President Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans that the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) be fully managed by the Secretary of the Navy, eliminating the current coordination exercised by the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT), reveals an Agreement of the president that was sent -as a draft- to the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement (Conamer).
The transference, and therefore militarization of the air terminal of the capital of the country, it would take place sixty days after the presidential measure is published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), specifies the document that can be consulted on the Conamer website.
Within this period, the SICT “must update the capital stock” of the state-owned companies that own the capital’s airport, and carry out “the transfer of all the representative shares of the federal government” to the Navy.
The provision of the Federal Executive, whose next publication in the DOF does not yet have a defined date, transgresses several articles of the Constitution, mainly numeral 129, which is clear and emphatic: “In peacetime, no military authority can exercise more functions than those that have an exact connection with military discipline.”.
However, the bill orders that all actions carried out by the Secretariat of Infrastructure, for the transfer from the airport to the military institution, “must be reported to the person in charge of the Secretariat of the Navy” within the aforementioned period of sixty days.
That is, the Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, Jorge Nuno Lara, must inform the admiral secretary Jose Rafael Ojeda Duran, as if the latter were his hierarchical superior, when in reality both are subordinated -at the same level- to the president.
The aerodrome of the metropolis is one of the few air terminals that belong to the State, and not to the private initiative, through the parastatal companies Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México, Servicios Aeroportuarios de la Ciudad de México, and the firm Aeroportuario Mexico City International.
Its about the most important airport in the country well -until May of this year- had mobilized 19.6 million passengers, 10.9% more than the traveling users of the AICM in the same period of 2022according to data from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation.
Last year, this terminal served just over 46 million passengers, of which 14.5 million went abroad and 31.6 million did so within national territory.
seize the militia
Currently, also by presidential order, the Navy provides surveillance services at the Mexico City Airport, through 1,500 elements that not only perform security functions, but are also in charge of the customs of the enclosure. In fact, these have been militarized throughout the country since September 2020.
The same document acknowledges that the Navy already “helps in surveillance, inspection, support and control operations in the airport area to neutralize the trafficking of arms, drugs, currency, illegal merchandise and prevent human trafficking”.
However, these supervisory tasks carried out by the sailors are not enough for the head of the federal Executive Power, who justifies his intention to transfer all the management of the airport to the Secretary of the Navy to “take advantage of the human, material and infrastructure resources that can be contribute the Armed Forces in favor of the security of the country”.
The preliminary draft of the López Obrador Agreement argues that in previous years “a systemic oversight was generated” not only in the AICM: “In the terminals a service was provided with deficiencies and with poorly used areas and equipment, which generated vulnerabilities that led to acts of unlawful interference.”
Given this, instead of reinforcing surveillance, and the fight against corruption and impunity, the president believes that the capital’s air terminal coincides, in the field of security of the Mexican State, with the powers of the Secretary of the Navy, “reason for which it is necessary to proceed with its resectorization”.
It is feasible to challenge
If this new presidential provision is published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, and after its entry into force, the opposition legislators in Congress are empowered to challenge its constitutionality before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, since the management and administration of this and any other air terminal has no connection with military discipline.
De facto, The fact that military personnel are in charge of the customs and ports of Mexico, as well as the Felipe Ángeles Airport, not only transgresses constitutional article 129, but also numerals 14, 16, and 21 of the Constitution, since the review activities and research carried out by members of the Army and Navy in reality they correspond exclusively to the civil authorities.
In this sense, on June 28, the country’s highest court already admitted for processing two Unconstitutionality Actions promoted by deputies and senators opposed to Morena, in which it is challenged that the Army manages the Mayan Train indefinitely, and that the federal government consider this transport and the interoceanic corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec as national security works.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.