By Karen Moe
Because of the complexity of Mexican politics, it's highly recommended that you read Part One before diving into this one.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during the inauguration of the first phase of the Mayan Train (Tren Maya).
Just like, in all nations,
it would be amazing if the opposition would acknowledge when the governing party has an undeniably good idea, it should go without saying that no politician, political party, government or human being is perfect. Because of this inevitability, even when you agree with the majority of a government’s actions, there will typically be some that you question, and maybe even all out disagree with to the extent that you say: Oh My God, they’re so great but they really shouldn’t have done that! Or, as in my case and this moment of writing and context building, some that require more in-depth analysis in order to achieve a relatively informed opinion when immersed in the multi-faceted, complex, political, cultural and ideological mudpie that is Mexican politics. I am not writing propaganda. I’m not going to rah-rah everything the same way I am doing my best in an essay not to leave anything out. Even though I am thrilled with what the Morena party stands for, what they have done and what will be built upon with in-coming president Claudia Sheinbaum at the helm, I readily admit President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Morena are not perfect because I don’t think any commentary can be balanced if there are no queries that must be dug into, maybe only to find some irresolvable questions—even for a supporter like me. First: there is the Tren Maya (the Mayan Train). Next: there is Feminism. Then, there is the environment.
Tackling the most difficult first, Tren Maya is a tough one. So much so that I’ve just had to go for another long stroll to roll around all the information I’ve consumed in the last two months or so on the controversial 1,554 km train that crosses five Mexican States where, because of the polarization of opinions from absolutely for or fully against, it seems one has to go to the Yucatan themselves in order to achieve a truly balanced one. However, as I cannot at the moment, I will present as many angles and opinions as I have digested here in lieu of writing a book about it so that, ideally, I can come out of this discussion maybe not fully convinced either way, but at least as informed as I can be when contextualizing from a far. Nevertheless, this balancing act is not without the caveat that runs throughout this three-part essay: a populist government hysterically accused of verging on Venezuela (populist being a government that prioritizes the well-being of the majority of the people over the minority elite and, thereby, in the case of Morena, has legislated social welfare programs and is working towards national self-sufficiency, re: extricating the country from international corporate exploitation) is not given as much benefit of the doubt as those that serve the neoliberal, elite serving status quo and are demonized even when progress is undeniable—as we have seen in Part One.
Announced in 2018, begun in 2020, the first phase between Campeche and Cancun inaugurated in December 2023, the Cancun/Playa del Carmen section opened in March 2024 and the other six lines scheduled to be opened by February 2025, Tren Maya enables tourists to visit previously inaccessible archeological sites and towns, connects cities and towns for locals, and provides a more convenient and less polluting transportation alternative for residents and freight. The train promises to alleviate poverty for the long-neglected people of Mexico’s southeast. The UN has estimated that the Tren Maya project will raise 1.1 million people out of poverty. 44% of the train will be powered by electricity and the rest will be a hybrid of diesel and electricity, the latter of which has significantly lower carbon emissions than traditional combustion engines. Sound good? That depends on who you talk to and whether you are willing to contextualize the project beyond the current administration and national borders.
As a Forest Defender and eco-feminist,
I have a challenge okaying any forest, the people and non-human species who live there being potentially compromised in any way for industry; however, as a socialist and a protectionist, I also believe that combating colonial capitalism that has held Mexico and the majority of Mexicans captive for centuries and working towards national sovereignty, self-sufficiency and alleviating poverty is, to reinforce the fundamental argument of this essay, a good thing. Tourism, especially on the Yucatan Peninsula, comprises 8.7% of the country’s GDP, provides 2.3 million full-time jobs with approximately 10 million in total including informal employment and accounts for 79.9% of exports in services.[1] Le Monde diplomatique reported that “2022 broke all records, with over 30 million passengers: at 500 flights a day on average, Cancún International Airport topped the list of Latin American destinations.”[2] With Tren Maya, Obrador’s plan is to increase tourism revenue by 20 percent and create more than one million jobs. As an added act of national self-sufficiency in a nation that, under the 95 years of the international corporation pandering governments of PAN and PRI, the trains have been designed and built locally in the Mexican State of Hidalgo. Obrador has proclaimed Tren Maya as a “Train for Mexico, built in Mexico.”[3]
However, just a few weeks after his presidential inauguration in December 2018, AMLO made the now infamous error when he claimed that not a single tree would be cut during the building of Tren Maya. It’s difficult to understand why any politician announcing the onset of the building of a transportation system the scale of Tren Maya that will circumnavigate a jungle would not necessitate the cutting of at least some (and certainly more than one!) tree even if much of it was planned to be and has been built along pre-existing highways and an old train line. Be it a political spin or wishful thinking, politically, with this announcement, AMLO shot himself in the foot and provided fodder for ongoing national and international criticism to undermine his credibility.
