Leaders of indigenous communities in the Yucatan peninsula and members of the Sélvame del Tren collective insisted this Wednesday on stopping the construction of the “misnamed Mayan Train”, the flagship work of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the Mexican southeast, because it implies “ecocide”. .
In a press conference, residents of the communities of Bacalar, Calakmul, Puerto Morelos and Carrillo Puerto warned that environmental damage will affect more than 100 indigenous communities, including damage to water, flora and fauna.
Among the accusations, they denounced that the peninsula, made up of the southern states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Campeche, is interconnected, due to which the deforestation of trees, the disappearance of cenotes and aquifers, the displacement of biodiversity and communities It will hurt the whole area.
“It is everyone’s fight, which corresponds to us for water, for the jungle, for our world, in a climate crisis that we are experiencing,” said Alexis Gamiño, from Selva Maya SOS.
For his part, Nicolás Moreno, from the Popular Indigenous Council of Calakmul, affirmed that an informed consultation was not carried out in his community for the construction of the Mayan Train, and maintained that the original inhabitants are being pressured to support the development of this mega project, even with the Mexican Army and the militarized National Guard.
He pointed out that the work of the Mayan Train has not yet stopped with injunctions that grant suspensions to the communities and their inhabitants.
“Where there are indigenous peoples, nature exists, that is what we are defending. We are not against a party, my policy is life and the development of us as original peoples”, Moreno commented.
In his speech, Aldair Suaste, from the Bacalar community, pointed out that the progress of real estate, hotel, restaurant developments and others related to the construction of the Mayan Train are also fostering the expansion of organized crime, “when this did not exist more than five years”.
In addition, he pointed out that the military presence “is not fulfilling its functions of caring for the population, but rather threatens tranquility.”
Meanwhile, the activist Raquel Flota considered that if action is taken soon, the damage already caused can be reversed, for which she asked President López Obrador to reconsider his insistence on this project.
He said that the effects are not only due to the Mayan Train, which is “badly called” Mayan because it is only a train.
He argued that other hotel developments and even infrastructure such as solar projects damage the ecosystem and affect the economic activities of the residents.
“I don’t want modernity if modernity kills water, natural medicine,” he said.
He also explained that they are installing bird and pig farms that contaminate the cenotes, the lagoons, filling them with excrement from these animals and changing their ecosystem.
“They are stealing our lives, they are killing our culture, they are taking everything from us, they even say that there are no Mayans, and what am I? I am Mayan,” she added.
For her part, Gemma Santan, from Sélvame del Tren, explained that there are more than 10 injunctions in the Judiciary, so they will send a letter to the Minister President of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Norma Piña, to attract the case.
In addition, Elena Dimondi, from Colectivos Ciudadanos Puerto Morelos, called for this Saturday to join a human chain before the arrival of more than 200,000 tons of Cuban ballast, which has already affected the mangrove swamp and endemic coral species. EFE