Prime Minister of Belize Johnny Briceño wants a Maya Train for his Caribbean nation and has asked President Claudia Sheinbaum to consider extending the train’s tracks beyond Mexico’s southeastern border.
In Belize, home to approximately 400,000 people, tourism contributes approximately 40% of GDP.
Briceño told reporters last week that he has formally requested that Mexico expand its Maya Train just seven miles, from Chetumal, Quintana Roo, across the Hondo River and to the Belize border.
“I sent a letter to [President Sheinbaum] last year. When I met her in October [at her inauguration in October 2024], we talked about the Maya Train,” Briceño said, insisting that Mexico’s president initially expressed support for his idea. “She assured me that she wants to continue the work that President López Obrador started.”
In the letter, Briceño said, he also proposed that the Maya Train cross Belize and connect to the iconic Maya ruins of Tikal in northern Guatemala.
“It could open a new market for tourists since many who visit Cancún are from Europe and we don’t get many visitors from Europe,” he said, according to the online news blog Riviera Maya News. “With the Maya Train, it would be much easier for them to travel to Belize.”
Although Sheinbaum has not provided an official response, Briceño is campaigning for support, even promoting the proposed tracks for cargo use. “[M]oving products from Mexico to Belize would be easier as would moving our products … to the United States and Canada [through Mexico], so it is an opportunity for everyone to win.”
Belizeans embrace regional potential of the Maya Train
With or without the track extension, residents of a Belizean city just 25 kilometers south of Chetumal, Quintana Roo, are seeking to benefit from the Maya Train, according to the newspaper Novedades Quintana Roo.
The city of Corozal boasts several Maya ruins and is also Belize’s top duty-free zone. It is Belize’s northernmost town — about 140 kilometers north of the capital Belize City — and is the economic lifeblood of the country’s north.
Daniel Alberto Torres, director of the duty-free zone, said Corozal is already working with officials from Othón P. Blanco, the Mexican municipality that borders Belize and of which Chetumal is the county seat.
“We believe that as the Maya Train approaches 100%, it can produce an influx of visitors [from Chetumal] if we successfully promote our attractions,” Torres said, pointing out that Corozal takes part in Chetumal cultural and economic events such as Carnaval and Expofer.
Torres believes that the development being driven by the Maya Train in southeastern Mexico will boost the entire region by encouraging infrastructure investment, especially along borders.
Corozal — which was founded in 1848 by Maya refugees fleeing the Caste War in Yucatán — received 100,000 visitors in December 2024, and reached nearly one million tourists for the entire year. Torres says the goal is to top one million visitors in 2025.
With reports from Debate, Novedades Quintana Roo, Quadratín Quintana Roo and Riviera Maya News
