[Dryerase] Alarm!--Cancellation of the airport project in Texcoco

[Fhar Miess]

Cancellation of the airport project in Texcoco
Just the first step in the struggle for social justice in Mexico.

By Carlos Armenta—Translated By Armando Alcaraz
The Alarm! Newspaper Contributor

The Mexican presidency backtracked on its decision to build a new Mexico 
City International Airport in Texcoco.  The night of August 1, the 
office of the presidency said it would initiate the legal procedures 
that would annul the expropriatory decrees, citing the farming 
communities’ reluctance to sell their land.

In the light of the announcement, the farmers of San Salvador Atenco, 
one of the principal communities affected by the project,  celebrated 
throughout the night.  Even though the celebrations continued until dawn 
of the next day, many of the farmers, including their main leaders, 
expressed skepticism since they did not have in their hands written 
documents that confirmed the presidential announcement.

Chants such as, “Zapata lives, the struggle goes on!” could be heard 
during the celebration, expressing that the fight for the land continues 
and is alive today in Mexico. Ignacio del Valle, organizer of “Union of 
Towns in Defense of the Land,” said that “the example of Atenco has 
caught on, that is why we can not just stay in this stage.  We managed, 
thanks to the support of the people, to stop the expropriation, but 
other important struggles are coming.  Del Valle added, “the real 
problem is an unjust social order, which many face.  It is called 
neo-liberalism, NAFTA, Plan Puebla Panamá, FTAA...”

The Atencans looked at their past and found the symbols that allowed 
them to walk the long road of resistance against the federal powers.   
They reclaimed their pre-hispanic roots through the figure of 
Netzahualcóyotl, King of Texcoco, and appropriated the rebellion of 
their grandparents, who fought in the army of Emiliano Zapata in the 
Mexican Revolution after having worked as peons in the haciendas 
porfiristas for twelve cents a day.

These major social struggles, symbols of what is considered to be the 
Mexican Nation, are represented in the struggle of the Atencans.  The 
Mexican Revolution is brought back to life with the resistance of the 
farmers of Atenco. Instead of  a tool of control of the authorities and 
the privileged few, it is a herald of a struggle for social justice that 
has not yet borne fruit in Mexico, regardless of the sacrifice of many 
Mexicans, the majority of them indigenous and poor. Despite the claims 
of the Atencans, president Fox insisted, before the cancellation of the 
project, that the affected communities did not have historical roots in 
the region.

The attitude of those who insist the Texcoco project should continue 
despite the opposition of the farmers, reveals their colonialist and 
porfirist mentality.  For example, Onésimo Cepeda, Bishop of Ecatepec, 
State of Mexico, declared that “even though one person died, even if 500 
people had died, the new airport in Texcoco should have been built.”  
Cepeda follows in the footsteps of the Catholic Church, which during 
colonial times in Mexico justified any massacre or inhumane treatment of 
the indigenous population in the pretext evangelization, while in 
reality the aim was economic gain.  Ignacio del Valle revealed that  
“the cancellation of the project hurts [the bishop] because he had his 
fingers in this pie.”  Obviously, Cepeda wants to turn back the clock 
500 years.

Another attitude that demonstrates the desire to go back in time—even 
though only a hundred years, to the days of the dictator Porfirio Díaz 
(before the Mexican Revolution) —is the one shown by Arturo Montiel 
Rojas, the Governor of the Mexican State. Rojas declared that the 
cancellation of the project was “a pity.”  Also, he warned that the 
investigation of the crimes the farmers might have committed during the 
protests will continue.  Mr. Montiel assured that “the investors had 
already given forty percent of the $2 billion that were needed to begin 
the project,” although the federal government had revealed that “there 
were no investors conducting fact-finding studies or projects to 
evaluate the investment potential.”  Without wanting to, the government 
shows that people like Montiel and Cepeda place economic interests 
before human needs.

The farmers rejected such attitude of greed.  Francisco Morales, a 
farmer from La Magdalena, said to La Jornada that “our people has 
preferred  a handful of earth to a wad of cash.  Cash runs out, but our 
lands will last forever.”  The government must understand that it cannot 
buy people off with just a few crumbs.

The farmers and other important political actors of Mexico approved the 
project’s cancellation, but were also cautious.  Del Valle said, “if 
they went back on their decision it was because they had no other way 
out.  A social convulsion was coming. You can bet on it!” Del Valle went 
on to say, “but if the divorce between the authorities and the people 
continues, if they insist on using force to accomplish their goals, this 
is going to be repeated.  There will be many Atencos!”  Cuauhtemoc 
Cardenas, the former presidential candidate for the PRD (the left wing 
party),  supported del Valle saying that “the expropriatory decree did 
not have any ethical or legal basis.”  In other words, the cancellation 
was not one hundred per cent due to the protests, but rather resulted 
from the general social and political inviability of the project.

President Fox said the airport will be built, even if it is not in 
Texcoco.  However, what remains to be seen is the opinion of the owners 
of the land that will be expropriated.  As del Valle said, “There will 
be many Atencos!”  The lesson of the failed airport project is that 
there must be a dialogue from the beginning and that nothing in Mexico 
can be built without consensus, without taking into account all of the 
interested parties.
 
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