The López Obrador Mayan Train starts the year with setbacks and doubts

The mayan trainthe emblematic work of the president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador For the Mexican southeast, 2022 has started between stumbles due to changes in the route and the person in charge of the project, doubts about its delivery on time and complaints from communities.

Concerned about the delay of the work, the president appointed Javier May, one of his trusted men, as head of the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fonatur), the public body in charge of the train, which should be ready in December. of 2023.

This after the former owner, Rogelio Jiménez Pons, admitted last November that the work was facing “five months of delay” due to legal resources from native peoples, bureaucracy and instability on the ground.

In addition, last October Jiménez Pons acknowledged before the Senate that the cost of the work had grown by 60,000 million pesos (more than US$2.9 billion) to 200,000 million pesos (about US$9.73 billion).

“On December 23 we are going to be inaugurating the entire Mayan Train, all 1,500 kilometers,” said López Obrador, however, last weekend on tour in Cancun.

The stretch of discord

The president reiterated last Monday that the train “progresses according to the program”, with five companies and the Army working on the seven sections that cover the five states of the southeast: Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas and Quintana Roo.

But a section of Quintana Roo, in the tourist resort of Playa del Carmen, was the catalyst for the shock at Fonatur, since the line was changed three times and has generated uncertainty, according to Marcos Antonio López, president of the United Neighbors Civil Association of Playa del Carmen. Carmen.

“We are concerned because great damage was done to Playa del Carmen in the matter that the Mayan Train was not planned, but rather was a desk project, as the president himself says, of the ‘fifi’ (elitist) officials who they do not come out of the air conditioning, ”explained López.

The change also caused controversy because it involved cutting down 22,000 trees.

While the Government dismissed this information as “false news”, Fonatur affirmed that it transplanted the trees with the support of the Mexican Association of Arboriculture (AMA), but this organization replied that “it does not know the possible final destination of the transplant”.

“We need the previous head of Fonatur to be held accountable because it is not possible that they have devastated more than 22,000 trees,” requested the president of Vecinos Unidos, who lamented that Jiménez Pons was also awarded a sub-secretary position.

Concerted expropriations?

To advance the work, López Obrador announced “concerted expropriations” of 198 properties in Quintana Roo with 240 hectares.

The civil association Indignation, Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, which works in Yucatan, questioned this speech and that the expropriations occur after the agreement that the Government issued in November to decree that its mega-projects are of “public interest and national security.”

“The truth is also that these negotiations with the ejidos and with the communities are rigged, they are misinformed. The ejidatarios do not have complete information about the negative damages, the repercussions that this project is going to have,” said lawyer Miguel Anguas, from the NGO Indignation.

López Obrador has recognized that the agreement and the changes in Fonatur are to “jump over obstacles”.

Indignation, which accompanies indigenous communities, has won injunctions to stop the works, but Anguas denounced that the Government has concentrated all the cases against the Mayan Train in a single court in Yucatan.

“These suspensions have not been served, they have not been served at all. Fonatur continued with the execution of the project and continued with the processing of permits. They are the type of things that have been reflected by the procedural delay in the amparos, ”he said.

Changes without route

The main complaint of Indignation is that the original project did not have the mandatory environmental impact statements (MIA).

This has been aggravated by sudden changes in lines, a “modus operandi” that Fonatur has “when it sees that it cannot go through an area or route”, according to Anguas.

“Those changes that happen from one moment to another must also have a study and an environmental impact assessment that determines what the damages of this new line will be,” he said.

The United Neighbors of Playa del Carmen have expressed their support for the president and the work “because that will bring very good resources to the state of Quintana Roo,” but they ask the president to monitor the actions of officials on the ground.

“We support the president’s project 100%, but as long as a development plan is made that really benefits the northwest of Playa del Carmen,” said López.

Although Efe sought out Fonatur for an interview with the new head, the agency declined the request for the time being.