VIVAS VALDÉS, VEUDI (2023). NOTES AND RESEARCH – HISTORIOGRAPHER CHRONICIST OF COZUMEL. INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY THE DIRECTORATE OF TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF COZUMEL.
Those were the hard years at the beginning of World War II, when a group of countries formed an alliance known as “TheAllies” to confront the Germans, Italians and Japanese that formed the war union known as the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis.
Mexico abstained from participating at the beginning, declaring itself neutral, but in May 1942, when the war wasalready three years old, the German submarine U-564 torpedoed the Mexican flagged oil tanker “Potrero del Llano” and a few days later “La Faja de Oro”, which forced General Manuel Avila Camacho, President of Mexico, to declare war onthe Axis countries on May 28, 1942.
Thus, a military force assigned to the war was integrated with activities in the Pacific, which was called the MexicanExpeditionary Air Force (FAEM), integrated by an air fighter squadron assigned the number 201.
The runway and the initial facilities of the Cozumel airport date back to the days of World War II, when the United StatesArmy obtained authorization from Mexico to build an airport that would eventually be the base for the United States Air Force (USAF), in order to monitor the movements of German forces in the Caribbean.
However, when construction was completed, its use was postponed due to the fact that interest in the war shifted to Europe and when the war ended in 1945, the MexicanGovernment considered a U.S. base on the island unnecessary, so the airport was left at the disposal of theMexicans.
Thus, before 1950, the 201st Air Squadron, which had participated in World War II, was assigned to Cozumel where the government established the Military Air Base No. 4 (B.A.M. No. 4), where it remains to this date.
These facilities were also shared since those years, for civilian use with Transportes Aéreos de México de Sociedad Anónima (TAMSA) and small private aircrafts that even shared the buildings.
Currently the civilian airport facilities occupy a space outside the military base area, located on the south side of the runway, where several commercial airlines operate with domestic and international flights with their own access.
