By presidential mandate, the Oaxaca-Puerto Escondido highway, soon to be inaugurated, will be free in the first year of operation
These days in Oaxaca, in addition to the lack of water, the topic of conversation is the inauguration of the highway that will connect the state capital with Puerto Escondido.
It is a long-delayed dream for the Oaxacans, since six federal and as many state administrations passed to complete a work that will reduce the journey to the coast from six hours to three and a half hours.
Add that in the last 16 years the highway saw six construction companies that could not handle the package, in addition to pressures and blackmail of all kinds from the inhabitants who opposed the project.
Needless to say, it is good news, as the highway will bring development to Oaxaca, as among other things it will considerably increase the influx of visitors to Huatulco, undoubtedly the crown jewel of the state’s tourism industry.
However, as former congressman Jorge González Illescas says, good news does not come alone, and Huatulco will have a very different face in the coming months.
And it is that there is the intention of the federal government to disappear Fonatur, which as you know, since the origins of Huatulco has been in charge of the good maintenance of roads, public lighting and cleaning of a destination appreciated for its care for the environment.
The substantial increase of tourists to Huatulco will also witness the closure of the Marina and the golf course, which were also seen by service providers as attractions to attract visitors with high purchasing power, in addition to their contribution to the good state of the destination. Illescas says that, if those assets are maintained, the economic spill of the new highway would be greater.
It is a before and after of the Oaxacan coast with the highway, but it would also be convenient for the federal government to reconsider the operational scheme of Fonatur, rescue the Marina and maintain the operation of a golf course of populist ideas that ask to turn it into a supposedly protected area, which would be on a silver platter for invasions and irregular real estate developments.
BY ROGELIO VARELA
Source: El Heraldo de Mexico
