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A6 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 26 November 2022
Mexico’s domestic airline industry in shambles

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexi- and say they don’t bear
co’s domestic airline indus- any responsibility,” said Ro-
try is in shambles, plagued driguez Garduño. It doesn’t
by safety problems, a rat- bode well for López Obra-
ings downgrade by the U.S. dor’s promise to recover a
Federal Aviation Adminis- Category 1 safety rating. “It
tration, and vandalism. seems possible that this is a
This week alone, passen- process where we are tak-
gers missed connections ing steps backward,” Rodri-
because thieves cut the guez Garduño said.
fiber optic cables leading Consider the incident on
into the Mexico City airport, May 7, when a Mexican
forcing immigration author- airliner was cleared to land
ities to return to using slow on a runway where an-
paper forms. other plane was about to
The internet outage take off. The only person
Wednesday came almost who appears to have been
one month after aviation fired for the near-miss was a
and transportation authori- member of the crew of an-
ties were forced to suspend other plane who filmed the
medical, physical and li- incident on her cellphone,
cense renewal exams until accompanied by the
2023 because the Transpor- words, “No no no no,” and
tation Department’s com- Passenger planes land at Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City, May 12, 2022. a phrase roughly equiva-
puter systems had been Associated Press lent to “unbelievable.”
hacked. After a near-miss countries have, to the low- vestment or the prospect a cable conduit that leads “The problems we are see-
between two planes at the er Category 2 in 2021 pre- of recovering Category 1 in directly into the airport from ing, for example, in air traf-
Mexico City airport on May vents Mexican airlines from the short or medium term,” less than a mile away. fic control where planes
7, things just got worse. Au- opening new routes to the aviation expert Rodrigo Rogelio Rodriguez Gardu- are on the verge of col-
thorities revealed that one United States. Soto-Morales wrote in the ño, an aviation expert who liding ... the failure of the
of the airport’s main termi- Thus, Mexico’s struggling trade journal a21, referring teaches aeronautical law immigration system, the
nals is sinking and needs airlines face competition to the internet outage and at Mexico’s National Au- problems with training and
emergency work to shore it in their home market, with hacking. tonomous University, said maintenance supervision,
up. President Andrés Man- no access to new interna- Authorities said the Mexico the events reflect a de- the issuing of permits, it’s a
uel López Obrador’s an- tional routes. Experts say City airport internet cables cadeslong decay in Mex- recurring thing that didn’t
swer has been to propose all of it looks like a disaster were cut by thieves who ico’s aviation regulation. start yesterday with this
allowing foreign airlines for domestic aviation, a mistakenly thought the fi- Mexico, unlike most coun- administration,” Rodriguez
to fly domestic routes. But sector López Obrador had ber optic cables were sale- tries, doesn’t have an inde- Garduño said, “though
the safety downgrade the placed special emphasis able copper. They stressed pendent aviation agency. this administration also
FAA dropped Mexico from on developing. “It is not it happened outside airport “If something goes wrong, hasn’t taken the necessary
Category 1, which most very encouraging for in- property but, in fact, it was they investigate themselves steps.”q

China’s Xi pledges support for Cuba on ‘core interests’

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese virtual shutdown of such the “traditional friendship”
President Xi Jinping and exchanges during the pan- between their sanctions-hit
his Cuban counterpart demic. nations.
pledged mutual support Xi, who is also the leader of Following the collapse of
over their fellow commu- the ruling Communist Party the Soviet Union, China
nist states’ “core interests” and has eliminated term and Cuba grew closer, just
Friday at a meeting further limits to allow him to remain as China and Russia gradu-
hailing a return to face-to- in power indefinitely, met ally established warmer
face diplomacy by Beijing. with German Chancel- ties, largely in opposition to
In comments to Miguel Di- lor Olaf Scholz earlier this the U.S.-led liberal demo-
az-Canel Bermudez, Xi said month in Beijing, then at- cratic global order.
China hoped to “strength- tended the meeting of the In the Chinese news release,
en coordination and co- Group of 20 leading econ- Diaz-Canel was quoted as
operation in international omies in Indonesia and saying his visit “shows that
and regional affairs” with the Asia Pacific Economic we attach great impor-
Cuba. The two will “go China’s President Xi Jinping arrives to attend the APEC Economic Cooperation forum in Thai- tance and attention to the
hand in hand down the Leaders Meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, land. friendly and cooperative
road of building socialism APEC summit, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, in Bangkok, Thailand. Mongolian President Ukh- relationship between Cuba
with each’s own charac- Associated Press naagiin Khurelsukh and Eu- and China.”
teristics,” Xi was quoted as ropean Council President Cuba “highly recognizes”
saying in a Chinese govern- aims, along with control in the Chinese government Charles Michel are due to Xi’s practical and theoreti-
ment news release. over territory it claims, es- news release. travel to Beijing next week. cal contributions “and we
China generally defines pecially self-governing Tai- Diaz-Canel’s visit is a fur- Diaz-Canel arrived in Chi- believe this is a real encour-
core interests as the de- wan. ther sign of how China is na after a visit to Moscow, agement to all progressive
fense of its economic and No specific issues or other trying to jump-start its in- where he and Russian Presi- forces in the world,” he
political development countries were mentioned person diplomacy after a dent Vladimir Putin hailed said.q