Mexico City Airport Project Ends; Causes Economic Rumblings

Seventy percent of 1.07 million people voted on a referendum against a project to replace Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport with a new airport, even though a third of the $13 billion project is completed. President-Elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, set to take office on December 1, vowed to kill the project as part of his anti-corruption platform.

The decision to halt the project led to a drop in the peso, and financial observers are concerned that the move will lead to a rise in inflation and more pressure on an already slow economy.

However, Lopez Obrador did not express similar worries about stopping the project, which he said wasted taxpayer dollars and was plagued by corruption. His administration plans to pursue a proposal to upgrade the airport and another in Toluca, to the east, along with the addition of two runways to a military airport.