Protestors last week ended their seven-week blockade of the car park at the Guadalajara International Airport.
Their decision came after reaching a “truce” with the Department of Communications and Transportation (SCT), which has agreed to begin the task of evaluating financial compensation for farmers from the local El Zapote ejido collective, whose land was appropriated when the airport was built in the mid 1960s. After a marathon legal dispute spanning several decades, the SCT has finally accepted that the ejidatarios are entitled to some kind of indemnification.
Whatever deal is eventually agreed upon, the farmers are unlikely to receive even a minimal part of the current commercial rate for the appropriated land, which measures around 306 hectares.
According to one report, at a meeting on October 12, the ejidatarios rejected an offer from the SCT of 30 million pesos and 50 hectares of land.
The farmers claim they are owed around 2.5 billion pesos.
Airport administrators say the blockade caused losses of 20 million pesos, including delays to infrastructure work currently taking place.