Alarm system speakers emitted a false alarm at 7:00pm Friday.
The Mexico City government apologized on Friday night after the earthquake alarm was accidentally activated in at least four boroughs just after 7:00pm, causing people to rush into the streets.
“Due to a regrettable error that we will review internally the seismic alert was activated at 900 posts in the city. We apologize to the public,” Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on Twitter.
The alarm was heard in neighborhoods in the boroughs of Cuauhtémoc, Benito Juárez, Miguel Hidalgo and Tlalpan.
With the devastating earthquake of September 19, 2017, still fresh in the memory of Mexico City residents, the sounding of the seismic alert – which depending on the location of a quake can give people up to a minute to flee buildings that could be susceptible to collapse – triggers immediate fear and anxiety in many.
The C5 security command center said in a statement posted to social media that the alert was inadvertently set off while tests were being carried out to ensure that the earthquake alarm’s audio system was functioning correctly.
“This test consists of sending a file without audio to the 13,337 loudspeakers of the system [that are] divided in groups of posts. One of these groups, made up of 900 posts, was not properly configured and consequently reproduced the seismic alert file instead of reproducing the file without audio,” the statement said.
It added that the tests had been suspended while the problem was being corrected.
“The Mexico City C5 command center offers an apology to the citizens of Mexico City for the inconvenience caused,” the statement concluded.
Tickets are on sale now for for the eighth Carnaval Bahidorá international music and art festival, a “hippie style” event slated for February 14-16.
The festival’s music includes electronic, rap, hip-hop and more and the 2020 line up so far includes Masters at Work, Ibibio Sound Machine, Teto Preto, Son Rompe Pera, DJ Jasss, Move D, Theo Parrish and Avalon Emerson. More are to be announced.
The site is Las Estacas, a natural water park that is part of the Sierra de Montenegro Ecological Reserve, located 90 minutes south of Mexico City in Tlaltizapan, Morelos. It is a mountainous, wooded area centered on a natural spring which is the source of the Yautepec river.
The park has a number of ecological attractions such as areas for snorkeling, camping, boating, kayaking and inner tubing. It is open to the public, and hosts various events during the year.
The music festival declares itself to be 100% sustainable, providing recycling facilities and more. It also seeks to minimize the impact of the event on the park, such as prohibiting pets and flammable substances, as well as providing bus transportation.
Attendees wear costumes, masks or body paint and food options include vegetarian and vegan specialties. A marketplace will feature clothing, handcrafts, jewelry and other items.
Only people aged 18 and over may attend the event, which does not permit pets, professional video cameras, selfie sticks, flammables, knives or outside food and drinks.
Inmates' families wait for news outside the Zacatecas prison.
The governor of Zacatecas has announced the dismissal of the warden of a state prison where 17 inmates were killed in two riots this week.
Alejandro Tello told a press conference Friday that authorities believed that the removal of Antonio Solís as head of the Cieneguillas Social Reinsertion Center was necessary in light of the events that took place Tuesday night and Thursday morning.
Sixteen inmates were killed in the first riot, while another prisoner was killed in the second clash. Ten other inmates were wounded. Authorities relocated 120 prisoners after the first outbreak of violence.
Zacatecas Public Security Secretary Ismael Camberos Hernández said Thursday that authorities are investigating prison guards and other staff for allowing the entry of weapons into the facility, located just west of Zacatecas city.
A search of the prison after the New Year’s Eve riot uncovered almost 30 blades and knives, a variety of other weapons, marijuana, methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and other prohibited items.
The probe extends to Solís but Governor Tello stressed that the decision to dismiss him wasn’t intended as criticism of his “work, effort [and] commitment” as prison warden. A replacement warden will be appointed next week, he said.
The governor said that authorities know that the Cieneguillas prison is a “time bomb” because it houses hundreds of highly-dangerous prisoners with links to organized crime in a minimum-security environment.
“We mustn’t forget that we’re talking about a prison that’s more than three decades old, we mustn’t lose sight [of the fact] that we’re talking about a prison that today houses several hundred federal-jurisdiction inmates [in] a minimum-security penitentiary,” Tello said.
“For a long time, since the first day of my government [in 2016], we’ve been speaking with federal authorities insistently about the prison issue because we know that it is a time bomb,” he added.
The governor said the violence seen in recent days in the prison was an extension of turf wars between criminal groups in the state, asserting “they’re in a fight outside and they’re settling scores on the inside.”
