• CHANGE OF MIND Despite previous rulings, a Mexican federal judge hinted it will allow a new commercial airport at the Santa Lucia Air Force Base to proceed (proj. capacity: 20 million passengers annually) siding with the López Obrador Administration on a national security basis.
• A NEW PATH Following a Government instruction to designate all military property as strategic in terms of national security, judge Juan Carlos Guzmán began to deny new legal challenges against the Santa Lucia airport which has being questioned on environmental and anti-waste grounds.
• MILITARY SPHERE “[Granting an injunction] would mean the breach of military orders within the military sphere, whose purpose is the defense of territorial integrity”, said Guzmán in a decision issued on September 25; an appellate tribunal has the final word on challenges against Santa Lucia.
• CONTROVERSY Envisioned as part of a three prong airport system that has being deemed as not viable by some, Santa Lucia has being mired in controversy since 2018 when the new Administration scrapped a partially built airport in Texcoco that would have handled 100 million passengers annually.
