Federal Government Seizes 109 Hectares of Private Land

About 109 hectares of privately owned land will be seized under eminent domain for the construction of the General Airport Felipe Ángeles in Santa Lucía, State of Mexico, reads an official decree published on Monday in the Official Gazette of the Federation.

The decree published on June 28 explains that this procedure can be carried out following Article 27 of Mexico’s Constitution, which mentions “that the property of the lands and waters included within the limits of the national territory belonged originally to the Nation, which has the right to impose on private property the modalities dictated by the public interest to meet the needs that must be satisfied as a priority, for social benefit.”

Mexico’s Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) carried out the technical works and projects to determine that the real estate is subject to this decree. The areas that will be expropriated are Santiago Atocan in the municipality of Nextlalpan, Ejido de San Lucas Xoloc in the municipality of Zumpango and Ejido Xaltocan in the municipalities of Nextlalpan and Tecamac, all of them in State of Mexico.

The Government of Mexico will take final possession of the assets. SEDENA will be in charge of compensating the parties that prove their legitimate right, following appraisals issued by the Institute of Administration and Appraisals of National Assets. Parties interested in obtaining compensation will have the next 15 business days after the publication of the Decree to Decree to file the necessary documentation. 

This is not the first time that Mexico’s government has seized private land citing eminent domain laws for the construction of the Santa Lucia airport. In February 2021, the government seized over 11 hectares, for which SEDENA had to pay compensation of MX$6.9 million (US$345,864). The seizure involved several parcels in Santiago Atocan, for which SEDENA paid MX$5.6 million (US$280,701), Xaltocan for which it paid MX$9.4 million (US$471,178) and San Francisco Tenopalco for which it paid MX$11 million (US$551,378).