Security Secretary Camberos said the violence was due to disputes between members of the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels.
Tello said that federal intervention is required to guarantee safety in the prison, adding that he had spoken to both National Intelligence Center director Audomaro Martínez Zapata and Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo.
The former made a commitment to identify the cause of the violence and find a solution to it, he said, while the latter pledged that the federal government would provide additional resources for the prison and training for staff.
García appeared in court today in New York. file photo
Former federal security secretary Genaro García Luna has pleaded not guilty to U.S. charges that he colluded with the Sinaloa Cartel in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
The nation’s head of security in the government of former president Felipe Calderón entered his plea on Friday during a brief appearance in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
García, who led the so-called war on drugs launched by Calderón shortly after he took office in 2006, was indicted on December 4 by a grand jury in Brooklyn on charges that he allowed the Sinaloa Cartel to operate in exchange for multimillion-dollar bribes. He was detained in Dallas, Texas, on December 9.
The 51-year-old, who prior to serving as public security secretary headed up the now-defunct Federal Investigation Agency, allegedly provided the cartel with security that allowed it to freely move drugs to the northern border and supplied confidential information about government investigations and other criminal organizations.
The U.S. indictment said that Sinaloa Cartel bagmen personally delivered payments on two occasions to García using briefcases that contained between US $3 million and $5 million.
United States prosecutors also said that the former official lied about his past criminal involvement when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 2018.
Dressed in khaki pants and a baggy gray sweatshirt, García appeared to be suffering from the strain of his almost month-long imprisonment during his 10-minute appearance in court, the newspaper Milenio reported.
His face was drawn and his demeanor submissive, Milenio said, noting also that he constantly turned around to look in the direction of his wife and two children who were seated in the second row of a packed courthouse.
García shook his head as the charges against him – three counts of cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and a false declarations charge – were read out by prosecutors.
Judge Peggy Kuo said he will remain in custody unless a court accepts a proposal for bail. Prosecutors said that they would oppose any such request because García’s wealth and alleged cartel links make him an extremely high flight risk.
Another procedural hearing was set for January 21 after which García will have a period of 70 days within which he may choose to change his plea. If convicted, García faces a prison sentence of between 10 years and life.
In Mexico, federal financial investigators are looking into the possible embezzlement of more than 4.8 billion pesos (US $250 million) in federal funds to companies with links to García. Former president Calderón has denied any knowledge of the alleged criminal activities of his security secretary.
President López Obrador, who blames Mexico’s ongoing violence problems on the security strategy first implemented by the Calderón administration, said on December 18 that his government wouldn’t investigate the ex-president in relation to the charges against his security secretary “because it would create the perception that we’re doing it for political purposes.”
Lake Pojoj features an island with a small orchid and bromeliad garden.
While in Tuxtla, the capital of the state of Chiapas, I had a brief chance to visit the celebrated Lagunas de Montebello, which are located 170 kilometers to the southwest, near the border of Guatemala. This lake area is a Mexican national park and was designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 2009.
No sooner had we passed Tuxtla’s city limits than we found ourselves and the highway entirely enveloped in thick fog. We really couldn’t see anything more than two meters ahead of us. I fully expected our driver and guide, Gabino, to pull off the road and wait for the fog to lift. But we just kept going, visibility almost zero.
“Don’t worry,” he said, “every time I come by here, it looks exactly like this. We’re all used to it.”
The further we drove, the higher we rose in altitude. “Oye, Gabino,” I asked, “will we pass any of those communities here in Chiapas with big signs saying ‘The Mexican government is not welcome around here?’”
“Bueno,” grinned Gabino, “you mean anuncios like that one right in front of us?”
Hourglass-shaped Laguna la Cañada is a great place for kayaking.
Sure enough, we were just passing a sign announcing that we had arrived at the Zapatista Center for Independent Resistance and Rebellion at a place called Tulan Ka’u, which means Caballo Fuerte, Strong Horse.
Another sign gave us a big welcome to a kind of Zapatista roadside restaurant offering tacos and local dishes, “open to the general public.” The word BIENVENID@S was written with the “at” symbol, a convention adopted by the Zapatistas to signify their commitment to gender equality.
