Latin Analysis: Will Mexico’s Mayan train Benefit the Mayan People?

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador inaugurating the Mayan Train construction works. Forbes Mexico.

One of the most ambitious promises the current Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), made during his presidential campaign, was that of building a “Mayan Train”. As the name suggests, this project aims to connect the Mayan region in which the most important (and touristic) archaeological Mexican sites are located. This includes connecting the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas.

This is hardly a novel idea, as former PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) presidents, Ernesto Zedillo and Enrique Peña Nieto (EPN), had previously considered building a “Peninsular Train” which would precisely connect the Yucatán peninsula area. Nevertheless, it wasn’t until AMLO’s administration began that the project started to materialize. Correspondingly, the Mexican president decided to name it Mayan Train, as its main focus was to foster the economic and human development of the Mayan indigenous people which inhabit the areas and who suffer some of the cruelest inequality rates within the developing country. 

The current Mexican administration has thus insisted that the train will be built to foster ecological and social sustainable development, as 95% of the train tracks will not be built from scratch but will only consist of modernizing existing Mexican old railways. Hence, requiring fewer expenses on new infrastructure and translated into less potential deforestation.

Researchers insist that the construction of the train is so complex, that it is likely that it will take AMLO all of his 6 years as president to see it completed. Nevertheless, this project has been accompanied by positive economic forecasts and support from national business magnates (such as Carlos Slim) who have established that the train will not only promote international tourism, but it will also foster local and international trade, as well as it will further enhance the industrialization of the Mexican southeast.

A People’s Decision?

So far, AMLO has implemented an uncommon decision-making process in which the population is called to vote in favor or against certain governmental investment-related decisions – as was the case with the controversial cancellation of EPN’s airport construction in Texcoco. Similarly, in 2019, AMLO summoned the Mexican population to decide on the making of the Mayan Train, and the final results showed that an overwhelming 92.3% of the voters were in favor of the construction of the train. As a consequence, from the beginning of 2020, the construction plans became ever more solidified. 

However, months after the referendum, the Mexican government received strong criticism from the UN-High Commissionaire for Human Rights in Mexico, as only 2.8% of the national electorate had participated. Also, it was observed by the international organization that indigenous communities were only informed of the alleged positive future outcomes of the project and that the available information in the communities’ indigenous native languages had been scarce and limited.

Given that the COVID situation now forecasts an imminent economic crisis in Latin America, and considering that the cancellation of the Texcoco airport was justified by the large expenses it would require, AMLO’s decision to keep constructing the Mayan Train has become increasingly controversial, and has made it dubious (at best) that his main motive is to respect the people’s popular will.

Paying A Historical Debt

Mayan people have had a complex relationship with Mexico. After the colonial independence from Spain, the Mayans in the Yucatán state wanted it to become an independent country, given their abundance in resources and governance capability. Yet, after a territorial dispute, in 1901, former Mexican President Porfirio Diaz signed an agreement of peace and officially annexed the territory to the country.

Truth is, for several years now, the area is one of the poorest of the country and suffers significant social and economic inequality. Thus, AMLO had established that the Train would serve as a historical debt payoff, in which Mayans would thrive back and increasing tourism and industrialization of the area would boost the development of the territory.

However, several analysts and experts have claimed that the project might not be all that beneficial for the Mayan people, as well as several indigenous groups have complained that the project has not aimed to understand the indigenous people’s realities and needs to foster development. This is so because the construction of the train threatens to harm territories aimed for agricultural activities - which is a strong part of their Mayan identity. Mainly, communities fear that the building activities, as well as a massive entrance of tourists and businesses to the area, will further impact fishing and honey-producing activities which are the main source of income of multiple Mayan families.

Moreover, it has been argued by communities that the main beneficiaries of this initiative will be investors of the train and owners of the shopping and touristic centers that will flourish as a consequence of increased tourism. It is feared that – as it has happened in the highly-visited Cancún – indigenous people will be forced to abandon their current activities to work on resorts as waiters or cleaners. 

The Environmental Implications

The Mexican states that the train will go through, comprise the second biggest forestry area in the continent (next to the Amazonian forest), and which variety of ecosystems is larger than those within the US and Canada altogether. Hence, it might come as no surprise that the construction of the Mayan Train has called the attention of environmentalist civil societies, organizations, and politicians. 

Surprisingly enough, as of today, there is no official research made to assess the ecological risks of the project. This is so because the government insists that, as a huge proportion of the railways will not be built but modernized, said study would be costly and unnecessary.

As a consequence, more than 159 organizations and 85 activists have mobilized to demand research to be done due to the potential threat it represents to endemic species in the area where construction works occur. Additionally, organizations and civil society have voiced concerns surrounding the massive number of tourists that the Train is expected to attract, as touristic spaces in the Mayan region have already experienced reef-damage, proliferation of sargassum on beaches, as well as the contamination of clean deposits of water for indigenous communities’ usage. 

Furthermore, AMLO’s administration recently stated that the Train will not be electric (as it had been announced), but that it will be fueled by diesel to cut expenses. This only increases the project’s ecological footprint, as well as it is expected to increase Mexico’s import demand of US’ refined oil, as the state-owned Petróleos de México (PEMEX) enterprise only produces non-compatible crude petroleum.

Given the abovementioned reasons, the Mayan Train has been one of the most polemic initiatives of the AMLO government thus far. Several analysts have even remarked that, for a president which has been such a strong critic of the neoliberal model, the Mayan Train as a developmental strategy, relies deeply on globalization and free trade. This is the case as it seeks to increment international tourism, enhance economic integration, and boost the industrialization of the area.

Civil societies and organizations are continuously demanding a detailed assessment of possible impacts that the Train might bring to the Mayan people and ecosystems, as well as Mexican economists urge the president to postpone the project due to the COVID-19 crisis and the significant expenses it represents. Yet, the Train’s construction is still going and AMLO has shown no intention of postponing it. It is only a matter of time, then, to discover if his vision of fostering development will be materialized on the Mayan people as he envisioned it.