Friday, August 29, 2025

Mayan activists reject train and megaprojects on Yucatán peninsula

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Indigenous women in Chiapas at a protest march against the Maya Train November 25.
Indigenous women in Chiapas at a protest march against the Maya Train November 25.

Mayan activists on the Yucatán peninsula have raised their voices against megaprojects in the region, including the Maya Train.

A meeting yesterday in Dziuche, Quintana Roo, brought together seven organizations and 33 community leaders from Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo under the slogan “resistance in defense of the territory.”

They contend that the development of megaprojects on the peninsula means stripping their lands, deforestation and contamination of water and food, affects productive activities such as beekeeping, causes health problems and threatens their culture and traditions.

“It is nothing new that they kill our bees, steamroll over our lands or violate our rights; what is new is that the will to defend what is left of our territory has been born. A movement is being born in the Yucatán peninsula,” declared Pedro Uc, an activist and teacher from the region.

“In Campeche, where [the construction of] the Maya Train is going to start, the Chinese are going to acquire — if they haven’t already done so — large expanses of land . . . the first thing the Maya Train will bring will be enormous amounts of Chinese capital,” added Alberto Cahuich, a member of the José María Morelos Maya Indigenous Council,  a social organization created and introduced yesterday during the meeting.

He was scornful of the public consultation by the federal government to gauge opinion on the Maya Train project, calling it a farce and stating that most participants in the process knew nothing about it.

Meanwhile, the train has support from some communal landowners in the ejidos that are on the route. At least three of the 30 —Bacalar, Chetumal and Playa del Carmen — have expressed support for the project and offered land for it.

Source: El Universal (sp), El Economista (sp)

Ancient history, living culture: a visit to the pyramid of Santa Cecilia Acatitlán

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The pyramid at Santa Cecilia Acatitlán
The pyramid at Santa Cecilia Acatitlán. Gunnar Wolf

The rich smell of copal reached my nose at the same time that I heard a deep, rhythmic drumbeat. I felt a rush of excitement run through me as we moved closer to the small Mesoamerican pyramid set just behind what is now the main square of the small town of Santa Cecilia Acatitlán, a few miles over the border from Mexico City into the state of México.

In the main square, the local priest was giving an outdoor sermon in front of the doors of a small chapel that was adorned with a floral display, complete with jumping dolphins, dedicated to Saint Cecilia.

All around there was a buzz of activity. Unbeknownst to us, the town was celebrating its saint’s day that very Sunday.

The scent of copal led us on. We traversed past the church towards the pyramid which rose up majestically behind it.  The small but perfectly restored temple with a rectangular god house on top made me stop in my tracks. Below, a group of perhaps 50 or more traditional Aztec or Mexica dancers moved in unison to the beat of the drum — boom, bo-boom, boom bo-boom — the shells of their ankle cuffs adding a shh-shh-shh-shh as their bare feet hit the earth in perfect time.

They moved from foot to foot, turned in circles and prostrated up and down, holding the rhythm together, creating a hypnotic beat that vibrated through my being.  The midday sun scorched the earth but the dancers, who ranged from age seven to 70, continued to move.

Female dancers in colorful, traditional dress.
Female dancers in colorful, traditional dress. susannah rigg

Some of the female dancers were dressed in colorful but simple dresses while many of the men wore simple cotton trousers and shirts tied in the middle with a colorful belt. Some dancers also wore more elaborate outfits with huge headdresses full of feathers with stunning turquoise tips, or they had their faces painted to look warrior-like.

Standing under the shade of a mesquite tree, I watched as their feet pounded the earth, as they moved with a spring-like step from side to side and a bouncing movement, as they turned a half circle on one leg. I was entranced.  The drumbeat continued to ripple through me.

Before I could become fully hypnotized by the rhythm, I was guided towards the pyramid and we climbed up the steps in a diagonal movement, the steps so narrow that we had to place our feet sideways upon them. Reaching the top, we got a view out over the square below, observing the dancers from above and hearing how the sound traveled up to us.

