From the Writing and Fernando Camacho Servín
Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday March 12, 2023, p. eleven
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made another supervision visit on Friday and yesterday to the Mayan Train works in Quintana Roo accompanied by Governor Mara Lezama, who confirmed the investment of 250 million pesos in coordination with the federal government for the construction of the Quintana Roo Park, which includes facilities for the new Expofer Chetumal.
We have been supervising the construction of the Mayan Train for two days. Today we left Chetumal, we had meetings in Tulum, Cancun and we concluded in Merida. This 700-kilometre section will be electric and double track
said the president last night on social networks.
López Obrador arrived in the state capital on Friday and yesterday began his work tour, which included supervision of the sections of the Mayan Train that correspond to Quintana Roo: 5, 6 and 7, as well as the Tulum international airport and the National Park del Jaguar, indicated Governor Lezama on her Twitter account.
“We deeply appreciate the visit of our president @lopezobrador_to whom we present the advances in the archaeological salvage that we carried out on front 1, section 7 of the @TrenMayaMX, same as assigned to us. We review progress at the Tulum airport, the Parque del Jaguar, which is the second largest reserve in the state and a lot of good news that we will share soon,” added the governor.
They criticize the project for its economist vision
The Mayan Train is an initiative that has been imposed vertically
by the government in the communities through which the railway line will pass, and which is already generating serious socio-environmental effects, for which reason experts, residents and activists demanded that the authorities suspend said project and carry out an independent audit.
In a session of the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature, the participants concluded the above and warned that the present and future damages of the train are directly related to the negative effects of the mass tourism industry.
During the forum, held yesterday in Valladolid, Yucatán, anthropologist Giovanna Gasparello – who has studied the issue since 2019 – pointed out that although the Mayan Train basically consists of a 1,554-kilometre railway line that passes through 42 municipalities in five southeastern states , is more than a transport infrastructure megaproject.
He assured that one of the main risks of the work are the so-called poles of development
which are urban centers close to one of the 19 train stations, in which it is intended to group the population that today lives dispersed in small communities, so that they work in the services that the project will require.
It is a profound disqualification of the ways of life of indigenous peoples. We face an economic vision that highlights the natural beauties and the culture of the towns as assets to sell in the market. Through infrastructure works there is a fragmentation of these territories to integrate them into the capitalist economy
from which they were relatively marginalized, denounced.
For his part, Alexis Joi Ju, a resident of a Mayan community in Quintana Roo, warned that the construction of an electrical substation that would supply energy to section 6 of the train has already led to the felling of at least 10 hectares of jungle, which not only it affects communal gaps used by the inhabitants, but also the ecosystem of various animal and plant species.
In their verdict, the participants warned that the completion of the Mayan Train opens the door not only to ecocide, but also to ethnocide
well there is sufficient documentation confirming the violation of all social and environmental protection tools
.
They called to suspend the megaproject, carry out an independent audit and repair the damage already caused by its layout.
