Mexican government backs off controversial airport.

• Author: Mastny, Lisa
• Position: Update - Brief Article

When the Mexican government announced its decision in October 2001 to build a new international airport at Texcoco, an important wetland area dotted with several small towns outside Mexico City, environmental groups and community leaders literally took to the streets in protest. The $2.5 billion, six-runway facility would be one of the largest infrastructure projects ever built in the Americas. (See "Airport Super Sprawl," J/A 2001.) The government hoped to use the airport to attract new investment to Mexico's faltering economy.

Opposition to the project among local communities in the Texcoco area turned violent in early July. Machete-wielding farmers in the town of San Salvador Atenco blockaded roads and held 19 police officers and other government officials hostage for several days. The protestors have brought an almost religious fervor to the struggle to protect their lands, some of which their families have farmed for as many as 500 years.

Environmentalists fought the new airport as well. Plans for the 40 square kilometer facility called for the destruction of a series of natural and manmade lakes that serve as an important stopover for an estimated 117 species of birds that migrate annually between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The government had pledged to relocate the wetlands, but it did not specify when and at what cost this mitigation would occur.

Concern about the airport's threats to cross-border biological diversity led U.S. environmentalists in April to file a grievance with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), a tri-national body designated to address environmental issues arising under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The complaint called for an independent assessment of the project's environmental impacts as well as a thorough investigation into the costs, timetables, and sources of funding for proposed wetland mitigation efforts.

Even if the lakes were relocated, some airport experts worried that the continued presence of the birds in the wider Texcoco area--which number as many as 350,000 during the peak season--would pose safety threats to air- craft. High-speed collisions between birds and jet engines can lead to serious and often fatal aviation...