• About us
  • Contact
Friday, June 2, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
Times Of Nation
-18 °c
  • Top Stories
  • Genetics
  • Environment
  • Wildlife
  • Outer space
    You Can Detect Tsunamis as They Push the Atmosphere Around

    You Can Detect Tsunamis as They Push the Atmosphere Around

    James Webb Space Telescope finds water in super-hot exoplanet’s atmosphere

    James Webb Space Telescope finds water in super-hot exoplanet’s atmosphere

    Exactly How Massive is the Milky Way?

    Exactly How Massive is the Milky Way?

    The Expanse: A Telltale Series preview — Trust your gut before your head gets in the way

    The Expanse: A Telltale Series preview — Trust your gut before your head gets in the way

    Odd supergiant star Betelgeuse is brightening up. Is it about to go supernova?

    Odd supergiant star Betelgeuse is brightening up. Is it about to go supernova?

    Zany new trailer for Fox’s ‘Stars on Mars’ reality show counts us down to launch (video)

    Zany new trailer for Fox’s ‘Stars on Mars’ reality show counts us down to launch (video)

    Hubble captures starry tentacles of faraway ‘jellyfish galaxy’ in stunning detail (photo)

    Hubble captures starry tentacles of faraway ‘jellyfish galaxy’ in stunning detail (photo)

    Saturn’s moon Enceladus is blasting a plume of water 6,000 miles high. Could life be lurking under its icy shell?

    Saturn’s moon Enceladus is blasting a plume of water 6,000 miles high. Could life be lurking under its icy shell?

    If You’re Going to Visit Venus, Why Not Include an Asteroid Flyby Too?

    If You’re Going to Visit Venus, Why Not Include an Asteroid Flyby Too?

  • Physics
    Tiny quantum electronic vortexes can circulate in superconductors in ways not seen before

    Tiny quantum electronic vortexes can circulate in superconductors in ways not seen before

    Optical effect advances quantum computing with atomic qubits to a new dimension

    Optical effect advances quantum computing with atomic qubits to a new dimension

    The ‘breath’ between atoms—a new building block for quantum technology

    The ‘breath’ between atoms—a new building block for quantum technology

    Trending Tags

    • geophysics
    • quantum
    • physicists
    • physiology
    • physical
    • holography
  • Top Stories
  • Genetics
  • Environment
  • Wildlife
  • Outer space
    You Can Detect Tsunamis as They Push the Atmosphere Around

    You Can Detect Tsunamis as They Push the Atmosphere Around

    James Webb Space Telescope finds water in super-hot exoplanet’s atmosphere

    James Webb Space Telescope finds water in super-hot exoplanet’s atmosphere

    Exactly How Massive is the Milky Way?

    Exactly How Massive is the Milky Way?

    The Expanse: A Telltale Series preview — Trust your gut before your head gets in the way

    The Expanse: A Telltale Series preview — Trust your gut before your head gets in the way

    Odd supergiant star Betelgeuse is brightening up. Is it about to go supernova?

    Odd supergiant star Betelgeuse is brightening up. Is it about to go supernova?

    Zany new trailer for Fox’s ‘Stars on Mars’ reality show counts us down to launch (video)

    Zany new trailer for Fox’s ‘Stars on Mars’ reality show counts us down to launch (video)

    Hubble captures starry tentacles of faraway ‘jellyfish galaxy’ in stunning detail (photo)

    Hubble captures starry tentacles of faraway ‘jellyfish galaxy’ in stunning detail (photo)

    Saturn’s moon Enceladus is blasting a plume of water 6,000 miles high. Could life be lurking under its icy shell?

    Saturn’s moon Enceladus is blasting a plume of water 6,000 miles high. Could life be lurking under its icy shell?

    If You’re Going to Visit Venus, Why Not Include an Asteroid Flyby Too?

    If You’re Going to Visit Venus, Why Not Include an Asteroid Flyby Too?