To get the negatives out of the way first in a critique that is about 80% favourable,
there is also the issue of the construction of the mega-project being rushed due to Obrador’s desire to cut all the ribbons himself while he is still president—which, in the end, has proven impossible. I wasn’t even going to write about this detail that has added even more fuel to the Tren Maya scandal; however, in this essay, I’ve decided to address all accusations of wrongdoing, so as to present the most balanced analysis possible.
Oaxaca, Mexico Photo: Karen Moe
Okay then,
let's get the cutting of the ribbons out of the way: this may seem insignificant, petty and almost silly to bring up, and gee why shouldn’t he want to do that when it is the opening of his dream project. And, yes, I agree. I don’t know about you, but if I were president, I would probably want to inaugurate every line of my dream project and legacy, but not necessarily while I was still in office. However, this generally understandable desire is undermined when there is the possibility that the final phase of the construction has been rushed, it has been claimed that environmental studies were insufficient, and it would have been better if the president wasn't pushing for the premature completion of a very complex ecological project. Would it not have been better to take the time necessary and not risk cutting corners? Again, because of the ferocity of the information determined to debase Obrador, if this is true and AMLO has been taking environmental risks so that he could fulfill his personal desire, ego was involved. Certainly far from perfect.
Yet, like nothing or no one ever being so, Obrador’s error does not, and should not, discredit all the positives his administration has been able to realize in a mere six years (see Part One for some highlights) of which, to bring in the main argument of this three-part essay, the majority of Mexicans are happy about—that’s why Morena had another landslide victory on June 2nd, 2024 in Mexico’s largest election in the country’s history and elected Obrador’s predecessor, Claudia Sheinbaum.
In-c0ming president and the first female president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Again, as put forward in Part One, in order to achieve a comprehensive analysis,
it is important to contextualize politics beyond national borders. When extending Obrador’s not-a-single-tree-will-be-cut blunder beyond Mexico, even in a country like Canada that is viewed from afar—and even from within—as a squeaky-clean democracy, the internationally admired Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed a big-time blunder in 2018 when he bought the environmentally treacherous and vehemently controversial Trans Mountain oil pipeline—regardless of years of and continuing environmental protests—from the American energy giant Kinder Morgan for 4.7 million with far from adequate consultation with Canadian citizens.[6] Unlike the referendum held by Morena government in the Yucatan with a 90% vote in favour of Tren Maya—a referendum that has since been criticized for an unfair process because no information was provided about environmental risks and not adequately consulting with Indigenous[7]—Trudeau had no need to hold a referendum at all because he created a federal organization that is technically a part of an elected government so, therefore, has free rein to do as it pleases—which means, in the long run: as pleases corporate interests and the elite.
Based on reports from Congreso National Inígena, Radio Zapatista, and Cultural Survival,[8] it appears that Obrador didn’t consult adequately with the Indigenous and that there are definitely Indigenous peoples against the train. However, AMLO keeps to his statement that there was a 90% approval in the Yucatan. In the same way, not only does Canada never consult adequately with Indigenous peoples due to the insidious subterfuge of the colonial Indian Act (see endnote[9] for a few details), during the Canadian scandal of the government bailing out an American oil corporation with unconsulted taxpayers’ dollars, Trudeau also brought out the rhetoric of percentages. When coming under fire from First Nations, Trudeau stated: “It is not a process that ever is going to give unanimity. I am prime minister not because 100 per cent of people voted for me, that happens in North Korea.”[10] Unlike Obrador, however, in quintessential Canadian passive-aggressive style, Trudeau acknowledged and apologized for not adequately consulting with First Nations—conveniently, long after the purchase of the pipeline and the continuation of construction through ecologically sensitive and pristine lands and unceded Indigenous territory.[11] And, I can’t help but ask: what’s better? A lack of apology or an empty one? No acknowledgement or a token one? And not to excuse either, why is one demonized over the other from an international perspective? Unlike the incessant international airing of AMLO’s questionable behaviour, Canadian politicians’ blunders most often remain within national borders.
