A federal court in Yucatán ordered this Friday to stop work on Section 5 south of the Maya Train in the state of Quintana Roo. The judiciary is requesting the suspension due to the impact the work has on the subsoil. The measure is final and requires the government to provide scientific studies showing that no environmental laws are being violated in the complex system of caves and cenotes on which the transport is built.
The decision, to which the newspaper Reforma had access, has implications for the route that connects the cities of Playa del Carmen and Tulum, where the world's only system of caves and cenotes will be drilled to place the columns of the train. Maya. The Yucatecan court has ordered the definitive suspension, “paralyzing” the work until it can be proven that “geological, geophysical and geohydrological studies” have been carried out. The analyzes must meet several conditions of the environmental permit that the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, i.e. the government, granted to the Maya train last September. The text states that Sections 5 North and South would have no impact on the environment. Several environmental organizations raised their voices against the approval, denouncing that no studies had been submitted on the site on which construction was to take place.
The judges have ordered the government to hand over all Section 5 construction documents to learn which caves and cenotes were drilled – with possible water contamination – and whether landslides occurred during the work. “This Court considers that the studies are crucial to determining, consistent with the principle of prevention, that the Maya Railway section does not pose a real threat to the stability of the groundwater systems in the region,” the judges claimed.
The ruling represents a new setback for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who hopes to inaugurate Section 5 north of the Maya Train on February 29 before the start of the election campaign. The rest of the program must be inaugurated after June 2, although the president had intended to do so before the election campaign. It is the second railway construction accident in less than a week. Last Friday, three workers were injured after a retaining wall collapsed in Section 6, south of Quintana Roo. A state where the formation of the train is difficult due to its complex systems of caves and cenotes, a natural wonder that is at risk due to the mega-infrastructure that, according to López Obrador, is set to transform southern Mexico.
Subscribe here Subscribe to the EL PAÍS México newsletter and receive all the important information on current events in this country