Tsíimin K'áak

December 10, 2022 11:22 AM

The Tren Maya (WaPo gift link, archive.org), President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's signature infrastructure project, is a $15 billion train line that will connect tourist cities on the Yucatan peninsula and pass historic Mayan sites in southeastern Mexico. Archaeologists Manuel Pérez Rivas and José Francisco Osorio León are tasked with ranking the importance of previously-undiscovered ruins.
posted by box (13 comments total)

Count me on Team Not a Good Idea.
posted by y2karl at 12:11 PM on December 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Here's a video of some of the gorgeous caves that're going to be impacted by this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZR6VDfYTWI

So completely not a good idea.
posted by fnerg at 1:14 PM on December 10, 2022

Meanwhile, the partially built Mexico City - Querétaro high speed rail line, which would actually be a good thing, is still delayed for many more years.
posted by ssg at 2:17 PM on December 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Here's a video of some of the gorgeous caves that're going to be impacted by this.

Yeah, and here's a picture of an entire neglected Peninsula with a drastically needed infrastructure project and a bunch of foreigners who are oh so worried that a line that runs almost entirely along existing throughways is going to destroy the precious wildlife reserve they call the Third World forever.

Stay home, Yanqui.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 2:52 PM on December 10, 2022 [8 favorites]

Tell Me No Lies - can you elaborate on that. I am dubious that the profits from this train and the resultant tourism will do anything at all for the Mayan people who live in that area - any more than most of the profits of the so-called "Riviera Maya" do.
posted by gudrun at 5:36 PM on December 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mexican environmentalists, Indigenous leaders denounce Mayan Train project
posted by y2karl at 6:01 PM on December 10, 2022 [5 favorites]

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) conflict-of-interest allegations reach Maya train
posted by y2karl at 6:07 PM on December 10, 2022 [4 favorites]

I am dubious that the profits from this train and the resultant tourism will do anything at all for the Mayan people who live in that area .

Of the 2.3 million people here in Yucatán, 67% consider themselves to be Mayan. That’s 1.7 million people.

And they live in cities and they are dentists and lawyers and hotel owners and maids and construction workers. Some are also full partners in the deeply corrupt financial games that accompany Mexican projects on this scale if you’re worried they won’t get a piece of that.

any more than most of the profits of the so-called "Riviera Maya" do.

A huge proportion of the profits in Quintana Roo (Cancun, etc.) go to foreign owners — but the relative wages in Quintana Roo are also quite high. The entire point of this is to open up the interior cities on the peninsula so the tourists will spread the wealth into them. Big companies and big corruption will follow because we live where we live — but starving the host to prevent the disease is not going to help the people here.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:13 AM on December 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

I wrote…
A huge proportion of the profits in Quintana Roo (Cancun, etc.) go to foreign owners

(Not that their identity matters much. Mexican companies are every bit as rapacious as foreign ones.)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:22 AM on December 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

On the one hand I have concerns about the rights of indigenous peoples and their culture as well as protecting the environment. On the other hand knowing the history of the relationship between the US and Mexico and Europe and Mexico I feel like no matter the intention the result is always bad.
posted by interogative mood at 6:48 AM on December 12, 2022

NYT: Over Caves and Over Budget, Mexico’s Train Project Barrels Toward Disaster
Pitched as a way to develop the country’s poorest region, the Maya Train is threatened by a ballooning budget and rushed construction over fragile terrain. But Mexico’s president has refused to slow it down.
posted by y2karl at 12:48 AM on December 14, 2022

WA Post: Mexico’s Maya Train project divides Maya people in its path

...It is one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s signature projects and has drawn objections from environmentalists, archaeologists and cave divers, who have held protests to block backhoes from tearing down trees.

..."I think that there is nothing Maya” about the train, said Lidia Caamal Puc, whose family settled in Vida y Esperanza 22 years ago. “Some people say it will bring great benefits, but for us Mayas that work the land, that live here, we don’t see any benefits.”

López Obrador allowed the train project to proceed without environmental impact studies. For more than two years, Mayan communities objected to the train line, filing court challenges arguing that the railway violated their right to a safe, clean environment. In July, the president used national security powers to move it ahead despite court rulings.

posted by y2karl at 1:08 AM on December 14, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yucatán magazine: Outrage over new threats to recently discovered Mayan ruins in the path of the Mayan Train

“It may be time to consider the cancellation of the Mayan Train. We should be prioritizing the Mayan way of life and culture, not the interests of the government and business,” said Pedro Uc, representative of the Asamblea de Defensores del Territorio Maya Múuch Xíinbal.

posted by y2karl at 1:26 AM on December 14, 2022