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MEXICO – Mexican President-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said his government would abandon Mexico City's $ 13.3 billion airport, under construction, to the benefit of a less ambitious project, putting thus his new government in conflict with the country's leaders.
Monday's decision followed a controversial four-day public informal referendum launched by López Obrador to determine what he said was the will of the people.
Only 1.2% of registered voters voted, 70% rejecting the proposed new airport in favor of Mr López Obrador's proposal to keep the existing airport and add a terminal and two runways to a military base to the north from Mexico.
The new airport project, the largest infrastructure project of the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto, is completed to about one third. The cancellation of the project would cost about $ 5 billion.
During his campaign, Mr. López Obrador repeatedly criticized the new airport project as fraught with corruption. In canceling Monday, he called the end of "links between economic power and political power."
Mexican business leaders said the decision was a bad sign for the new administration of López Obrador, who will take power on Dec. 1. They had urged the president-elect to continue the project, saying Mexico City needed a world-class airport and the mid-term project would send a bad signal to investors about the government's ability to comply with the contracts. .
Juan Pablo Castañón, president of the main chamber of commerce of Mexico, the CCE, said that this decision "sends a message of serious uncertainty to international markets, investors and all citizens".
The peso tumbled Monday to about 20.02 for a dollar, against 19.36 on Friday, reaching its lowest level since the July elections. The benchmark IPC Stock fell 4.2%.
"It is difficult to do business with the government and the seriousness of project-related contracts," said Jorge Mariscal, head of emerging markets investment at UBS Global Wealth Management.
"This is negative news for the peso, negative for the Bolsa, negative for the bonds," said Mr Mariscal, adding that the summer honeymoon of Mr López Obrador in the private sector after the July elections could end "very quickly."
Alberto Ramos, chief economist for Latin America at Goldman Sachs, said he was answering calls all day Monday from customers concerned that the airport decision would represent a move towards a less favorable direction to investment under the direction of Mr. López Obrador.
"[The López Obrador team] certainly indicated that they are somewhat suspicious of the private sector and that it is not always an economic and financial logic that will guide policy decisions, "said Ramos. "[Mr. López Obrador] He is a politician, and some thought he would become a pragmatic, business-friendly leader and willing to go to the business world. This is a step back in this process.
López Obrador said his government would guarantee contracts and investments, and respond to all demands from businesses and investors. He reiterated the possibility that current contractors could transfer work from Texcoco, the site of the current project, to the Santa Lucía site.
The contractors include a construction company owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, a Spanish conglomerate
Acciona
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as well as other major Mexican builders such as Grupo ICA. A spokesman for Mr. Slim did not make any comment in the immediate future.
The non-binding consultation, which ran from Thursday to Sunday, has been criticized on several fronts, including giving voters the power to make a decision as technical as the airport infrastructure of one of the world's largest cities. .
According to a study by Javier Aparicio, a professor of political science at Mexico City's CIDE University, polling stations were installed much more heavily in the localities won by López Obrador's Morena party in the July elections than by won by other parties.
It was also reported that people could vote more than once on the first day. Jesús Ramírez, a spokesman for López Obrador, said the possibility of double voting was the result of application-related connectivity issues that have been resolved, which is minimal and does not affect the results.
Mr López Obrador, aka AMLO, suggested using referendums or consultations to allow people to make more decisions, even with a mid-term vote on the continuation of the presidential term. He recently chose a Spanish name for the new trade deal with the United States and Canada via a Twitter poll.
Populist politicians in Latin America, including the late Hugo Chávez, have sometimes used referendums to consolidate power, analysts say. "AMLO's use of referendums in Mexico in the name of direct democracy raises concerns about the erosion of existing democratic institutions and the predictability of policies," Fiona Mackie of the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a statement. tweet.
Mr López Obrador has described the airport designed by the British architect Norman Foster as a waste of money for a country with Mexican social needs. He insisted on Monday that the option of Santa Lucía would save the government about $ 5 billion and said the environmental benefit would be not having to drain a lake and hunt the waterfowl Gather there.
He noted that the $ 6 billion bonds issued to finance the project are guaranteed by airport taxes. "There is no problem, there is enough money to guarantee these obligations," he said.
The Center for Advanced Aviation System Development, a subsidiary of the US research and development organization Miter Corp., and the United Nations International Civil Aviation have both stated that the new project will Airport was the best long-term solution to solve the problem of saturation of the park. the current airport, which welcomed 44 million passengers last year and has no room for growth.
Although the existing airport could operate alongside Santa Lucía, the number of flights would be limited by airspace restrictions, they said.
Mr López Obrador insisted Monday on the viability of the simultaneous operation of both airports.
-Robbie Whelan contributed to this article.
Write to Anthony Harrup at [email protected]