Not too much is known about the pyramid at Santa Cecilia Acatitlán since information about it wasn’t found in any pre-Hispanic sources. The Institute for Archaeology and History in Mexico (INAH) suggest that this means that the temple would have been abandoned long before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.

While the area was known for the Chichimec and Toltec indigenous groups, the Mexica inhabited this area later and the pyramid was rebuilt in the 1960s, taking into account information known about Mexica temples. The rebuilt pyramid makes for a magnificent and impressive sight. Like the perfectly formed temple seen in photos by National Geographic or Archaeology magazine.

On each side of the top of the temple stairway there were two incensarios upon which fires would have blazed and in the middle there was a sacrificial stone. We were told that the pyramid would have been covered in a thick chalk substance making the whole temple white. With a little imagination, it was easy to envisage the imposing sight that this pyramid — that was part of a ceremonial center — would have made.

Another view of the pyramid.
Another view of the pyramid. susannah rigg

We imagined a sacrificial victim arriving at the top of the pyramid, apparently in a rather drunk or drugged state.

“They would be laid over the sacrificial stone and held by the arms and legs before a knife would enter in to their body from under their ribcage to pull the heart out,” our guide told us as the drumbeats continued to echo around the top of the pyramid, a beat as regular as a pulse, as regular as the beat of a living heart.

Something about the scene made it easy to imagine the heady sense of these sacrificial ceremonies and even to imagine how it could be seen as an honor to give your beating heart to the gods.

The god associated with the temple, according to our guide, was Tezcatlipoca, which in Nahuatl means “smoking mirror.”

He was regarded as the god of the night sky and this can be seen in the depiction of stars upon the god house that sits as a magnificent rectangular structure on the top of the temple. On each side there are little round protruding circles that represent stars. We walked around the god house counting them, finding that there were a total of 300.

“This is the number of stars that Tezcatlipoca dominated,” we were told.

Dancers move to hypnotic rhythm at the pyramid of Acatitlán.
Dancers move to hypnotic rhythm at the pyramid of Acatitlán. susannah rigg

The link to astrological bodies is always an important factor in the pyramids of Mesoamerica. This particular pyramid was built facing away from where the sun rises.

“So we know that the rituals here would be performed in spring and summer,” our guide told us before going on to say how people flock to the pyramid for the spring equinox to feel its intense energy at that time.

While busy during the equinox and when there is a Mexica ritual being performed like the day that we visited, the pyramid at Santa Cecilia Acatitlán may have just a handful of visitors each weekend, many preferring to visit the nearby and more well-known Tenayuca pyramids or the impressive site of Teotihuacán.

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I took a seat on the top step of the pyramid and watched as the dancers continued to move from leg to leg to the uninterrupted drumbeat. They had been dancing now for at least the hour that we had been there and probably for another hour or so before. The sun was intense and yet they danced without pause, engulfed in copal smoke, their pounding feet creating a light dust in the air.

I wondered if they too feel the delirium or the hypnotic delight that the sacrificial victims would have felt.  I wondered if the connection that they felt to their roots kept them grounded to the earth upon which their feet pounded. I wondered who would have stood in the spot upon which I was sat in the years when this ceremonial center was in use and who would have been sacrificed there and why they were chosen.

This pyramid might well be a restored version of the original, since many of the original stones were taken from the temple to build the Catholic church we passed by in the town, but the restoration is so majestic that I couldn’t help but be transported back in time, with the little help from a drumbeat and some 50 or so traditional dancers.

  • The pyramid can be reached with a five to 10-minute taxi ride from the Tenayuca Metrobus station, the last station on Línea 3. The taxi should cost 50 pesos.

Susannah Rigg is a freelance writer and Mexico specialist based in Mexico City. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, CNN Travel and The Independent UK among others. Find out more about Susannah on her website.