Curious, we parked and — the air still heavy with fog — walked over to a rustic dining hall of sorts, without walls, but protected by a long roof. Here ladies wearing warm scarves were cooking delicious-looking shrimp on a comal. I noticed that quite a few of the people present were wearing bandanas over their faces, but whether this was for warmth, concealment or just part of the Zapatista “uniform,” I’m not sure.
We had already breakfasted, but when we spotted the homemade tortillas they were preparing, we couldn’t resist: “Could we please have six of your delicious-looking tortillas,” we asked.
“Of course,” replied a jolly-looking woman. “But you’ll enjoy them much more with a shrimp — try a few!”
“Muchas gracias, but we just had breakfast — still, we can’t resist trying your tortillas.”
Cheese fondue on a banana leaf with pumpkin flowers, red beans and chorizo.
Both the shrimp and the tortillas were indeed as delicious as they looked, but when we tried to pay for them, the woman adamantly refused. “No, no! We’re just happy to see how much you like our tortillas. Vayan con Diós.”
Now that we felt somewhat integrated into the local community, we drove on until we reached the first lake Gabino planned to show us. A 20-minute hike up a steep, rocky and very muddy trail brought us to Cenote Bartolo.While certain members of our party were none too happy about getting their shoes full of mud, I was delighted, as I had never seen a cenote before — and I was wearing hiking boots.
Bartolo, like so many of the lakes in this area, is surrounded by high walls that make it look something like a crater. But, of course, this area is not volcanic. The rock here is limestone and the lakes are spots where the limestone has been eroded, giving access to the water beneath the surface.
While Bartolo’s waters had none of the subtle shades of color that make the lagoons of Montebello famous, I realized that many of a cenote’s attractions are underwater and can only be appreciated by cave divers. Several of my speleologist friends are in the process of studying and mapping the vast network of cave passages linking Mexico’s cenotes together.
So many of these networks have been found to be interconnected that southern Mexico’s vast collection of cenotes is already recognized as the second-longest cave system in the world with a present-day length of 372 kilometers (231 miles). While this is still well behind the world’s longest, the Mammoth Cave System (668 kilometers – 415 miles), cave explorers of Mexico are convinced it’s only a matter of time before Mammoth will be in second place.
From Bartolo, we went on to visit a few of the famous lagunas of the area: Tziscao, La Cañada, Pojoj, Montebello, Cinco Lagos and little Lago Internacional, which Mexico shares with Guatemala. These lakes are strikingly beautiful, with colors ranging from turquoise to purple. The many hues are said to be caused by the mineral content of the water, the sediment at the bottom, the surrounding vegetation and light refraction. As for the number of lakes in the area, the Chiapas Secretariat of Tourism says that no one really knows how many there are, but 59 is the standard number given to statistics-hungry tourists.
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Apart from gazing upon the beauty of these lakes from miradores or lookout points, you can also go rafting or kayaking on some of them. One of the most popular lakes for doing this is Lago Pojoj, which has an island in the middle of it with a small orchid and bromeliad garden. “Raft” in Spanish is balsa and the amazingly buoyant rafts at Lago Pojoj are actually made of balsa wood, which is native to the area and obviously useful for something more than making model airplanes.
Other local activities include horseback riding, hiking and the simple act of crossing the border at Lago Internacional where there are no fences, sniffer dogs or guards and no one asks for or even cares about passports: a truly unique experience, especially in these days of obsession with border walls.
Climbing down countless stairs to the shores of these lagoons — and then back up — is bound to give you an appetite. When we were good and hungry, we asked Gabino where he thought we should eat.
“I know just the place,” he replied, leading us into a small, cinderblock structure with three walls and no windows. Two cheerful local ladies welcomed us and, even though this restaurant had all the ambiance of a dungeon, their cheese fondue with pumpkin flowers and chorizo was spectacularly delicious and their chincunguajes (corn gorditas filled with red beans) were my first introduction to an authentic Chiapas dish. These delights, I should mention, we washed down with Gallo beer from Guatemala which, of course, was just down the road.
This excellent meal, enjoyed in the humblest of “restaurants” brought to a happy end my all too short visit to Chiapas. Five days offered me only a glimpse of this state, but that was enough to convince me that five years would probably not be enough even for the briefest introduction to this fascinating corner of Mexico.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Protesters call for justice for a Michoacán journalist who was victim of an assault last September and then harassed by police.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Freedom of Expression has obtained just four convictions out of 803 investigations into crimes against journalists since its creation more than eight years ago.