I have asked UNAM professor and author Arturo Ramírez for his take:
"Although there was a significant felling of trees, this does not represent an ecocide in the terms that current ecologists try to make it out to be. Every work of this size has projections that mitigate the intervention to ecosystems and measures are planned to repair the damage. When they built their trains in Europe, didn’t they cut down trees? The agenda of these environmentalists corresponds to well-identified economic and political interests. The same ones who remained silent in the face of gentrification works and the creation of mega hotels in the ecological reserve areas of Cancun."
Far from dismissing the necessity of protecting all pristine eco-systems on earth,
why, as asked by Ramírez, can so-called first world capitalist democracies build transportation infrastructure and cut down trees without the same level of international condemnation, not to mention outrage? Why, as he points out within the context of the beloved international tourist destination of the Mayan Riviera, are elite-owned mega-hotels built on ecological reserves with minimal concern? And, as one of many examples, I would add: why isn’t there as much international exposure and horror about international mining in Mexico, South America and Africa, to name the main destinations of mining corporations from my country of birth, behaviour that often isn't even known about by Canadians? And why, again from my Canadian perspective, is there not the same level of international (and national) outrage with the British Columbia government’s collusion and support of logging corporations to cut down some of the last remaining old growth forest even without any of the capital going into public coffers to invest in social programs and all going, once again, to the corporate elite?[12] And, why—to make the double standard of condemnation even more obvious—is the Canadian logging of the big, read ancient, trees actually celebrated and romanticized in a 2020 Netflix series called “Big Timber”[13]?
As a big picture feminist
who writes through the connections between all exploitations, I am certainly not excusing any irresponsible cutting of trees, especially old growth—if that is what has been happening with the construction of Tren Maya. According to a 2023 article in the environmental magazine Mongabay, since the inception of the construction of Tren Maya in 2020, the Mayan Forest is 6,000 hectares smaller.[14] However, on average, around 200,000 hectares of forest are harvested every year in my province of British Columbia, and an estimated 11,600 hectares of old growth (that was slated for protection) was cut between 2021 and 2023.[15] Moreover, because of the mechanization of forestry in Canada, the claims that such environmental devastations are for the sake of ‘jobs’ is minimal and, unlike Tren Maya with its focus on economic development in one of Mexico’s most neglected and impoverished regions, in Canada, the money goes up with very little, if any, dribbling down.
As Ramírez alludes: why should Europe be able to build their high-speed trains to benefit their economies, create a sustainable mode of transportation, promote tourism and connect European communities? Indeed, all foreigners rave about the speed and convenience of the trains that inscribe the continent. After digging, there is no literature available about any displacement of locals, any devastation to the environment during the building of Europe’s high-speed trains, even though the cutting of some trees, farmland being cut through and some locals forced to move or sell their land undoubtedly occurred. Granted, there would not have been as much effect on the natural environment because Europe began cutting down old growth starting in 6,000 BC with the dawn of agriculture and the clearing of the land, which accelerated through the Middle Ages and reached its peak during the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars. It wasn’t until the 20th Century that the deforestation of the continent began to be addressed and now, in the 21st, innovations in reforestation are prioritized by the EU.[16]
Again, this is certainly not to okay any deforestation and, yes, the beginning of the deforestation of Europe began millennia before human caused climate change and the awareness of the necessity for sustainability. Yet, as another under-spoken tidbit pertaining to the double-standard imposed upon the Mexican government that is standing up to the US and emasculating neo-liberal corporations (see Part One): all literature on Europe’s high-speed rail celebrates the clean energy technology provided by train travel and this is the same technology Tren Maya has implemented through their partnership with Alstom, a global leader in sustainable mobility and responsible for the design of railways systems in 63 countries, including Europe[17]—a fact that is never mentioned in articles focusing on the devastation of the environment AMLO has committed.
