![]() The people have not gone away quietly: dispossessed peasants have organised themselves under the banner of the People’s Front in Defense of Land, pushing back against the government’s plans despite violent police repression. There are more than 15 municipalities and hundreds of communities living in the area, including many indigenous Nahuas. The government has acquired the territory through a series of shady land grabs over the past 17 years, stripping residents of their traditional tenure rights. Now the Mexican government wants to finish the job. ![]() Spanish conquistadors drained it in the 1600s after they destroyed the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, known for its glorious canals and waterways. NAICM is being built on a vast tract of rural commons, a marshy wetland, northeast of Mexico City, the last remnants of the ancient Lake Texcoco. ![]() Once completed, the airport, known locally by its Spanish acronym, NAICM, will boast no fewer than six runways with a capacity of 125 million passengers annually, making it the second-largest airport in the world.īillionaire Carlos Slim has invested heavily in the project, former president Enrique Pena Nieto has put all his political firepower behind it, and Mexico’s elite see it as a jewel in the crown of the nation. It’s a monster project: one of the biggest public works in Mexican history, with an initial price tag of $13.3bn. Mexico City is in the throes of a heated conflict over plans for a new international airport. ![]()
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