In other words, 99.5% of investigations have failed to arrest and/or prosecute the perpetrators of crimes against media workers in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to practice journalism.
In that context, National Action Party Senator Marco Antonio Gama Basarte last month presented a proposal that seeks to create a new, completely autonomous special prosecutor’s office to investigate crimes against both journalists and human rights defenders.
Mexico needs a strong and independent prosecutor’s office in order to “guarantee the institutional commitment we have with journalists and people who defend human rights,” he said while presenting his bill on December 12.
“. . . Attacks [on journalists] have increased 30% in recent years,” Gama said, noting that 11 journalists were killed in Mexico in 2019 as well as at least 13 human rights defenders.
“That’s why we’re seeking to guarantee . . . access to the administration of justice and protection of the right to express oneself freely with certainty, peace and tranquility in the exercise of one’s profession,” he said.
The senator also said that an average of 23 journalists per month requested government protection last year, adding that the funds to provide such protection were cut in the federal budgets for both 2019 and 2020.
President López Obrador has come under fire for contributing to a culture of violence against journalists by launching scathing verbal attacks on reporters and news outlets that are critical of his government.
The president often dismisses reports with which he doesn’t agree by declaring that they come from the prensa fifi (elitist press) and has called journalists and news outlets “puppets,” “hypocrites” and “two-faced,” among other disparaging terms.
Article 19, a press freedom organization, said at the time that the president’s “stigmatizing discourse [against the media] . . . has a direct impact in terms of the . . . risk it can generate for the work of the press because [his remarks] permeate in the discourse of the rest of society and can even generate attacks.”
The organization demanded that López Obrador “abstain from generating any act that inhibits the exercise of freedom of expression,” adding “this includes maintaining a stigmatizing discourse” against the media.
A state oil company strategy to speed up the process of drilling new wells has not worked as planned, according to two energy experts who spoke with the news agency Bloomberg and data from the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH).
Pemex used a closed bidding process with pre-selected companies to contract out the drilling of new wells at 20 priority oil fields.
But most of the contracts went to small, local companies, many of which are in “survival mode” and made low bids just to get the work, the vice president of Welligence Energy Analytics told Bloomberg.
Pablo Medina said that in some cases the contractors lacked drilling expertise and were unable to obtain the equipment they needed to complete the job.
Jorge Sierra, a senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie, told Bloomberg that “they were supposing that they could bring these fields online quicker, but they haven’t.”
CNH data shows that just two of the 20 fields were yielding oil by the end of November even though the bidding process concluded in May.
“The contractors that won the packages for drilling the priority fields haven’t had the experience of managing integrated service contracts, like the big international ones such as Schlumberger and Halliburton,” Sierra said.
Pemex is now expected to open a new bidding process for nine of the fields, according to Borr Drilling, an international company consolidating its presence in Mexico.
Bloomberg said the state oil company declined to respond to its questions about the tenders or its well-drilling schedule.
The news agency noted that Pemex’s crude production in November 2019 was 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) or approximately one million barrels short of its output target by the end of President López Obrador’s six-year term in 2024.
The failure of the strategy to speed up drilling of new wells was just one of several setbacks last year for Pemex, which has debt in excess of US $100 billion and has seen its oil output decline for more than a decade.
Pemex has also seen a brain drain as a result of the public servants’ salary cap enforced by the federal government and has months of unpaid bills, Bloomberg said, even though the López Obrador administration has poured additional resources into the company.
Welligence’s Medina predicted that the state-owned company will face a “reality check” in 2020 as oil production “will likely keep declining.”
López Obrador has repeatedly pledged to “rescue” Pemex and reduce Mexico’s dependency on gasoline imports by upgrading the country’s six existing refineries and building a new one on the Tabasco coast.
He has also taken steps to reduce the role of international companies in Mexico’s energy market by suspending new oil field auctions and blocking Pemex from entering into new joint ventures to develop existing projects.
The wreckage after an attempted highway robbery that left a truck driver dead.
A truck driver died in his cab after being shot while driving on a highway in central Veracruz last month, another victim of a huge increase in violent highway robberies in the state.
The driver was killed, but not before he ran his assailants off the road, causing their vehicle to burst into flames. The armed men burned to death inside.
According to media reports, the truck driver was traveling on the Matatenatito-La Quebradora highway in the municipality of Omealca on December 22 when he and his brother were shot at by men whose aim was to stop and rob the truck, which was transporting Christmas food products.
