With the novelty that prior studies and executive projects matter when it comes to carrying out public works. No, they are not technocratic or neoliberal whims, they are tools to ensure that the investment has the best possible social return.
All politicians have ideas, and a retinue of collaborators willing to tell them that theirs are the best. The Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) and the Mayan Train, which the Morenoist governments boast of as a paragon of efficiency and honesty, are the best examples of works made based on presidential witticisms and smarmy applause.
We are going to put aside the decision to cancel the Texcoco airport. Let’s assume that it was indeed a bad idea and a nest of corruption. The question is where is the executive project that said that the best place to build a new airport in Mexico City was Santa Lucía, 35 kilometers from the city center in a place without communications. The saying goes that foolishness is the first decision, the rest are consequences. The decision to build the airport in the middle of nowhere, simply because the air base runway was already there, generated very little response from users and no enthusiasm from the airlines. For it to work, a series of arbitrary decisions had to be made, such as forcing air cargo to leave the Benito Juárez airport, contravening previously signed international agreements and which today result in another unilateral decision, now by the United States, in retaliation. There was not a single study or executive project to transfer the load gradually, in agreement with the companies. They were panic reactions taken in the face of a reality that did not accommodate the presidential wishes. Today others, airlines and users, pay on a whim.
The Mayan Train was built against all odds, overcoming any ecological consideration because, they said, it was essential for the communication of the Yucatan Peninsula. It was done on the fly, making the lines according to what already existed and responding to what was being presented. There were no soil or environmental impact studies, nor of origin and destination. It turns out that the train did not solve the communication problem for the inhabitants of the region because, among other things, no one asked them what their needs were. The President arbitrarily decided – as part of those misunderstood savings – that the Train would not enter the cities of Campeche and Mérida. Today, to remedy those decisions made from the Olympus of power and applauded by abject collaborators, the new Government is obsessed with converting the train from passengers to cargo and promoting discounts.
Who is responsible for the decisions and their consequences? What is the cost to the country of these decisions? That and not “morning” nonsense is true transparency, which we have never had, but which today is further away than ever.
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