New Military Venture Set to Run Infrastructure Projects

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the creation of Olmeca Maya Mexica, a company run by the country’s armed forces. Its aim is to manage the government's flagship mega-projects, as the president continues to delegate important tasks to Mexico’s military.

The president announced the company’s creation during the Mexican Air Force Day celebration at the Santa Lucia military base, located in the State of Mexico. The military company will control, manage and operate the Mayan Train and will support the construction of four airports: Felipe Angeles (AIFA), Tulum, Chetumal and Palenque. The military enterprise will allocate at least 75 percent of its yearly profits to the pensions of sailors, soldiers and other members of the armed forces, as well as to the maintenance of the Mayan Train. The president emphasized that the corporation will be debt-free as all the administration’s mega-projects under Olmeca’s management are financed through public spending.

"We decided to create the company because we want this to be passed on to new generations," said the president during the commemoration of 15 members of the Mexican Air Force. During the event, López Obrador witnessed the completion of facilities for the Military School of War Materials in Santa Lucia, State of Mexico, as well as the Mammoth Museum and the Military Aviation Museum in Zumpango. All these projects are part of the ‘military city’, a large publicly owned property located behind AIFA.

The president commended the military, as he emphasized that "it would have been very difficult to get ahead the health and economic crisis without the support of the army and the navy," which he called two pillars of the state.

Since the beginning of his administration, President López Obrador has delegated multiple tasks to Mexico’s armed forces. Aside from security matters, the military is involved in the management of customs and ports, the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and the construction of key infrastructure projects like the Mayan Train and AIFA.