‘Profound, radical transformation will end corruption, impunity’—President López Obrador

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López Obrador takes the oath of office Saturday.
López Obrador takes the oath of office Saturday.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged to put an end to corruption and impunity after he was sworn in as president Saturday, paving the way for a “profound and radical transformation” of Mexico.

“. . . By the mandate of the people, today we start Mexico’s fourth political transformation. It may seem pretentious or exaggerated, but today is not just the start of a new government, today a new political regime begins,” the new president told lawmakers and dignitaries gathered at the legislative palace of San Lázaro.

“Starting from now, a peaceful and orderly – but at the same time profound and radical – transformation will take place because the corruption and impunity that impede the rebirth of Mexico will come to an end,” López Obrador said.

Wearing the presidential sash for the first time and with his predecessor Enrique Peña Nieto sitting just meters away, the leftist political veteran launched a scathing attack on the corruption of past governments.

“. . . As we have repeated for many years, nothing has damaged Mexico more than the dishonesty of its leaders and the small minority that has profited from influence peddling. That’s the main cause of social and economic inequality as well as the insecurity and violence we suffer from,” López Obrador said.

He also attacked the neoliberal economic model followed by federal governments during the past 36 years, describing it as “a disaster, a calamity” for the country that has resulted in slow growth, rising economic inequality and the migration of millions of workers to the United States.

“. . . The distinguishing feature of neoliberalism is corruption. It sounds harsh, but in Mexico privatization has been a synonym of corruption,” he continued.

However, López Obrador said that avoiding future corruption rather than prosecuting that which has been committed in the past would be his government’s priority.

“. . . Revenge is not my strong point . . . I believe that in the field of justice, mistakes of the past can be punished but the fundamental thing is to avoid the crimes of the future. Therefore, I propose to the people of Mexico that we mark an end point to this horrible history and start again . . .” he said.

“. . . We have presented a law to make corruption a serious crime, which it wasn’t, even though it seems incredible . . . We’re going to clean corruption out of the government from top to bottom, just like stairs are cleaned,” the new president declared.

“. . . The government will no longer be a committee at the service of a greedy minority. It will represent the rich and the poor, believers and free thinkers, and all Mexican men and women regardless of their ideology, sexual orientation, culture, language, place of origin, educational level or socioeconomic position . . .” López Obrador said.

Mexico’s first leftist president since the transition to full democracy in 2000 took particular aim at the past government’s energy reform, which opened up the sector to foreign investment for the first time in 75 years.

López Obrador called the reform a failure, pointing out that investment in the oil industry and oil production remained much lower than anticipated, forcing Mexico to import fuel which in turn resulted in high prices.

The new government, he pledged, will remedy the situation.

“. . . I make the responsible commitment that soon, very soon, when we finish the refinery that we are going to build . . . and rehabilitate the six [existing] refineries, the price of gasoline and all fuels will go down,” López Obrador said.

The president also pledged that other infrastructure projects his government has committed to, including the Maya Train and development of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, will generate employment and economic prosperity that will contribute to making migration “optional, not mandatory.”

The Santa Lucía Air Force Base will be operating as Mexico City’s new airport in three years and a northern border free zone will take effect from January 1, López Obrador said.

The education reform will be cancelled and students, the elderly, the disabled, earthquake victims, farmers, fishermen and artisans will all be financially supported by the new government, he added.

The new president also used his lengthy address to seek to calm markets and investors.

The decision to cancel construction of the partially-built new Mexico City airport and legislative proposals on banking and mining from lawmakers belonging to López Obrador’s Morena party generated concern and had an impact on the stock market and the value of the peso even before the new president took office.

“. . . Let it be heard clearly and wide and far, we’re not going to put the country into debt . . . I promise, and I am a man of my word, that the investments of national and foreign shareholders are safe . . . I also reiterate that the autonomy of the Bank of México will be respected,” López Obrador said.