Even though the unnamed driver was shot in the chest he refused to stop.
As the would-be thieves were pursuing him, the wounded driver rammed their vehicle, causing it to veer off the highway and hit a tree before igniting. Reports didn’t specify how many assailants died in the vehicle fire.
The truck driver subsequently crashed into a highway barrier, the newspaper Reforma reported, and died a short time later from his injuries.
Local Civil Protection personnel attended the scene and transported the driver’s brother to hospital in Córdoba where he was treated for multiple gunshot wounds.
Violent robberies of truck drivers increased 282% in Veracruz in the first 11 months of last year, according to data from the National Public Security System. Authorities opened 111 investigations into truck robberies in the Gulf coast state between January and November 2019 compared to just 29 in the same period of the year before.
The Minatitlán-Las Tinajas and Orizaba-Cumbres de Maltrata highways recorded the highest number of incidents, according to the federal Attorney General’s Office.
Federal authorities have located several warehouses in the state where goods stolen from trucks, including cleaning products, seeds, furniture, beer, mattresses, sugar and building materials, were stored.
The theft from trucks of livestock, domestic appliances, clothes, shoes, soft drinks and refrigerated foodstuffs is also common.
The worst state for truck robberies is México, where the crime rose 40% in the first 11 months of last year to a total of 4,150 incidents. The second worst state was Puebla, where there were 1,968 truck robberies as of the end of November.
The crime is common on the highways from Puebla to both Tlaxcala and Veracruz, Reforma said, even though they are patrolled by state police and the National Guard.
Although President López Obrador has declined to use the presidential plane bought by his predecessors, maintenance of the unused aircraft costs nearly as much as flying it.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner — ex-president Felipe Calderón ordered it and his successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, took delivery — is currently housed in a hangar at the Southern California Logistics Airport in the United States while the government looks for a buyer.
According to the newspaper Reforma, the annual cost of using the plane during Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency was 17 million pesos (US $900,000).
The National Defense Secretariat (Sedena) told Reforma that in the nine months that the plane has been grounded in California, the Mexican government has spent US $597,982, nearly 12 million pesos, to maintain it.
That cost breaks down to 1.32 million pesos per month, meaning that the annual cost of the plane’s upkeep would total almost 16 million.
Just cleaning the plane costs $5,000, and occasionally it must be taken out of the hangar, which costs about $67,000.
In July of last year he assured the public that the plane’s sale was “in its final stage.”
“Six proposals have been presented and the United Nations, which is helping us in the sale process, is deciding on the best offer. I expect that we’ll know as soon as possible, I would even expect it to be resolved this week, according to what I’ve been told,” he said at the time.
But the aircraft remains unsold.
AMLO, as he is commonly known, told reporters Friday morning that the plane has not sold because its purchase itself “was a fraud.”
“The presidential plane was a fraud even at its purchase because it’s a plane that can only fly long distances, of [at least] five hours. It’s not for flying within Mexico,” he said.
Kristhian Hernández addresses an audience in Felipe Carillo Puerto on December 15. Lexie Harrison-Cripps
A lack of transparency in the federal government’s plans to build the 1,500-kilometer Maya Train through indigenous communities, world heritage sites and biosphere reserves in Mexico’s southeastern states has fuelled criticism that the views of the affected communities are being disregarded.
The government is under fire from academics, civil society and international organizations including human rights experts at the United Nations over its implementation of the project. The issues stem from a lack of information, leading to questions about whether or not due diligence has been carried out and why the findings are not being openly shared.
The government has claimed that the train will bring increased tourism, economic development and job opportunities and relieve pressure on crowded roads while offering a cheaper transportation option for commuters and businesses.
The train’s route runs through Chiapas, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Campeche and Tabasco, all of which have many towns in need of investment after years of neglect by government. The project includes 18 stations and 12 development zones.
However, Giovanna Gasparello, a researcher at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and contributing author of a study on the social and territorial impact of the Maya Train, is concerned that there are no studies to show a link between the project and the development that has been forecast.
The route of the Maya Train. Stations are indicated with red circles. fonatur
She rejects the government’s “neo-liberal argument that the free market will automatically bring benefits to the community,” suggesting instead that it should take responsibility for investment in the southeastern states instead of leaving it to market forces.
Back in November 2018, hundreds of academics wrote an open letter to President López Obrador (known colloquially as AMLO) to request detailed impact studies.
