“It’s an ecocide, it’s illegal and it’s not Maya,” insists Mexican environmental activist José Urbina, Pepe Shark, one of the loudest voices against the Mayan Train project Promoted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and in which Cuban stone is used.
This Tuesday, the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency published a draft resolution to demand that “the infrastructure, sleepers and test methods” be evaluated and verified. The adjustment was made after the newspaper Reform reveal the lack of quality controls in the works of the Mayan Train.
A soldier defending a military train, for political, hotel and real estate benefits. Manual demagogy for extractivist exploitation. But it is true, many do not know the reality of @TrenMayaMX That is why activists share knowledge and irrefutable testimonies on site. https://t.co/NWUBDLlbqf pic.twitter.com/AD8wjgAFIZ
— Pepe Shark (@tiburon_pepe) June 13, 2023
in conversation with 14ymedioPepe Tiburón insists on his denunciations and, this time, he attacks the statements of General Gustavo Vallejo who, days ago, affirmed that the works, which he directs, do not harm the “caves, cenotes and ecosystems” of the Yucatan peninsula, where they are located. builds the 1,500 kilometer railway line that will connect the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.
“The barbaras with which he defends the project are insulting,” cries Urbina, who describes it “clearly” as “a military project” in which “they are squandering millions of pesos.”
López Obrador, who in 2018 planned to spend a budget of 6,500 million dollars on the works, raised the cost to 11,800 in 2022, according to data from the National Railway Program.
Urbina recalls that this additional cost also includes the purchase of 876,789 cubic meters of rajón stone from Cuba. The ships left between February and March from Cienfuegos gazibeywith 17,000 tons of material, and the melody, with 20,000. Of these amounts only 7,000 tons have been landedaccording to the Comprehensive Port Administration of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
“Of these two ships, the melody he is lost in Merida or Campeche, and the gazibeyWe don’t even know where it is,” says Pepe Tiburón. The rental of these ships is costing the Mexican government almost two million dollars, he says.
The disbursement for the transfer of the stone for the ballast that will be used in the Mayan Train is even higher. According to economist Mauricio Flores, the cost amounts to 20 million dollars. However, non-compliance with landing dates has generated Mexico a eight million dollar debtthe analyst specifies.
The Mayan Train, according to Urbina, has become a “proselytizing pantomime” of the Government of López Obrador. Vallejo’s statements about the “11 mitigation programs” implemented to avoid harming the flora and fauna “are manipulated or misrepresent what is happening with the jungle,” he says. “What nursery is capable of mitigating the 10 million trees that have been felled, just from section 5 of the project?” He questions.
Urbina affirms that “there are alternatives” for a sustainable project, but for that, those in charge of the Mayan Train, from Vallejo to the Mexican president, “would do well to listen” to the criteria of the activists.
Vallejo reported in an interview with the newspaper The universal that the train works “do not harm the underground river systems or the Holbox fault,” a fracture that concentrates mangroves, cenotes, underground rivers, jungles, and savannahs. Just the day the interview was released, a Yucatan court ruled the provisional suspension of the works due to the lack of action by the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa) in response to complaints of irregularities.
Despite having a definitive suspension for felling and clearing activities, they continue to cut trees in the southern section 5 of the misnamed @TrenMayaMX
Here a Disheveled (beaucarnea pliabilis) protected by NOM059. @PROFEPA_Mx, @SEMARNAT_mx @SelvameMX @SelvaMayaSOS pic.twitter.com/96iDU7joAq– Guillermo DChristy (@gchristy65) June 11, 2023
Fonatur Tren Maya, the construction company, is judicially obliged “not to cover, fill or obstruct cenotes, caverns, sinkholes, poljes, streams, rivers, with any material or residue resulting from the construction of the project.”
“They have destroyed the flora, affecting the fauna,” Urbina stresses with this newspaper. “They don’t care about the jungle at all. There are the evidence, there are the videos.”
The activist lamented Vallejo’s lack of knowledge about the so-called Holbox fault. In addition, he pointed out that the initial plan was for the Mayan Train to be at ground level, but they opted for elevated sections. “Drilling caverns and covering cenotes does not protect,” warns the environmentalist, referring to the excavations carried out to place piles.
Wayak Chen, Dama Blanca, Garra de Jaguar and other archaeological sites through which the Mayan Train will pass “will witness the damage to the true Mayan heritage,” he stresses. “The water revered by this culture, vital for the survival of the jungle, is attacked and our future is condemned.
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