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understand current Mexico It is essentially examining what non-authoritarian public power is doing for the benefit of society.
The centenary Mexican revolution developed, as is known, through the use and control that the participating revolutionary forces made of the railroads. The new peaceful revolution that began legally and legitimately since January 2019 is being defined not only by the profound reforms to the country’s constitutional and legal framework, but also by the government’s decision of this and the previous federal government to renew and rehabilitate the nation socially, economically and politically, through the railway line.
The State promotes economic development that has its social base in the regions of the country. The forgotten local societies of the south, and, very soon, those of the center and north of the country, will benefit from the impact that is causing and will cause, the largest infrastructure project promoted by the federal political power in many decades: the public company of the passenger and freight trains.
Whoever travels, for example, since April of last year and participates with sociological imagination in the complete route of the new Mayan Train will be able to witness the economic, ecological, tourist, cultural and political impact that this great work already causes in the five host entities of the Mexican southeast: Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco and Chiapas. Firstly, throughout many cities on the peninsula you will hardly find people who are reticent or opposed to this monumental work. The opponents of the project are those who were electorally overwhelmed last year. With the exception that they no longer have the political strength to challenge the government.
The Mexican southeast has become the new political laboratory where a new articulation of groups and social classes is being built in a space, territory and region that, until before the railway project, the only thing that united them was being an example of oppression, dispossession, discrimination. ; in addition to natural and geographical factors.
A historically constructed geographical space – as exemplified by the Yucatecan peninsula –, through social relations, is always linked to the notion of power. Power relations are shown by the articulation of the territory (municipalities), the management of public resources and the complex administrative policy. The novelty of recent years is that in all the five entities where the Mayan Train crosses, the winning political and government proposal is that of Morena and allies. In these entities the oppositions have been reduced to inconsequential levels, with the exception of Yucatán.
The Mayan Train is breaking with the usual way of promoting tourism in Mexico only due to the determining presence of foreigners and rich nationals in some consecrated natural and cultural sites. It cannot be ignored that despite two or three spectacular sites in the Yucatan Peninsula, the abandonment of the needs of the local population was the traditional behavior of the authorities of the three levels of government. Social and regional inequality will decrease due to the growing explosion of tourism offers throughout the peninsula, not only in the well-known areas.
The transience of tourism that basically characterized places like Cancún, Chichén Itzá or Playa del Carmen will soon be broken, due to the restructuring of an entire complex infrastructure network with new vehicular and pedestrian bridges; protected natural areas; wide and innovative internal roads and the recovery of archaeological zones with impressive hotels accessible to the majority, will increase the mobilization and coordination of the local, national and foreign population. The economic benefit for most of the municipalities throughout the peninsula becomes a reality. Not to mention how successful the Sembrando Vida program is proving to be for the region.
Beaches and green areas for recreation are recovered. The great annoyance is still that of developers, subdivisions, private builders and corrupt ejidatarios who cannot stand the brakes on years of impunity that were presented, especially in Quintana Roo.
Among the most notable things about the federal government that is celebrating its first 100 days is not only the fidelity to the previous government’s project, but also the fabulous, enormous political locomotive rhythm that it is giving to this six-year term.
*Sociologist and historian. Senior researcher at IISUNAM
