AIFA was built in the middle of highly dangerous State of Mexico municipalities

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Only a few airlines have so far announced plans to operate a handful of mostly domestic flights from Mexico City's new airport Photo: AFP / RODRIGO ARANGUA

Be careful on your way to the new Santa Lucía airport, as it is located in the middle of highly dangerous municipalities of the State of Mexico

Authorities have detected danger zones due to the high rate of robberies and assaults in the municipalities surrounding the new air terminal

Factors such as lack of employment, economic activities, educational infrastructure and sustainable development mean that the municipalities that surround the AIFA have high rates of criminal activity / Photo: Archive | Cuartoscuro


The deficiencies in public transport, the existence of discontinuous and unstructured roads, as well as the lack of employment, economic activities, educational infrastructure, and sustainable development mean that the municipalities that surround the Felipe Ángeles International Airport have “conditions for the development of criminal activities”, indicates a diagnosis of the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu).

The document that describes the conditions of the eight adjoining municipalities of the AIFA states that there is a mixture of factors associated with poverty and marginalization of these localities that lead to increasing criminal acts among the inhabitants, and therefore, the passengers who use the public transportation in the surroundings of this airport are pretty much prone to become victims of a robbery of something worst.

The municipalities in question are Jaltenco, Tecámac, Zumpango, Tonanitla, Nextlalpan, Tultepec and Tultitlán , in the State of Mexico, as well as Tizayuca, in Hidalgo .

Besides, the AIFA was built in an area of scarce options of public transport at the moment.

“Only the municipality of Tultitlán has high-capacity passenger transport with its own infrastructures such as the Suburban Train and Mexibús, while the rest of the municipalities depend solely on concessional transport, in which, passengers are frequently victims of criminal acts”, the Sedatu document states.

Until last month, with data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP), the state authorities had detected several of the road accesses to the new air terminal as ” red lights” due to the incidence of robbery and assault on bus passengers.

Among them, the route of the Mexico-Pachuca, in particular at kilometer 15 where the accesses to Ecatepec and the José López Portillo road (Tultitlán) are located.

During the last year, several videos that went viral on social networks featured violent assaults in which criminals could be seen pulling out guns and stealing backpacks, cell phones, and wallets from users on those routes.

In the case of extortion, the municipality of Tecámac appears at the top of the ten municipalities with the highest incidence.

As far as femicides are concerned, Tultitlán is among the first places within the State of Mexico.

According to the Sedatu document, “the road system is discontinuous and unstructured, given that it does not present a consolidated hierarchy in the roads that compose it, these shortcomings cause greater distances and longer travel times for people and goods, the lack of quality public transport at affordable prices makes it difficult for people to move around that area”.

The federal agency recognizes that there are roads and highways such as the Circuito Exterior Mexiquense, the Mexico-Pachuca highway, or the railroad tracks that cross the northern part of the Valley of Mexico that have a border effect, making the roads more inaccessible, costly, and complex.

“Everything leads to a situation of high inefficiency that affects the productivity of the area and the well-being of its inhabitants. This is further complicated by the lack of infrastructure for non-motorized mobility, given that the right conditions do not exist to encourage people to travel to this part of Mexico”.

The document adds, there is an insufficient supply of road infrastructure to get to the city, which mostly involves the payment of tolls, making travel more expensive also by private car and having the Mexico-Pachuca highways as the main access roads. Querétaro and the Circuito Exterior Mexiquense .

By providing a look at the points where the largest influx of passengers to the AIFA could be generated, the federal government states that the main starting points for users would be the surroundings of the Auditorio Nacional, Paseo de la Reforma, and the Santa Fe area. 

Finally, the SEDATU document states that the area surrounding the AIFA is underdeveloped, lacks mobility, and features a high index of criminal activity.

Source: OEM

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