  • Physics
    Tiny quantum electronic vortexes can circulate in superconductors in ways not seen before

    Tiny quantum electronic vortexes can circulate in superconductors in ways not seen before

    Optical effect advances quantum computing with atomic qubits to a new dimension

    Optical effect advances quantum computing with atomic qubits to a new dimension

    The ‘breath’ between atoms—a new building block for quantum technology

    The ‘breath’ between atoms—a new building block for quantum technology

    Trending Tags

    • geophysics
    • quantum
    • physicists
    • physiology
    • physical
    • holography
No Result
View All Result
Times Of Nation
No Result
View All Result
bayan çanta
Home Wildlife

Full steam ahead for Tren Maya project as lawsuits hit judicial hurdles

by TimesOfNation
January 30, 2022
in Wildlife
Full steam ahead for Tren Maya project as lawsuits hit judicial hurdles
1
SHARES
5
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Full steam ahead for Tren Maya project as lawsuits hit judicial hurdles

  • The Mexican government is building a multibillion-dollar tourist train line that will run 1,525 kilometers (948 miles) across the Yucatán Peninsula.
  • The government agency overseeing construction says the project will bolster the rural economy in southern Mexico by creating jobs, and claims an 80% approval rate in many communities.
  • However, the construction allegedly threatens to destroy one of the most biodiverse areas of the country, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and will lead to the relocation of many Indigenous communities.
  • Advocacy groups helping communities file 25 lawsuits against the project say that judicial hurdles and a rebranding of the project as being a ‘national security’ matter complicate their chances of success.

In late 2021, the Mexican government made a controversial announcement that many of the country’s major infrastructure projects, most notably the Tren Maya project being built across the Yucatán Peninsula, were now a matter of ‘national security.’ Among other things, the announcement meant that the nearly 200 billion peso ($9.6 billion) railway project could bypass a lot of red tape, allowing construction to progress faster than ever.

Claims that a tourist train line was a matter of national security proved divisive in the Mexican media, and environmental and human rights activists expressed concern that the new declaration would make it even harder to investigate wrongdoings tied to the massive construction effort.

The Tren Maya line is supposed to run 1,525 kilometers (948 miles) across Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Tabasco, Campeche and Chiapas, states with large Indigenous populations and high rates of biodiversity.

The project has been at the center of controversy since construction began.

Twenty-five injunctions have been filed so far against different sections of the project by 327 plaintiffs, according to a 2020 statement made by the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur), which is overseeing construction.

Many of the injunctions, aiming to pause or permanently stop the project, focus on deforestation and the loss of local ecosystems in and around protected areas like the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche. Others claim that officials failed to consult local communities and needlessly endangered them while working during the pandemic.

Others allege the government is committing human rights violations by displacing hundreds of residents living in the path of the train.

‘What the government says is that this isn’t a train project but a project of ‘territorial ordering,’’ said Margarita Campuzano, spokeswoman for the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), which has filed three injunctions in the region. ‘They’re taking advantage of the train to organize different municipalities for urban and agricultural reasons. But it’s not true.’

Fonatur didn’t respond to a request for comment for this article. Rogelio Jiménez Pons, who until earlier this month served as Fonatur’s general director, said last year that the controversy surrounding the project is political and that many of the organizations behind the lawsuits are of the ‘extreme right’ and ‘don’t like us.’

He also said that, in many communities, around 80% of people are in favor of the project. Proponents say it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and bolster rural economies by bringing in business from larger touristic centers like Cancún and Tulum, as well as allowing local farmers to transport goods more easily with the line’s cargo cars.

The Tren Maya would travel through five states of the Yucatán Peninsula. Photo via Fonatur

Environmental lawsuits

Many advocacy groups have assisted local communities with injunctions that say the railway line will contribute to the fragmentation of regional ecosystems, which don’t exist in isolation but instead connect the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatán.

‘Biodiversity moves,’ CEMDA operative director Xavier Martínez said. ‘Biodiversity doesn’t stay within the political limits of a thing called a natural protected area.’

The railway line, Martínez said, interrupts the connections between ecosystems, putting more than 20 protected areas at risk. One of the largest, the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, is a 723,185-hectare (1.79-million-acre) site that includes a UNESCO-protected forest and is home to two of Mexico’s primates and five wildcat species.

‘The history of railways in Mexico and in the world shows us that the fragmentation of ecosystems calls into question the survival of species,’ Martínez said. ‘And here we are, building in one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, in one of the most important forests in Latin America.’

CEMDA’s injunction also alleges that the environmental destruction violates Mexican citizens’ right to a clean, healthy environment.

Indigenous rights lawsuits

CEMDA is also responsible for an injunction alleging that officials failed to properly consult Indigenous communities before starting construction, one of the most common claims against the Tren Maya project to date.

The officials are supposed to carry out a prior consultation with residents, explaining the risks and benefits of the project so they can decide whether they want to accept the development in their community. However, many residents said the process was only partly carried out, if at all.

‘They never consulted with us, never invited us to come and listen,’ said Romel González Díaz, of the Indigenous and Popular Regional Council in Xpujil, Campeche. ‘We first learned about it through a survey that they did on the national level, where one of the priority programs was a project that they call the Tren Maya.’

