por ALFREDO AZCARATE VARELA
THE BAJA POST/EDITOR
San Felipe will become the seventh Municipality in Baja California, so far it has been part of Mexicali City Hall administration, but as of next year there will be a Municipal Council appointed and by 2024 there will be elections to determine the first Mayor of San Felipe., said Congressman Juan Manuel Molina, who headed the legislative project, when lawmakers accepted the proposition to make a survey among San Felipe residents.
On the other hand, Baja California secretary of Economic Development and Tourism, Mario Escobedo Carignan, informed that San Felipe Airport received the definitive operation permit which will hold good for 30 years, authorized by Maricruz Hernandez Garcia, Airport Director form the Civil Aviation Agency which is part of the Federal Secretary of Communication and Transportation.
He also said that this airport had been managed by the State Government since 1994, and since 2011, it has been operating with renewable permits, which must be revalidated every 90-180 days.
San Felipe hasn´t grown as it should during the last 30 years, it has been widely ignored by the National Action Party (PAN), since it took over the State after the 1989 election, because some of the most important entrepreneurs and business owners are identified with the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI) so it hasn´t received much support from State administrations.
The most important thing is to push San Felipe forward, fostering its touristic attractions, developing hotel infrastructure and promoting it in a realistic sense, with concrete action and real interest in San Felipe community, which has been stalled because of the fishing ban, which prohibits them to work and make a living.
For some people this will be the opportunity San Felipe needs to finally grow and develop, but besides becoming a municipality, the port needs to find a solution for the economic problem that started with the ban for commercial anglers to work, in order to protect the vaquita marina and the totoaba fish, two endangered species.
The vaquita is a protected species endemic of the Cortez Sea, and the totoaba is an endangered species, which has a big commercial value in the black market, its bladder is worth thousands of dollars for illegal traffickers, who take out the bladder in order to sell it at a very high price, and waste the meat of this fish, which is very tasty and has a high protein content, these two are the biggest resasons for San Felipe´s economic crisis.