He also reaffirmed that the salaries and benefits of high-ranking government officials will be significantly reduced, adding that his own wage would be 60% less than that earned by Peña Nieto.

After thanking the various heads of state in attendance, López Obrador recounted that during his journey to the Congress – in his Volkswagen Jetta – that a young man on a bicycle told him through an open window that he doesn’t have the right to fail the people of Mexico.

“That is the commitment I have with the people: I have no right to fail,” he said.

“. . . There are three things that we need to confront the crisis in Mexico and two of them are guaranteed in advance . . . a hardworking people and sufficient natural resources. Soon, very soon, we will have the third, a good government and on that commitment, I give my honor and my word,” López Obrador declared.

“I will govern with complete devotion to the public cause . . . I will work 16 hours a day in order to leave, in six years, the work of transformation in a very advanced state.”

Mexico News Daily

Budget cuts halted plans for three sustainable tourism projects

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The archaeological site at Palenque, which had been slated to become one of three sustainable tourism centers.
The archaeological site at Palenque, where one of three sustainable tourism centers was to be located.

The Enrique Peña Nieto government’s ambitious plan to develop sustainable tourist centers in cultural destinations failed to materialize after the Finance Secretariat allocated only a fraction of the required funds due to budget cuts.

Designed by the national tourism fund Fonatur in 2014 to boost the diversification of the country’s tourism sector and to reposition the country on the international stage, the three centers were to be located in Teotihuacán, México state; Palenque, Chiapas; and Chichén Itzá, Yucatán.

Developing the centers had been estimated to cost 7.8 billion pesos (US $492 million in 2015) but not even the first stage of the project, identifying the land on which they would be located, was allocated the 147 million pesos required.

The first stage at Chichén Itzá was to cost 42 million pesos but only 8.4 million was allocated. Palenque required the same amount, but it was granted just 6.6 million, while 8.7 million was allocated to Teotihuacán of the 55 million needed.

The centers at Palenque and Teotihuacán required 1,000 hectares and that at Chichén Itzá, 1,046.

The initiative was intended to diversify tourism beyond the beach destinations where most is concentrated.

In the end, the federal Finance Secretariat only allocated 23.8 million of the 147 million requested by Fonatur between 2015 and 2016, which was not enough to perform the required environmental studies and assessments, said Fonatur in response to an access of information request filed by the newspaper Milenio.

The agency added that those funds remain in its coffers unspent.

The spending cuts came in 2015 and also scotched plans to build a high-speed passenger train between Mexico City and Querétaro.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Move under way to ban beauty pageants in Oaxaca

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No more beauty queens in Oaxaca?
No more beauty queens in Oaxaca?

A Oaxaca politician is looking for support from state lawmakers in a bid to ban beauty pageants in the state.

“The Women’s Affairs Secretariat joins the voices that demand a ban on beauty pageants in Oaxaca, [events] that objectify women, especially girls and teenagers,” Women’s Affairs Secretary Ana Vázquez Colmenares said.

Vázquez explained that the “objectification” to which women are subjected to in such events doesn’t allow them to assume a full role in society, limiting them to becoming an object of pleasure.

Legislation is required to prohibit granting prizes to the women with the most sexual and physical appeal, a parameter that should not be used to measure a woman’s worth, much less that of a girl, she said.

Vázquez’s proposal also calls for sanctions that range from fines and reprimands to charges of human trafficking.

The initiative is part of a broader plan designed to ensure respect for gender equality after a gender alert was issued for the state in early September.

The gender alert mechanism was created in 2007 and is described by the federal government as “a set of emergency government actions to confront and eradicate violence” against women.

The Oaxaca Women’s Affairs Secretariat also intends to install offices in the 570 municipalities of the state, with special attention to those governed by ancestral indigenous customs and traditions, a form of government known as usos y costumbres.