González said the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) never adequately presented environmental impact reports to communities, which would have helped them understand levels of deforestation as well as the risks to wildlife associated with the project.

Some of the meetings that did take place were often not offered in the peoples’ first language, González said. Many Maya Tzetal and Maya Chol residents speak only broken Spanish and didn’t always understand what was being explained to them.

A Semarnat spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Mexican media and critics of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) have picked up on the widespread complaints regarding prior consultation. López Obrador has talked about building a railway line since his first presidential bid in 2006 (he lost that and the 2012 election, before winning in 2018), and has been accused of pushing past legal requirements for train construction with blunt force.

Even in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Mexico was recording more than 1,000 new cases per day, work on the Tren Maya project continued. Injunctions filed by the civil association Indignation for the Promotion of Human Defenders alleged that workers brought the coronavirus to vulnerable Indigenous communities, prioritizing progress on the railway project over the public health of residents of Chiapas and Yucatán.

The organization has filed nine injunctions in these states, as well as in Campeche and Quintana Roo, some of which have successfully stopped construction, albeit temporarily.

‘In Quintana Roo there’s practically a blank check for the Tren Maya to move forward without permissions,’ said Miguel Anguas, a lawyer with Indignation.

Construction equipment sits at the ready along the path that the Tren Maya will travel. Photo via Fonatur

Forced displacement lawsuits

Other lawsuits allege that the project has led to the relocation of local communities in some areas.

The relocations, which critics call evictions, are illegal because there is no Mexican law allowing tourist projects to remove residents from their homes. That means Fonatur is acting illegally when it asks people to move, according to Carla Escoffié, a lawyer representing several communities in Campeche.

The counterargument to this is that no one is being evicted, but rather given a choice to leave or stay. But Escoffié said officials don’t present leaving as a choice so much as an inevitability.

‘They have utilized a discourse of participation and social inclusion when really there’s no such thing,’ she said.

‘They don’t make it up for discussion or consensus,’ she added. ‘They say, ‘The project is going to happen. The project is going to cut through your neighborhoods, your community, your town, wherever you’re living. It’s going to cut through your house.’’

The $771 million section that would pass through Campeche had to be rerouted twice last August, in part because of the backlash over the fate of 300 families who would be displaced to make room for line construction.

Some of the communities Escoffié represents have been promised new houses, but the materials are chosen by the government, she said, and are of cheaper quality than those of the houses they left behind.

Many of the residents, knowing that they’re in a lose-lose situation, are too afraid to fight back against the government, she said.

‘They’re the authorities,’ Escoffié said. ‘Not an NGO, not an activist group. They’re the authorities and they come to communities to speak to them about a project of this magnitude and so people are afraid.’

Judicial obstacles ahead

Last year’s announcement classifying the Tren Maya as a ‘national security’ priority frustrated advocacy groups involved in injunctions. Not only does it allow the project to more quickly and receive construction permits and other authorizations that have proven difficult to obtain so far, but it also gives the project stronger protections against requests for information. This makes it harder for groups to know what’s going on.

One of CEMDA’s injunctions already involves the violation of the right to access information about environmental impact records, which are key to understanding how the government is handling deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

‘Access to the information that we have had has been a trickle,’ Martínez said.

Last June, all the lawsuits against the Tren Maya project were consolidated under a single judge in Yucatán state, a decision that also surprised and angered many advocacy groups involved in the claims.

Martínez explained that, when dozens of cases are spread across different courts and states, there’s a high probability that at least a few of them will stick. It also ensures that each case receives sufficient attention.

‘Imagine all the cases that this judge has to manage,’ he said. ‘Will he have enough time and independence to move forward and protect human rights? It’s a lot of pressure.’

Plaintiffs in the lawsuits — many of them poor, rural and Indigenous — live hours or even days away from the Yucatán court and don’t always have the money to travel back and forth for hearings.

Anguas, of Indignation, said it really leaves them with their hands tied. ‘If I live in Chiapas and the hearing is in Yucatán,’ — a 12-hour drive away — ‘how am I going to get there to exercise my rights? To present my evidence? Speak to the judge?’

Banner image- Mayan pryamids stick out from the forest in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche. Photo via Semarnat

FEEDBACK- Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.

Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Politics, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests

Print

(News Source -Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Times Of Nation staff and is published from a news.mongabay.com feed.)

RelatedArticles

Drivers of environmental degradation in the Amazon

Indigenous land rights key to curbing deforestation and restoring lands: Study

March of the fire ants could reach Sydney’s outskirts by 2035, costing economy up to $1.2bn a year

Read Also- Latest News | Current Affairs News | Today News | English News | World News Today

TimesofNation.com offer news and information like- English newspaper today | today English news | English news live | times of India | today news in English in India | breaking news in India today | India TV news today & Hindustan times.

