Mexican president slams audit flagging cost of airport cancellation

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday attacked an official report saying the cost of his 2018 cancellation of a new Mexico City airport started by the previous administration was much higher than his government had asserted. Mexico’s Federal Audit Office (ASF) said it estimated that canceling the partly-built airport on the city’s eastern flank cost nearly 332b pesos ($16b), or 232b pesos more than the transport ministry stated in April 2019. “I would like them to explain that figure,” Lopez Obrador told a news conference. “It’s wrong, it’s an exaggeration,” he added, and suggested the ASF was helping his adversaries. Following a widely criticized referendum he had called for, Lopez Obrador in late October 2018 announced the termination of the project, his predecessor’s flagship infrastructure scheme, which was initially slated to cost $13b.<br/>