However, David Ordaz, media director at the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur), confirmed in December that no impact studies had been carried out for the project and the track that already exists [between Palenque and Valladolid] does not require one.
Gasparello disagrees with that position. She says the existing tracks are currently used by trains traveling at around 50 km/h to carry freight whereas the proposed passenger trains will travel at 160 km/h, and “therefore should be treated as a new project and analyzed in full.”
The government has commissioned some basic engineering studies, but it has not released the findings. On December 13, the day before consultation meetings began with indigenous communities, Fonatur held a press conference and announced that it had received the studies, but did not share their contents. It did not respond to repeated requests by Mexico News Daily to see a copy of the full report.
Meetings between the government and the academic community have not yielded any further information either. The National Institute of Anthropology and History invited Fonatur to a forum called “Maya Train: Realities and Myths” in the hope of opening a dialogue with the government. But the tourism development agency declined to disclose any additional studies or information, confirmed INAH’s Gasparello.
The type of terrain through which the train will pass in Campeche. Lexie Harrison-Cripps
Furthermore, INAH’s requests for information from Infomex, the federal government’s transparency platform, have been denied on the grounds that the requested information has been classified for six years.
Where information is not regarded as classified, a review of the Infomex responses to Maya Train information requests shows a standard response: “After a detailed search in line with legal requirements, no documents were found.” This response was also given in December to a request for “any documents relating to the economic, technical, social, environmental and market aspects of the project or investment and finance reports.”
Authorities have stressed that the project will only go ahead if the people want it to: the consultation documents say “we decide together.” Government representatives at consultation meetings repeated the message, stating that the government will consider “second best options” in the event that a consensus cannot be reached.
But in September López Obrador declared that “come rain, thunder or lightning, the Maya Train will go ahead.”
For that reason some participants at the consultation meetings considered it a done deal.
Oscar Alarcha of the Miguel Allende ejido in Champotón, Campeche, said he “would not oppose the consultation as it would go ahead in any event, with or without the consent of the people.”
An ejido leader addresses a consultation in Felipe Carillo Puerto. Lexie Harrison-Cripps
But the process has been criticized by numerous organizations, such as the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry, for being an empty gesture with insufficient information and time to enable effective decision-making.
Gasparello’s research has shown that different communities received different levels of information throughout 2019. Nevertheless, the formal information stage of the consultation was not held until November with the consultation meetings in mid-December, leaving only two weeks to make a decision or raise objections.
The consultation was organized by the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), a federal government agency. Spokeswoman Maritza Licona said information had been widely disseminated by way of the indigenous language radio stations, leaflets in various languages, meetings with community leaders and information meetings held at the end of November. Mexico News Daily requested a copy of those leaflets but INPI was unable to source a Spanish-language version.
Opponent Pedro Uc, who claims he received a death threat for his position on the train, considers the consultation meetings to be a government “trick” that only involved a selected part of the community.
Because the route passes through indigenous communities, the consultation process must satisfy the requirements of the International Labor Organization’s convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.
The Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (ONU-DH) has criticized the consultation process, saying it fell short of those international standards. The UN’s statement triggered an angry response by the Mexican government, which not only formally denied the accusation but also criticized the office for having “prejudiced any future relations, caused a climate of uncertainty and show[n] a lack of respect for the legitimate voluntary opinions expressed by the indigenous community.”
A man casts his ballot in the Maya Train vote in December. Lexie Harrison-Cripps
Despite the lack of detailed information, most of the participants in the consultation meetings were enthusiastic about the project’s possibilities, albeit without any evidence that the advantages would actually materialize.
A representative from Santa Cruz, Campeche, was excited about the potential for the train to “put my small community on the map.” He hopes the train will bring tourists to create a market for artisans’ handcrafts and “relieve the strain on the fishing industry” on which his people currently rely.
But another speaker questioned the government’s spending priorities. Oscar Alarcha of the Miguel Allende ejido asked that the government address healthcare, charging that services are expensive and people have to travel far to receive decent care. Local care is provided by “inexperienced” personnel, he said, and is not available seven days a week.
While opinion on the Maya Train is polarized, what is not in dispute is the need for investment in the southeastern states.
But the current practice of arbitrarily disseminating information to the media and local communities is only fuelling public cynicism and criticism rather than enabling a detailed and balanced consideration of the project.
