With a banner with the slogan “It’s not progress, it’s ecocide” in reference to the Mayan Train, environmentalists from the SélvaMe del Tren collective gathered in front of the National Palace, even with the cancellation less than 24 hours of a meeting agreed with the President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
On March 22, the National Citizen Awareness Campaign was launched with a group of more than 100 environmentalists, activists, artists, divers, academics and experts from the area to publicize the ecological damage that the construction of Section 5 of the Mayan Train, in Quintana Roo and that if it continues it will affect more areas.
In said campaign, a dialogue was requested with the authorities in charge of this construction and with the president so that the environmental impact studies and the reasons for the sudden change in the section’s route could be presented. The president accepted the dialogue for Monday, April 25, but canceled it a day before, without rescheduling.
It was through a statement that the General Coordination of Social Communication and Spokesperson of the Government of the Republic reported the decision to suspend. “Several of the guests have publicly declared that they will not attend the National Palace. For this reason, public opinion is informed that said meeting has been suspended,” the document reads.
And immediately afterwards, “the personalities and activists of #SélvameDelTren are invited to visit that region of Quintana Roo and speak with residents, indigenous communities and families of ejidatarios who live along section 5 of the Mayan Train, which runs from Cancun to Tulum, along the Riviera Maya.”
They also assure that the people were informed and consulted. “Along the Mayan Train, people know about the project and community by community has been consulted; besides that its construction is carried out protecting the environment and archaeological heritage; and cenotes, underground rivers or caverns will not be affected”.
The spokesperson indicates that 2 types of consultation were carried out, one with the indigenous communities of 118 municipalities in 5 states and another open to citizens in 84 municipalities. More than 100,000 citizens participated in the citizen consultation, of which 92.3% agree with the Train.
The Sélvame del Tren collective responded point by point to this statement, denying the Spokesperson: “There are not several (those who announced that they would not attend), it was one who knew what was going to happen: avoid the possibility of listening and admit reasons and facts.”(The president) knows what is happening, but he does not want to stop the plan”: Eugenio Derbez. He was not wrong, the rest of us are here,” reads the reply of the group (which can be consulted in full on the account of Twitter @selvamedeltren).
There they reproach him that the consultation put forward to 100,00 citizens is insufficient, since in Quintana Roo there are 5 million inhabitants; and they assure him that the majority does not agree with Section 5 of the Mayan train; and they reiterate the ecological damage that hangs over the region.
On the morning of this Monday, April 25, President López Obrador also spoke about the case in his morning conference. He insisted that he decided to cancel the meeting because the celebrities involved said they would not attend and only real or supposed environmentalists would participate, of whom he said “we have certain doubts about their performance.” For this reason, he clarified that those who could receive them at a given moment would be the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Sedema), as well as the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur).
Hear me, no! Derbez denies the President
However, the only character who had canceled his participation in advance was the actor and activist Eugenio Derbez who, upon hearing the news, sent a message through social networks, there he explained his reasons for canceling the meeting scheduled for this Monday. From a location on the beach, the actor assured that his main reason was for work. “It was not a whim,” he emphasized, noting that he has been filming a movie for two months.
During his conference, Andrés Manuel also exhibited a photograph of Eugenio Derbez, where according to him, the actor would have attended the inauguration of the Xcaret tourist complex, calling the actor a hypocrite, to which he replied “It is not okay for the current president to lie that way, I didn’t go to the inauguration of Xcaret, that photo is from four years ago when I went to the Platinum Awards ceremony; Xcaret was inaugurated in 1990, at that time I was a baby, I did not look like in that photo, they can investigate it”, and added: “If the president wanted a photo with me, I would be happy to go to the National Palace and take it, and I even tell him, listen to me, no, why did you cancel?
They demand dialogue and environmental impact studies
For its part, the Collective also generated a response. Through a statement he regretted the fact “It is a pity that the president rejects the dialogue he offered us. This shows that they do not have the environmental impact studies that the law requires and that we are right in our concern about the damage caused to the jungle and the Mayan aquifer”.
In addition, specialists and activists were already traveling to Mexico City for the meeting, it was a delegation of cavers, scientists, researchers, divers, biologists and activists from Quintana Roo, so they decided to demonstrate in front of the National Palace and seek dialogue.
Bernadette Carrión, professional cave diver and participant in the demonstration, explains that this area is very important because under these lands there are aquifers, which maintain an entire extension of water and water is life, “if we contaminate this water, which life”. She said that the trees, the animals and even the human beings themselves, who will not be able to inhabit the area, are in danger.
“This place is a giant sponge of water, anything we do on the surface of this karstic system is going to contaminate the aquifer,” he said. “Our great concern is the current route of the train, through the interior of the Yucatan Peninsula, the same space that coexists with the aquifers and travels to the coast.”
The also member of the SélvaMe del Tren collective declared: “They invited us and while we were already flying, the meeting was cancelled, it was about opening communication, but not just a day of dialogue, but expressing ourselves as a scientific community about what is happening there, with our knowledge”.
For his part, the actor and activist, Mauricio Islas, carried a megaphone where he launched slogans against the work being built in the south of the country. He assured that they are not opposed to the progress that this project represents, but to the construction without environmental impact studies and to the hasty manner in which things have taken place.
He said that more than two million trees have been felled in the area and denounced that the ejidatarios of Jacinto Pat received 150 million pesos for the purchase of the rights of way, one million for each parcel, which represented his change of position, since at first they opposed the construction of that section.
discrepancies
While the demonstration was taking place, a group of people passing by also decided to confront the group of activists and showed their discontent. “We are no longer the assholes of before”, one of the people who were near Mauricio Islas was heard saying.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador left the National Palace on Monday afternoon without receiving the activists and environmentalists who asked to speak with him about the works on section 5 of the Mayan Train.