Even though I was unable to find any literature on any environmental compromise and damage done during the building of Europe’s celebrated trains, I did uncover a 2024 article in Global Voices about Japan’s new Chūō Shinkansen bullet train line from Tokyo to Osaka that will replace the Tokaido Shinkansen line. Besides this one article, all the others I found on the Chūō Shinkansen line celebrate the lessening of carbon emissions because of the alternative mode of transportation that will get cars off the road, the impressive environmental performance of the trains, and improving quality-of-life, all of which are also benefits of Tren Maya (the Tren Maya project has already generated over 6,500 direct jobs during its construction phase and started to get polluting cars and busses off the road).[18] However, Global Voices reports how, since the construction of Chūō Shinkansen began in 2014, many Japanese residents have only seen its rising costs with few of the anticipated advantages and the clean energy proclamations are at the very least questionable when it is reported that most trains will run on fossil fuels and nuclear.
The article continues:
“a staggering 90 percent of the Linear's journey from Tokyo to Osaka will be entirely underground, including 70 kilometers that pass directly underneath the pristine wilderness of the Japanese Alps. This is already producing massive amounts of soil and dirt waste, some of which is contaminated with toxic chemicals such as arsenic and mercury, and almost all of which have no decided use or storage location. It is estimated that tunnel construction between Tokyo and Nagoya alone will produce 56.8 million cubic meters of dirt.”
With the construction of Chūō Shinkansen Line, there is fear of landslides, the tunnels will impact water supplies, there have been relocations of residents, destruction of underground aquifers and local farms and the traditional way of life in rural communities is being destroyed. To make matters worse for the people of Japan and for the under-reporting of anything positive about Tren Maya—not to mention adding to the prioritization of the elite and so-called first world countries—unlike Tren Maya as a vehicle to directly benefit the people of Mexico’s long-neglected South East, in the end, the president of Japan admits that the new train line will mainly be used to sell Japanese technology abroad.[19]
In contrast, there are countless international publications
of sensationalist outrage pertaining to Tren Maya. As one example of American rhetorical shamelessness (with its tone virtually taking ownership of the Mayan Riviera), a Washington Post headline proclaims: “AMLO’s Train Maya will Destroy Yucatan Treasures”; Time Magazine: “Mexico’s Mayan Train Is An Environmental Disaster” and the usually more balanced perspective of The Guardian leapt in a year ago: “A Mega Project of Death: fury as Maya Train reaches completion in Mexico.” (After a bit of digging, I discovered that the latter article is connected to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation).[20] The Seattle Times emotively churns: “The train … plowed down millions of trees, a chunk of the largest tropical forest in the Americas after the Amazon.” Italics mine [21] This is ideologically guided discourse at its best, written to feed the hysteria and demonization of a socialist government in a neoliberal world. The drama of the word “plowed” and the misleading use of the term “chunk” when it is far from it: a ‘strip’ is more accurate and, yes, forest had to be cleared for train stations and parking. However, as far as I can see, as few trees as possible have been cut to develop much needed transportation in the region.
BN Americas presents one of the most balanced analyses I have found:
1. The project remains true to its purpose of delivering a safe and affordable transport system to a region that has been economically neglected for decades, in addition to spreading the wealth of tourism to other areas in the Yucatán peninsula.
2. Aside from metro projects in major cities, Mexico had not built a single passenger railway in more than a decade. In the southeast, highways are the only infrastructure connecting tourism hubs, and many communities lack basic transportation services.
3. Most of the Maya train’s environmental controversy, however, surrounds stretch five, where the government made a last-minute change to the route so the rail line would cross the jungle instead of the existing Cancún-Tulum highway.
4. Even though the original idea was to have the rail line on this stretch built within the highway's existing right-of-way, Fonatur changed the route due to lobbying from the hotel industry, which feared construction works would affect its business.
5. According to activists living in Quintana Roo, the improvised construction of the railroad through the jungle has not only caused deforestation, but also irreversible damage to the area’s delicate cave systems.