Source: Milenio (sp)

López Obrador endorses UK Labor Party leader for prime minister

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Corbyn, left, with AMLO in Tabasco two years ago.
Corbyn, left, with AMLO in Tabasco two years ago.

President López Obrador has declared his support for the leader of the United Kingdom Labour Party to become the next British prime minister.

He made the endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn, whom he described as “my eternal friend,” during a gathering of high-profile friends at López Obrador’s ranch in Palenque, Chiapas, yesterday.

López Obrador, who is being sworn in today, posted a video to social media in which he appears with Corbyn, Miguel Ángel Revilla, president of the Spanish autonomous community of Cantabria, and Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez.

“. . . We’re Hispanic but we have good relations with all the people and all the nations of the world and we especially have a very good relationship with the planet’s progressive movements,” the new president said.

“We have a very good relationship with the United Kingdom labor movement, we identify with each other because progressive governments, democratic governments respect migrants and respect the right that all human beings have to seek a [better] life, that’s the principle of human rights,” López Obrador continued.

The leftist political veteran also appeared to make a veiled attack on the hardline attitude of United States authorities towards the thousands of Central American migrants currently stranded on Mexico’s northern border.

“The United States is a country, a nation that became a power because of the work, effort and intelligence of migrants,” López Obrador said.

He then declared his unequivocal support for Corbyn to become the next leader of the United Kingdom.

“Those from Latin America, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, are our brothers and now the English people will have the opportunity – I hope, I want it with all my heart, with all my soul – to have a prime minister like Corbyn,” López Obrador said.

“I don’t know what the laws are, I’m not yet formally the president of Mexico, I won’t be the constitutional president until tomorrow, that’s why I dare to say these things. From tomorrow I have to put a limit on myself but now I say what I think and I have always said what I think,” he added.

Corbyn, who lost the 2017 general election to Prime Minister Theresa May, is attending López Obrador’s formal swearing-in ceremony today along with 400 foreign guests including 20 heads of state.

A United Kingdom Labour Party statement issued from London said that López Obrador “faces huge challenges in his mission of transforming Mexico, but Jeremy hopes his election will offer Mexico’s poor and powerless a real voice and a break with the failures and injustices of the past.”

It added that the new president “has shown that a progressive agenda for change can win power and take on the status quo.”

Corbyn is married to Mexican lawyer and activist Laura Álvarez.

Source: Reforma (sp), Milenio (sp) 

Special recognition by indigenous people a sign of confidence in new president

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AMLO gets a warm welcome while visiting an indigenous community.
AMLO gets a warm welcome while visiting an indigenous community.

Mexico’s new president will receive special recognition today by the country’s indigenous people.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador will become the first president to take part in a traditional indigenous cleansing ceremony as part of his inauguration.

Representatives of Mexico’s 68 distinct indigenous peoples as well as members of Afro-Mexican groups will hand over a bastón de mando – a staff or baton indicative of authority – to the new president as a show of confidence that he will govern for all citizens and make wise decisions.

Adelfo Regino Montes, a Mixe man from Oaxaca tapped to head up the new National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, will be in charge of the ceremony, which takes place at 6:00pm in the zócalo, Mexico City’s central square.

He told the newspaper El Economista that there will be two fundamental parts to the observance, which will occur just hours after López Obrador has been officially sworn in as Mexico’s new president.

“On the one hand, [there will be] a ceremony of purification and consecration, what we call a cleansing . . . .” Regino said.

“After that will come the handover of the bastón de mando, then there will be traditional music, flowers, copal [a tree resin burned as incense], a range of elements that are traditionally used at these kinds of events,” he added.

Regino said that the “bastón de mando is a symbol of service, identity [and] commitment to the Mexican people,” explaining that in indigenous communities it is traditionally bestowed on a leader at the start of a new seasonal cycle or mandate.

The new president’s acceptance of the baton will reinforce his legitimacy in the eyes of the nation’s indigenous people, he added.

