The Maya Train, emblematic work of the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has put local communities in the southeast of the country in a dilemma. Although they recognize the development it would bring to the region, they accept they would have to live with the consequent displacement of some of them by tourism and gentrification.
In the city of Bacalar, in Quintana Roo, known for its beautiful multicolored lagoon, section 6 of the Mayan Train is being built, which will have a length of almost 256 kilometers and will link this city with Tulum, in the Mexican Caribbean.
“This is a project that was presented as a social justice project, that is, where justice will be done to the communities, so they will be able to take advantage of the benefits of development, but that has a cost,” assured María Luisa Villarreal community advisor and resident of Bacalar, in the state of Quintana Roo, on a recent tour of the area.
This cost, agrees Aracely Domínguez, president of the Mayab Ecologist Group (Gema), implies changes in the lifestyle of the communities, as well as the lack of transparency in the signing of agreements, the occupation of land and non-compliance with the obligation of the authorities to pay what is fair for the expropriations.
The Maya Train includes more than 1,500 kilometers of railway track for transporting cargo, tourists and local passengers in the five states of the southeast of the country: Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatán.
“Most communities do not want this type of development, they do not want more hotels, shopping centers, subdivisions in their areas. More than 2,700 hectares have been expropriated, most of them from ejidos, in some cases there are complaints that they have not been paid or have not given them enough or have failed to fulfill what they had promised them,” warned Domínguez.
For López Obrador, however, the Mayan Train, which is expected to be partially inaugurated on December 15, is the project that will bring prosperity to one of the most historically forgotten areas: the southeast.
No Man’s Land
The more than 41,000 inhabitants of Bacalar, located in a beautiful landscape, have a somewhat more complex vision.
They acknowledge that they have seen exponential growth in the number of visitors in the last decade, but they warn that the arrival of this mega-work has not only brought the promise of progress but also considerable problems.
One of the main issues is housing: the majority of inhabitants have problems finding a place to live since most of the buildings are for tourists, which has skyrocketed prices and made a house unattainable for locals.
“Living in Bacalar is very expensive. For example, a room for rent in Bacalar costs the same as a house costs you in Chetumal (the state capital). “Where is the local population going to live?” María Luisa Villarreal questioned.
The residents of the town are concerned that the rush to complete this work prevented them from being able to adequately plan the displacement of the local population who already had previous problems with access to health, services and infrastructure, among others.
In addition, another of the negative effects has been the deforestation of some 200,000 hectares that helped mitigate flooding in the area basin, and the rains generated in other parts, such as the neighboring state of Campeche, derive here.
“We are in the lower part of the region, we are an area of interconnected swamps and the construction work of the Maya Train is devastating our fragile ecosystem” she remarked.
As a consequence, the inhabitants are working at full speed to make community regulations, since until now Bacalar does not have regulations or urban development programs.
“As long as we do not have those instruments, it is no man’s land and it continues to be at the discretion of the local authorities,” Villarreal concluded.
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