6. In a statement, Fonatur said these natural structures will be protected through an elevated viaduct with fauna passages[23] comprising 75% of the Cancún-Tulum stretch.[24]
7. The train will contribute to the mobility of the local population, workers from the Riviera Maya and national and international tourists. Tickets are cheaper than available ground transportation [and are less expensive for locals than tourists with special tickets for senior citizens, people with disabilities and students. [25]
A detail that I find the most interesting
in this BN report is the fact that the part of the train line that has caused the most environmental concern and is the greatest source of the accusations of carelessness and self-aggrandizement on the part of a president accused to be autocrat is line 5 that travels from Cancun to Tulum through an area with many delicate, underground caves known as cenotes. And, in the end, it is the hotel industry that is responsible because, as usual, the capitalist profit margin always overrides the environment. It is also telling that, out of all the articles I have read during the course of researching this one, the BN publication is the only source I could find that mentions this fact—except for an aside in an otherwise damning BBC article that states: “the plan for Line 5 changed mid-construction after luxury hotel chains lobbied to have it removed from their doorstep” with no mention of what the original plan was and this omission implying sloppiness and poor planning on the part of the Mexican government. Because the BN article is a balance of criticism and praise and not merely a leaping onto the bandwagon of disdain or celebration, I view it as a reliable source—along with the fact the capitalist prioritization of their bottom line over the environment is typical behaviour.
An extensive article in the environmental magazine Mongabay
represents the bias against the AMLO administration and Tren Maya by the international press to the point of humour. The reporter finger-wagged in their introduction that, after they were not permitted to bring their large video camera on the train,
"Funny no one ever patted us down … or checked our bags (a guard said metal detectors would be installed at a later date). Clearly, they were still getting things up and running. Construction workers drilled away in empty stores. Dust covered the platform."
For anyone who has travelled by bus in Mexico, you will know that you always walk through a metal detector, your carry-on baggage is always checked and you are sometimes even patted down before boarding—remember: there is a high-level of violence in Mexico and, as explained in Part One, this is certainly nothing new and certainly nothing that can be solved in one term and, despite what short-sighted critics proclaim, the 2023 homicide rate is below the murder rate of Piña Neto’s final year in 2017 and has been decreasing since 2022. I have been searched and my bags scanned since my arrival here nine years ago and this security practice has been happening for who knows how long before me. Indeed, after an experience I had on a Greyhound bus between Arkansas and Oklahoma in 2022, with the shootings, arms availability and anger of the people of the so-called ‘fly over states’, I wished there had been a metal detector before boarding as I sat surrounded by the bristling animosity and racism of America’s angry poor (but that’s another essay)! And what about all the security checks before boarding a plane? Gee whiz, nothing is good enough when the worst is not only presumed, but ideologically mandated, even before boarding.
Paradoxically, because no one patted them down or checked their bags and the metal scanner wasn't up and scanning yet, the Mongabay reporters were actually being treated less “militantly” than is usual in Mexico. The train had just been finished, so yes, maybe there was dust on the platform and some construction still going on. But drilling away at empty ‘stores’? Willy-nilly going at what? Stores for shopping? What does all this mean except to undermine the integrity of the project from an obviously foreign perspective? And why should two foreigners be allowed to take their large video camera on board a train without previous permission anyway? Perhaps security didn’t think it appropriate for other passengers to be approached with a large video camera? Not to mention the fact that in Canada, the US, and the UK making a formal request to film professionally and/or commercially on public transportation is common practice.[26] Whatever the reason, not being allowed to take your large video camera on board a train without prior permission is no proof that something fishy is going on.
However, even though the article damns Tren Maya from the get-go,
the Mongabay reporter later admits: “lines 1 through 4 had been built on an old railroad, presumably limiting the trees they’d had to cut down.” And yet, as practiced throughout the article, the positive statement of limiting the number of trees cut down and the tracks being responsibly and resourcefully built along a pre-existing train line (it’s great that this fact was included at all, though) is tainted by the insertion of ‘presumably’ and then, immediately undermined by: “[b]ut the government had also cleaned up the area once construction finished, so it was hard to tell what any of this had looked like before.” The observation of environmental responsibility has the rug torn out from under it through the implication that the government deceptively "cleaned up the area" after construction had finished. What’s wrong with cleaning up? Doesn’t this always happen? And wasn’t suspicion raised a paragraph ago about the dust on another platform? These journalists are determined to damn a project even when coming upon undeniable credibility.
