So much that Lopez Obrador speaks of the honesty in his government… Now it turns out that the support of UN agencies for the Mayan Train mega-project is not free. The UN charges 8.5 million USD for its endorsement.
MEXICO (Proceso) – To silence the voices of protest against the start of the mega-project of the Mayan Train, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has to pay $8,566,000 USD.
The National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur) and its officials boast the support that the mega project has from the United Nations, but the reality is that such support has a price. AMLO’s government will have to pay in exchange, 6 million 882 thousand dollars to the United Nations Program for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat) and another million 684 thousand 337 dollars to the UN Office of Project Services (UNOPS).
In exchange for the money, the services they receive from their holders is the active promotion of the project for more than a year, as revealed by agreements made by Fonatur with UN agencies, although a good part of it was hidden with the argument that it is “confidential information.”
Eduardo López Moreno Romero, director of the Office for Mexico and Cuba of UN-Habitat, In a statement, said it was “a surprise” to learn about the leaking of the agreements between Fonatur and the agency he heads. “There is no reason why these documents should be made public”.
Another “surprise” is the contract that Fonatur directly granted to the company Eclecsis Sinergia y Tecnología, S de RL de CV, for 11 million 262 thousand pesos (without VAT) for a service of “technical assistance for the coordination between Fonatur and UN-Habitat in the development of an integral territorial program of the southeast region of Mexico related to the Mayan Train.”
Deletions are shown on 21 of the 25 pages of the contract. Eclecsis arguments is “confidential information of industrial and/or commercial application.” To discuss the content of the contract, Juan Carlos Pérez Alfaro, the legal representative of the company and signatory of the contract, was sought by Proceso, there was no response.
Fonatur’s version of both the payments to UN agencies and the censored contract with Eclecsis was requested separately, and David Ordaz Chávez, the fund’s press director, only said that he’ll pass the questionnaire to the areas involved.
The real commitment of the agreement between Fonatur and the UN-Habitat agency with a final cost of $6,882,606 USD is for it to supervise the displacement of families living near the tracks and planning for the urban centers and the surroundings of the Mayan Train stations.
Another “operation” in the dark. An increasingly common practice of the Lopez Obrador government.
