Residents of LA PLANCHA denounce harassment from FONATUR staff

Residents of the “La Plancha” area, downtown Merida, reported that a group of people, presumably from the direction of the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur), insists on harassing them, demanding them to evict their homes since apparently, the federal authorities are planning to build a shopping complex there.

On Tuesday, March 2nd, they met in Article 123 Park, located in the Historic Center, to expose their complaints and fears, which got louder when they saw the arrival of the media.

The residents’ representative, Lilián Herrera Pérez, said that the Mérida City Council and the federal government have already explained to them that “nobody can evict them from their property.”

However, she denounced that a group of people, supposedly from Fonatur, constantly visit them to try to “convince” them to be transferred to another site as well as to ask them to “vacate their homes.”

“They do not want to testify for the moment, they are afraid of any retaliation,” the representative stated during the meeting that was carried out shortly after 5 in the afternoon.

He said that they are awaiting compliance with the document delivered to the Mérida City Council, on January 18, 2019, in which they request the City Council to obtain the legal documents of the properties they have inhabited since they had a working relationship with Ferrocarriles Nacional de México ( FNM).

According to the document, “every time, due to more procedures that we have tried, we have not obtained adequate documents, so we hope that the City Council will intervene and be favored”.

They requested the Administrative Unit of the Governance of the commune, as a public institution, to carry out the procedures for the donation with respect to the properties before the Service of Administration and Alienation of Assets in its capacity as liquidator of FNM.

It should be remembered that on February 17th, in a statement, Fonatur established that “the Maya Train project takes into account the historical, cultural and patrimonial value of the City of Mérida and intends to contribute at all times to the integral development of its population”.

“The housing actions that arise as a result of the Mayan Train Project have a relevant participatory component, at no time does the project propose to force decisions or, as some actors have used, with intentions unrelated to those of the citizens, the word“ displace ”. It is not the objective of the Maya Train project and in that sense, the neighbors who hear or receive this information must take into account that it is FALSE information ”, the document states.

Likewise, it was stated that “decisions will be made directly in consensus with each family, who will be informed about the proposals for housing actions. In no way will this agreement be carried out through intermediaries or third parties ”.

In the case of families that live in the area known as “La Plancha” they must be certain that a work team will be accompanying them at all times and informing them in a timely manner, with the aim of jointly building a route that contributes to their well-being, the statement concluded.