Mexico has checked its airspace and, so far, has not found any stratospheric balloon, according to what Jesús Ramírez, spokesman for the Presidency of Mexico, has assured EL PAÍS.
Last week, the United States made public the tracking of such a device and accused the Chinese government of espionage.
On Saturday, the US Department of Defense announced that it had shot down one of the alleged Chinese spy balloons in the Atlantic Ocean.
Later, Beijing acknowledged that it has another device of this type flying over Latin America.
According to the official of the Mexican presidency, in the meeting of the security cabinet on Monday, which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador holds every day, the new tensions between China and the United States were reported as a result of the overflight of a balloon that US authorities accused of being used to spy on "sensitive facilities" in their country.
“There are protocols to proceed with aircraft that cross the airspace without permission.
And in the case of aircraft interceptions, information is shared with other countries in South America, Central America and the United States," Ramírez said about whether Mexico would notify the United States of an incursion of one of these aircraft into Mexican airspace.
In accordance with article 29 of the Mexican Civil Aviation Law, non-commercial foreign aircraft may fly over the national airspace, provided they have the authorization of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT).
Last Thursday, the United States Department of Defense reported in a brief statement that it had detected a balloon flying over US territory at a height above commercial airspace, so it did not represent a risk.
However, the authorities of that country indicated that they were monitoring him.
The aircraft entered Alaska, crossed the entire central United States, to South Carolina, where it was finally shot down on orders from the president, Joe Biden.
The balloon flight over US territory so strained relations between the United States and China that Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, which was scheduled for this Sunday and Monday, was cancelled.
The
Reuters
news agency reported the incursion of a balloon also in the airspace of Colombia and Costa Rica.
This second device was barely claimed by China this Monday at a press conference, in which the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning, stated that the airship is used for "flight tests" and diverted away from its planned route due to winds.
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