In September 2016, awaiting a further court ruling on the case, about 100 landowners, accompanied by a tractor, began blocking the entrances to two airport car parks, partially blocking vehicle access to the airport main entrance.[1] In June 2017, acknowledging public frustration with now-ubiquitous blockades at the airport, landowners announced a temporary suspension of protests. Their statement read: “Despite the continued lack of respect demonstrated on the part of the federal authorities and GAP towards members of El Zapote, we’ve decided to cancel our daily marches out of respect for fellow Jaliscenes, airport users, and society in general.”[2]

In May 2018, as the dispute over expropriated communally owned land continued, protest over a 51 hectare area of land in Presa San José erupted. Landowners said that authorities were not listening to them in spite of two injunctions recently being granted, confirming that 51 hectares of land, where a second airport terminal was slated to be built, belongs to them. The injunctions had ordered suspension of construction work on the site. Yet the head of the SCT stated that the land in question belongs to  Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares (ASA), a federally-owned corporation operating several Mexican airports and also providing aviation fuel. Personnel from the State Attorney General’s Office were deployed to guard the site and landowners told a press conference that marches along the highway between Guadalajara Airport and the city would continue throughout the day. On 4th May a morning newspaper reported that traffic was already backing up due to the protest and ejidos had blocked access to the airport parking lot for 15 minutes. Landowners said that protests against dispossession of the land would continue until officials vacated the site.[3]

The dispute between communal landowners and federal and airport authorities flared up again In October 2018. Protesters from the ejido of El Zapote occupied the airport parking area and allowed vehicles to enter without paying a fee, stating their claim to legitimate owners of 307 hectares of land. Communal landholder leader Nicholás Vegas Pedroza accused the government of “not having the will to solve the issue and abide by the law”, an issue which is now in the hands of the incoming new administration.[4]