Defense Ministry to Create Tourism-Focused Holding Company

A business managed by the Ministry of Defense (SEDENA) is about to become the holding company that will manage another five companies related to the transportation and touristic sectors, leaked documents revealed. President López Obrador confirmed the creation of the company this Tuesday.

According to SEDENA’s documents, leaked by the so-called hacktivist group Guacamaya, the recently-created Grupo Aeroportuario, Ferroviario y de Servicios Auxiliares Olmeca-Maya-Mexica (GAFSAOMM) is expected to be transformed into a holding company that will manage five infrastructure projects and companies, including the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), the airports of Palenque in Chiapas, Chetumal and Tulum in Quintana Roo and the Mayan Train. In addition, the holding company is expected to use the much-derided presidential airplane that President López Obrador unsuccessfully tried to get rid of in the past.

According to the documentation, GAFSAOMM plans to create and manage a new company called Servicios Turísticos Itzamná, which would oversee the Nuevo Uxmal hotel development, eco-hotels on the Plan de San Luis ejido and four eco-hotels along different stations of the Mayan Train. The company would also manage the La Plancha park and the National Park of the Jaguar, as well as create an airline featuring a fleet of 10 planes and operate the presidential airplane.

The documents show that SEDENA already injected resources into the group: In an email, it asked for over US$6.9 million to hire 365 employees for the projects managed by GAFSAOMM. In addition, SEDENA asked for another US$4.1 million to refurbish the presidential plane’s hangar. “Equipment to safeguard and refurbish the referred airship, in case that [authorities] authorize its management transfer to the Multidisciplinary Committee to constitute GAFSAOMM,” reads a document labeled as “urgent.”

According to the documents, the project has been planned since late 2021. The files also show what SEDENA did to create and organize GAFSAOMM, which included the establishment of the company as an entity controlled largely by the state. SEDENA also sent different documentation to the Ministry of Finance (SHCP), which included the company’s Articles of Association and the Creation Statute of the group, as well as a degree of budgetary autonomy and a request to include it in SHCP’s Investment Unit. 

During his daily morning press conference on Oct. 04, 2022, President López Obrador confirmed that the leaked information is true and that the project was presented only two weeks ago in Yucatan. He said that the project is under an economic studies phase to determine its viability. Moreover, SEDENA is also studying the legal aspect of the project since it may incur illegal monopolistic practices. Despite these challenges, López Obrador said that he would like the project to succeed. “I would love it if it is called Mexicana, because it would mean giving the nation back a symbol,” López Obrador said while referring to the former state-owned airline.