Martha Martínez and Claudia Salazar / Reform Agency
Wednesday, February 08, 2023 | 4:23 p.m.
Mexico City.- The Plenary of the Chamber of Deputies approved the new law that will allow the Ministry of National Defense to monitor and protect the national airspace.
Movimiento Ciudadano reserved all the opinion, so it is discussed in particular.
The law proposed by the federal executive was approved with 263 votes in favor, 26 against and 195 abstentions from deputies from the PAN, PRI and PRD caucuses, which form the Va por México coalition.
For Morena, deputies Susana Prieto and Inés Parra, and deputy Jaime López Martínez also abstained.
The MC faction presented a suspensive motion to avoid discussion of the Mexican Air Space Protection Law, which was rejected.
The vice coordinator Mirza Flores accused the haste with which the new law is intended to be approved, without counting on the point of view of specialists.
He warned that although the argument is to guarantee the security, autonomy and independence of the airspace, in reality what the opinion seeks is to advance the militarization of the country.
“I do not understand what the president is doing with this country and even less that the deputies of the majority are his subordinates, instead of a counterweight to these actions,” he said.
He pointed out that powers are granted to the Air Force that disdains civil jurisdiction in charge of the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation.
Ricardo Villarreal, president of the National Defense Commission, pointed out that every 76 hours a security alert is reported for activities of organized crime aircraft, hence between December 1, 2018 and November 2021, 720 alerts were registered. for the intersection and monitoring of aircraft for probable illegal activities.
Given this, he indicated, the opinion has the purpose of issuing a new law for the protection of airspace, in order to identify factors that must be eradicated.
He stated that it is known that the misuse of airport infrastructure, the lack of coordination and the disrespect of actions that are expected to be implemented, end up in acts of corruption that put the safety of civil aviation at risk.
The PRD member Francisco Javier Huacus, when announcing that they would vote in abstention, pointed out that the ruling goes against the Constitution.
He commented that although the creation of a Surveillance and Protection System is being proposed to safeguard the safety of the airspace, there is currently a comprehensive air surveillance system that has the technology and personnel to detect aircraft without a flight permit via satellite.
He said that the opinion shows ignorance on the part of the majority deputies, because it states that one of the greatest risks is the collision of commercial aircraft and organized crime, which is impossible, because the former fly at between 10 thousand 500 and 12 thousand meters high.
Sergio Barrera, from MC, said that his bench would vote against the ruling because it intends to militarize the airspace.
He assured that the majority in San Lázaro has not taken the time to analyze the initiative and again they give powers to the Sedena that should be of the civil order.
“They seek to militarize the sky,” he asserted.
He warned that in the long run, the order will be unconstitutional, because according to the reform on the National Guard, the Armed Forces may be in security work until 2028
