jiménez, left, and Morán at yesterday's press conference.
The federal government yesterday released a transcript of the radio communication between the helicopter in which the governor of Puebla and her husband were killed and the control tower at Puebla International Airport, and said that there was no evidence that foul play caused the crash of the aircraft.
Martha Erika Alonso, former Puebla governor and Senator Rafael Moreno Valle, two pilots and a political aide all died after the helicopter in which they were traveling plunged to the ground just outside the city of Puebla on Christmas Eve.
The transcript reveals that the final communication between the helicopter and the air control tower was at 2:35pm on December 24.
The helicopter pilot who spoke to air traffic control didn’t indicate that the aircraft was experiencing any difficulties or problems.
However, when the air control tower next tried to contact the helicopter at 2:39 pm, there was no response and over the course of the next 10 minutes a further 10 attempts to reach the aircraft also went unanswered.
According to Carlos Morán Moguel, an undersecretary at the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT), investigations into the fatal crash have not found any evidence of outside interference, human error on the part of the pilots, previous mechanical problems with the helicopter or that there were explosives on board.
“. . . [There is] nothing that makes us imagine that there was any aggressive event against the aircraft,” he said.
Morán said the SCT expects to have a final report about the crash by the end of the year although he explained that investigations into aviation accidents can in some cases take more than two years.
Laboratories in Canada, Italy and the United States will review the fragmented helicopter parts during March and April, he said, explaining that there are “digital chips” inside the parts that could offer clues about the cause of the accident.
“There is a possibility of extracting some information even though they [the helicopter parts] are badly burned, experts tell us that information can be obtained,” Morán said.
On the day of the accident, the undersecretary said, the helicopter took off from a heliport in Puebla City called Triángulo de las Ánimas.
From there, the helicopter flew a distance of “fewer than three kilometers” to the home of business magnate José Chedraui, where it landed in the garden and picked up Alonso and Moreno, Morán said.
The information about the stop had not previously been revealed and contradicts comments made on the day of the accident by Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo, who said that the helicopter crashed after taking off from Triángulo de las Ánimas and made no mention of Chedraui’s home.
The final destination of the helicopter was to be a private heliport in Mexico City, where the governor and her husband are believed to have planned to attend a Christmas party.
However, around 10 minutes after the helicopter left Chedraui’s home it crashed in a field in the municipality of Coronango.
The release of the communication transcript yesterday came the day after President López Obrador said that he would ask Transportation Secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú to review a decision to place a five-year embargo on the release of the audio tapes.
“My recommendation is that there be complete transparency,” the president said.
The Civil Aviation Agency (DGAC), a division of the SCT, had said that releasing the recording was not in the public interest, would have a negative impact on aviation and national security and could place future international cooperation on aviation accident investigations at risk. However, shortly after López Obrador’s remarks, it backed down on its five-year embargo plan.
Morán said yesterday that he considered the embargo to be “excessive” but explained that the reservation of information for that period of time has been a standard practice of the DGAC.
He also acknowledged that there has been criticism of the government for not providing updates about the progress of the accident investigations but explained that was because there was “nothing new to report.” National Action Party (PAN) president Marko Cortés said this week there had been a “suspicious silence.”
Secretary Jiménez stressed, however, that the government won’t hide anything.
“When we have the experts’ report there will complete transparency and we’ll report what we can along the way. We have the clear instruction and conviction to reveal everything,” he said.
A section of the massive tunnel scheduled to be in operation in July.
A 10-year-long megatunnel project in Mexico City will be completed on July 10, the head of the National Water Commission (Conagua) has announced.
Blanca Jiménez said excavation of the tunnel was 81% complete and would be finished in April. Lining the tunnel with concrete is 95% complete, and will be finished in July.
Construction crews will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week until the project is finished, she said.
The 62-kilometer tunnel project will move 150,000 liters of wastewater per second. Officials say its completion is vital to reducing flooding in Mexico City.
During a tour of the tunnel with Jiménez, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum stressed the importance of completing the project before this year’s rainy season.
“We have urged [Jiménez] to finish the tunnel before the 2019 rainy season. She has assured us she will do all she can to do so; it’s very important that it is completed so that we can reduce some of the flooding, especially in the eastern part [of the city].”
The mayor added that once the project is complete, the Mexico City government will need to focus on constructing better drainage systems to take full advantage of the tunnel and to reduce the city’s reliance on the underground aquifer, which may be in danger of running out, according to some sources.