“He [López Obrador] has been very clear in stating that the priority for his government will be the most humble people, the excluded, the forgotten people of the homeland and that’s who we, the indigenous peoples and communities of our country, are. The important thing is to provide a message of service and hope to these people from the start of his rule . . . that’s the meaning [of this ceremony],” Regino said.

López Obrador, he explained, was more than happy to take part.

“He accepted [the proposal] with a lot of love and affection. He has traveled to the indigenous towns of our country . . . With the knowledge he has of the reality and the political and social life of our people, he welcomed the proposal with great enthusiasm and affection . . . We’ve been working with our traditional authorities, with the people who do these ceremonies, so that we are ready for December 1 . . .” Regino said.

“It’s the first time that in a public ceremony and [as part of] an inauguration that a president of the republic will receive the bastón de mando on behalf of our people and communities . . . [That fact] has been welcomed with a lot of joy, a lot of emotion and hope, because our people have great hope that the new government will attend to the serious problems – the neglect, the marginalization – that we have.”

Source: El Economista (sp) 

Gas leak confirmed as cause of death of US couple

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Victims of the gas leak in San Miguel.
Victims of the gas leak in San Miguel.

A faulty, gas-powered water heater caused the death of a couple from the United States last month, authorities have confirmed.

The prosecutor’s office in Guanajuato said on Friday that two people on vacation in San Miguel de Allende died of asphyxiation from propane gas.

The victims have been identified as Edward Winders and Barbara Moller, both 76, of New Orleans, Louisiana, who were staying in a rented apartment when a gas leak occurred.

The owner of the apartment notified emergency personnel on November 17 after noticing a strong odor of gas in the vicinity.

It was the second time this year that visitors on vacation in Mexico have died as a result of faulty gas heaters. A couple and their two children died in a condominium in Tulum, Quintana Roo, last March.

Source: Periódico AM (sp), Associated Press (en)

Hidalgo cockfighting supporters want it declared cultural heritage

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Intangible cultural heritage?
Intangible cultural heritage?

There’s a move under way in Hidalgo to preserve cockfighting by declaring it intangible cultural heritage.

Lawmaker Enrique Garnica of president-elect López Obrador’s Morena party made a proposal in the state Congress yesterday to protect the blood sport from prohibition, after being lobbied by the state’s cockfighting association.

“Animal [rights] associations have every right [to oppose cockfighting] but they must understand that there are things that are a given [in our culture]. This is not an initiative to increase violence in this sport but just to recognize it as intangible heritage,” he said.

The lawmaker also claimed that “a lot of environmentalists go to palenques,” or cockfighting rings, to watch the sport.

“It’s like a vegetarian who eats meat when there are no vegetables,” Garnica said, seemingly insinuating that there are few other entertainment options in the state.

Javier Pelcastre Guerrero, president of the Hidalgo Cockfighting Committee, said that cockfight supporters have been lobbying lawmakers for years to try to have the sport declared cultural heritage but until now none had agreed to take up the cause in Congress.

He said that not only is cockfighting one of the most important traditions in the country, it also makes a significant contribution to the economy and creates jobs.

Across the country, there are more than 1,200 cockfighting clubs and associations, which hold on average 20 events each during a season that runs from November to June.

Thousands of people work in the sector and it contributes more than 36 billion pesos (US $1.8 billion) annually to government coffers in tax, Pelcastre said.

Cockfighting has already been declared intangible cultural heritage in the states of Querétaro, Tlaxcala, Aguascalientes and Zacatecas.

Veracruz, on the other hand, became the first state to prohibit the sport by passing legislation in November 2016. A Supreme Court ruling earlier this month upheld the legality of the ban.

Hidalgo gamecock breeder Mario Vilchis said the cockfighting ban in Veracruz has only sent the sport underground and that the cultural heritage proposal sought to prevent that from happening locally.

Source: El Universal (sp), Excelsiór (sp)