SVMG Santiago Mariño Intl Airport
Santiago Mariño International Airport was built and inaugurated in 1970, although it became operational on October 11, 1974, thanks to the initiative of the Air Transport Directorate of the now-defunct Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC). There were ample reasons to expedite this measure, primarily the fact that the old airport terminal was located in the heart of the city of Porlamar, which posed a clear risk given the growing development of this maritime city. Since then, the airpor... Santiago Mariño International Airport was built and inaugurated in 1970, although it became operational on October 11, 1974, thanks to the initiative of the Air Transport Directorate of the now-defunct Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC). There were ample reasons to expedite this measure, primarily the fact that the old airport terminal was located in the heart of the city of Porlamar, which posed a clear risk given the growing development of this maritime city. Since then, the airport has been under several administrations: In 1978, it was managed by the "Simón Bolívar International Airport Autonomous Institute" of Maiquetía; in 1992, the MTC transferred the airport to the Government of the State of Nueva Esparta, which, by law, transformed it into an autonomous institute. However, two years later, on February 2, 1994, the Regional Executive, through an international public tender, awarded the Airport Concession to the Combell Viseca & Asociados Consortium (C. V. A, C. A. ). This measure was reversed in 2001 by the then-Governor, Alexis Navarro, who rescinded the concession through Resolution No. 011, establishing a new temporary organizational structure.
In February 2004, Navarro awarded a 20-year concession, under a Strategic Alliance, to the Unique IDC Consortium for "the conservation, administration, maintenance, operation, and development of the infrastructure of the 'General-in-Chief Santiago Mariño' Caribbean International Airport and the 'Tcnel. Andrés Salazar Marcano' National Airport on Coche Island. " This consortium was comprised of the companies Gestión e Ingeniería IDC S. A. and Flughafen Zurich S. A. However, in 2006, the state of Nueva Esparta once again assumed direct responsibility for providing airport services, following a request for intervention from the state's highest executive authority. This led to constitutional challenges from both sides, and the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice resolved the dispute by ordering the intervention of the airport service to be administered by a five-member board: three from the Ministry of Infrastructure (Minfra), one from the Governor's office, and one from the Consortium. Two observers were appointed, one technical and one fiscal, with veto power. However, this Intervention Board remained in effect until March 4, 2009, when the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice terminated the judicial intervention process of the airports in Nueva Esparta State and ordered their "Transfer, Management, and Control" to the National Executive Branch under the responsibility of the Ministry of Popular Power for Public Works and Housing (MOPVI), formerly the Ministry of Infrastructure (MINFRA). The Ministry, through Resolution No. 39 of March 17, 2009, appointed a Liaison Commission to fulfill this responsibility. The decision was published in Official Gazette of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela No. 39,143 on March 20, 2009, and was reprinted due to a clerical error in Official Gazette No. 39,170 on May 4 of that year. This Liaison Commission is comprised of Colonel Douglas Andrés Vásquez Orellana (General Coordinator) and Colonel Luis Gustavo Graterol Caraballo (Commission Member), who, along with a group of professionals delegated to each area of expertise, have been implementing significant transformations at the island airports since their appointment. These transformations encompass infrastructure, operations, security, labor rights for human resources, and the development of information technologies. In this way, the General-in-Chief Santiago Mariño International Airport is moving towards consolidation and positioning itself as one of the most modern and cutting-edge airports in the Caribbean and Latin America.