“Our first priority is to protect forested areas and to generate new means for capturing household rainwater so that at least during the rainy season we can rely on other ways of getting water.”
Operating three airports within close proximity to each other in Mexico City and México state will be “complex” and “challenging,” according to the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
“The government’s plan is for three airports to serve Mexico City: the current one, Toluca and the Santa Lucía airbase. I will be frank. Making this work will be challenging,” Alexendre de Juniac said yesterday at an IATA aviation summit in Mexico City.
The former Air France CEO outlined a range of challenges that will arise from operating the three airports simultaneously as well as limitations of each individual one.
The Mexico City airport “is already operating above its design capacity,” de Juniac said, adding that “converting the government hangar to a terminal is unlikely to meaningfully improve the situation when there is no practical way to add a third runway.”
Toluca Airport’s single runway “can certainly be utilized more fully” but will likely only be used for domestic flights, de Juniac said, adding that the distance of 70 kilometers to the Mexico City airport “makes efficient connections nearly impossible.”
He also said that converting the Santa Lucía air force base in México state “will take time and significant investment” and that “the military will have to gain experience in running a civilian airport.”
That is a “very different thing” to running an airbase, de Juniac added.
“Even when we resolve the airport issues, we have a potentially even bigger challenge to provide safe and efficient air traffic management. The three airports are in very close proximity and the runway orientations are not parallel which makes it complex. Landing and take-off paths are further restricted by mountainous terrain. And high altitude with seasonally hot temperatures are an additional factor which need to be taken into account,” he said.
“I cannot over-emphasize the need for technical coordination with operators to carefully manage these parameters. Safety must never be compromised. And we don’t want to find that investments in these three airports are compromised by air traffic management requirements that ultimately limit their utilization. Getting air traffic management right is mission-critical,” de Juniac added.
The IATA chief said it was “no secret that we are disappointed with the decision to discontinue” the new Mexico City airport, which “would have secured Mexico City’s long-term position as a major global player in the aviation industry.”
However, de Juniac also said that “we accept that a decision has been made” and that “IATA is eager and fully committed to work with the government to find the most effective way to prepare Mexico City – and indeed the entire Mexican industry – to meet the growing demand to fly.”
Communication and Transportation Secretary Javier Jiménez Espriú agreed with the IATA boss that operating three airports will be challenging but stressed that the government is working to ensure that there will be no risks associated with their simultaneous use.
He explained that Navblue, a Canadian subsidiary of Airbus, will be responsible for restructuring the use of airspace so that flights can take off from and land at the three airports at the same time.
“It must be said that a large part of the work was already started by the Navigation Services for Mexican Airspace [Seneam, a government agency],” Jiménez said.
They [Navblue] told us in a first estimate that it would cost US $6 million but seeing the progress of Seneam, the quote will be less.”
The secretary added that French airport operator Aéroports de Paris is collaborating on the development of the master plan for the Santa Lucía airport, which will be built by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena).
Jiménez conceded that the government hasn’t yet provided detailed information about its plan at Santa Lucía, explaining that reaching agreements with investors involved in the canceled airport project was a constraining factor.
However, President López Obrador will announce details soon, he said.
Jiménez also said that it was likely that most airlines would only operate at one of the three airports in the greater Mexico City area to avoid logistical problems. All airport stakeholders will be involved in logistics planning for the three airports, he explained.
Meanwhile, materials purchased to build the cancelled airport project in Texcoco, México state, will either be put up for sale or used in other government infrastructure projects.
Tezontle and basalt, two volcanic rocks widely used in construction, could be used in the construction of the Maya Train or Isthmus of Tehuantepec train projects, Jiménez said.
Authorities in Tututepec, Oaxaca, have requested help from the state government after dogs were killed with poison.
As municipal police force search for those responsible, the state Attorney General’s office said there have been at least 27 cases of cruelty against dogs in the year since the crime was catalogued as a serious one in Oaxaca.
Of the 27 investigations, said spokesman Alejandro Alfonso Ramírez, “a settlement was reached between the parties in three cases, six cases were shelved, four were not filed properly, and three went to trial, with penalties of up to six months in jail.” The remaining cases remain open.
In one case a man dragged a puppy behind his taxi in the municipality of San Dionisio Ocotepec. The case went to trial and the driver was ordered to do six months of community service and pay for the dog’s medical treatment.
For the dog, meanwhile, the incident has turned its life around. It was adopted by a family in Switzerland, according to the newspaper report.
