Environmentalists and supporters of the ‘Sélvame del Tren’ collective carried out blockades on federal highway 307, which serves as access to Playa del Carmen, to demand that the federal government comply with the judicial suspension of the Maya Train works on its section 5 South.
The protest was called within the framework of World Water Day, commemorated this March 22, because the works of the railway project are drilling into flooded freshwater caves to the west of Playa del Carmen and Tulum, where the Maya aquifer is located.
Around 8:30 a.m., the mobilization began at the northern access of Playa del Carmen, which connects with part of the Riviera Maya hotel corridor and ecotourism parks such as Xcaret.
There were two of the main forerunners of the anti-Maya Train movement: Guillermo DChrisy and the biologist Roberto Rojo, former host of the program “En busca de bichos” on channel 11 of the National Polytechnic Institute.
“There is no correct Environmental Impact Statement. Those 15,000 piles do not have an Environmental Impact Statement on the aquifer (…) we have seen and verified in the field the corrosion of these piles, the introduction thanks to our aquifer, the opening of thousands and thousands of holes that change the hydrological dynamics of the region and we do not have data,” explained Roberto Rojo.
Currently, on section 5 South of the Maya Train, there is a definitive suspension ordered by the First District Court of Yucatán, within the file of indirect protection 1003/2022.
The federal judge has ordered the government of Mexico to stop the works until it presents geological studies of the site, as conditioned by Semarnat for the execution of the project.
The precautionary measure was ordered since last January 22, but the works have not stopped, so the aforementioned judicial body has already warned of prison sentences for responsible public officials in case of non-compliance with the measure.
In this context, environmentalists demanded the cessation of the works. They said it was one of the most drastic measures because previous mobilizations were in the jungle, several kilometers from the urban centers of Cancún and Playa del Carmen.
During the demonstration, there were also rebukes from motorists who defended the project of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, so confrontations were constant while the road was paralyzed.
Source: Proceso