You can Read on TimesofNation.com latest news today, breaking news headlines, Top news. Discover national and international news on economy, politics, defence, sports, world news & other relatively current affair’s news.

Plugin Install : Subscribe Push Notification need OneSignal plugin to be installed.
TimesOfNation

TimesOfNation

Related Posts

Mutilated body found

Mutilated body found

by TimesOfNation
June 2, 2023
1

Mutilated body found The mutilated body of a woman was found in the Janatha colony near Bannerghatta on Thursday. The...

You Can Detect Tsunamis as They Push the Atmosphere Around

You Can Detect Tsunamis as They Push the Atmosphere Around

by TimesOfNation
June 2, 2023
1

You Can Detect Tsunamis as They Push the Atmosphere Around: Times Of Nation Anyone who’s ever lived along a coastline...

James Webb Space Telescope finds water in super-hot exoplanet’s atmosphere

James Webb Space Telescope finds water in super-hot exoplanet’s atmosphere

by TimesOfNation
June 1, 2023
1

James Webb Space Telescope finds water in super-hot exoplanet's atmosphere: Times Of Nation The James Webb Space Telescope has found...

Tiny quantum electronic vortexes can circulate in superconductors in ways not seen before

Tiny quantum electronic vortexes can circulate in superconductors in ways not seen before

by TimesOfNation
June 1, 2023
1

Tiny quantum electronic vortexes can circulate in superconductors in ways not seen before- Times Of Nation A new study by...

Foxconn: Foxconn sets April 2024 as target to start manufacturing iPhones at Bengaluru plant – Times of India

Foxconn: Foxconn sets April 2024 as target to start manufacturing iPhones at Bengaluru plant – Times of India

by TimesOfNation
June 1, 2023
1

Foxconn- Foxconn sets April 2024 as target to start manufacturing iPhones at Bengaluru plant - Times of Nation Apple's biggest...

Drivers of environmental degradation in the Amazon

Drivers of environmental degradation in the Amazon

by TimesOfNation
June 1, 2023
1

Drivers of environmental degradation in the Amazon Times of Nation has begun publishing a new edition of the book, 'A...

Next Post
Shining a light on synthetic dimensions

Shining a light on synthetic dimensions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Recommended

Save  on the Meta Quest 2 VR headset and get two free games

Save $70 on the Meta Quest 2 VR headset and get two free games

3 months ago
3
Photonic chip is key to ‘nurturing’ quantum computers: A team from Bristol’s Quantum Engineering labs has shown how to protect qubits from errors using photons in a silicon chip.

Photonic chip is key to ‘nurturing’ quantum computers: A team from Bristol’s Quantum Engineering labs has shown how to protect qubits from errors using photons in a silicon chip.

2 years ago
5

Popular News

  • Petrol, diesel sales soar in May

    Petrol, diesel sales soar in May

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Stamp Duty: Govt scraps 15-yr cap for women homebuyers who seek 1% rebate

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A leader like Hardik Pandya is a boon: Sai Sudharsan | Cricket News – Times of India

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Gold, silver trade lower on June 1; Check prices in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Hubble captures starry tentacles of faraway ‘jellyfish galaxy’ in stunning detail (photo)

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

About

Times Of Nation

timesofnation.com is a dedicated news website for core sciences, technology, medical research and health news along with current affairs coverage from India. the timesofnation.com website is one of the fast growing online communities for science-minded people....Read more

Category

  • Business News
  • Environment
  • Genetics
  • India
  • Outer space
  • Physics
  • Wildlife

Site Links

  • Corrections Policy
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

Contact Us

Email us to send your suggestions
editor[@]timesofnation.com
Send articles and news to editor[@]timesofnation.com
For other enquiries: admin[@]timesofnation.com
If you find any content violating the editorial code of conduct mail to editor[@]timesofnation.com.

  • Corrections Policy
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Times of Nation. All rights reserved.

ankara escort çankaya escort çankaya escort escort bayan çankaya istanbul rus escort eryaman escort ankara escort kızılay escort istanbul escort ankara escort ankara escort escort ankara istanbul rus Escort atasehir Escort beylikduzu Escort Ankara Escort malatya Escort kuşadası Escort gaziantep Escort izmir Escort
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Genetics
  • Environment
  • Wildlife
  • Outer space
  • Physics

© 2021 Times of Nation. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.