The reporters then interview Mexicans riding the train, all of whom, to their chagrin, speak positively about it. According to one passenger: “the environmental side of things wasn’t a problem for him. He gestured out the windows where forest stretched on out of sight, as if to say, What deforestation?” Does not a forest stretching out of sight mean there is so much forest that there is an extensive tract of it? So much so that one cannot see where it ends? The Mexican positivity about the train is followed by this absurd statement: “they rode the train, but they hadn’t built it, hadn’t voted on its designs in any direct way.” (Italics in the original) Do passengers usually or ever build the train they are riding? Since when are all civilians mechanical engineers and since when do citizens of the US, Canada or Western Europe directly participate in the design and construction of their nations’ transportation systems?
Moreover, as a piece of primary research: pre-election, whenever I was in rural areas, I rarely saw election signs other than Morena. When I drove from the Cancun Airport to Merida a month before the election, I saw one PRI sign in a sea of Morena. PAN and PRI signs are rampant in the big cities where the Fifis (Obrador’s nickname for his elite opposition) live. And, one might add, pertaining to the Mongabay accusation that no one voted for the train—even though there ostensibly was a referendum—if the majority of the Mexicans interviewed that day were locals (which is highly probable) and they voted Morena (again as residents of rural states is also highly probable), they voted in favour of the train. When riding Line 1, again, the Mongabay reporter had to admit “[o]verall, the damage along this line seemed relatively minimal.”[27] Read: as little as was necessary to build much-needed transportation infrastructure that the majority of self-proclaimed "developed countries" already have.
Then there are the Indigenous peoples.
The Mayan people. The namesakes of the train, many of whom claim no connection to, do not approve of, did not consent to and believe that the prosperity AMLO promises will add to the devastation of their ancestral land and their communities. Here's where this discussion becomes incredibly difficult, not to mention extremely complex. Even though I do not want to add fuel to the neoliberal opposition’s relentless condemnation of Morena and Obrador, we must always listen to the Indigenous peoples of the world, especially the few who are still living their cultures of reciprocity with the land and the wisdom they have to share with those of us from capital-dependent cultures—which socialist nations are as well. And we must listen to all the Indigenous peoples—not only those who consent to the development of industry on their ancestral territory. And this is true for every colonial nation of which, we must not forget, regardless of the revolution of Obrador’s Fourth Transformation (doing away with privileged abuses that had plagued Mexico in decades past), Mexico is; no matter if a hyper-conservative or a socialist government is in power, Mexico itself, the country that Morena is protecting against continued economic colonization from beyond its borders, would not exist without the Spanish conquistadores, the same way Canada and the US would not exist without the British colonizers. The patterns of colonialism continue in all colonial nation-states, regardless of who is in power and regardless as to whether the governing party is doing its best to provide equal access to prosperity in a country that has been notorious for its extreme disparity between the proverbial haves and have nots for centuries. And, yes, there is a greater possibility of walking towards improvement and equality with a party committed to social programs, equal access to education and healthcare than those who maintain hierarchy, serve the elite and profit from the oppression and exploitation of the majority.
It is undeniable that AMLO's plan to improve the economy of the Yucatan, create jobs for the majority and add to the economic self-sufficiency of the country has resulted in a clash with the Indigenous, who, like all traditional cultures, value an economy rooted in an egalitarian relationship with the land over the hierarchical prioritization of monetary economic gain even though, paradox upon paradox, the economic development of the Morena government is for the greater good of the Mexican people in general. But, when a government is still trapped within prosperity as capital, the clash with Indigenous peoples is inevitable.
Avenida Presidente Masaryk, Polanco, Mexico City where apartments can cost $1 million USD. See YouTube link for ostentatious details.
In socialist economies,
the goal is to give all citizens equal access to the same resources like education and healthcare. As stated in Part One, I consider Mexico under Morena to be a combination of socialism and democracy: socialist in the sense that corporations are nationalized and relationships with foreign investment are regulated with the goal of profits and resources staying in the country as opposed to the international corporate suck out of the past; democratic in that, even though the opposition has desperately dug, there has not been any corruption in Morena’s two landslide victories unlike during the 95 years of PAN and PRI administrations. Socialism still relies on capital; however, unlike neoliberal (unregulated, global or "free-market" capitalism), the capital accrued in a socialist society is more controlled by the government for the interests of the citizens, rather than private corporations in a so-called free market economy that provides even more liberty and privilege for the elite.
However, we must not forget that Mexico is also a so-called third world country that has been exploited by the first world since it created the third and this is exactly what AMLO is resisting. Around and around we go in a country that Mexican/American artist Ray Smith describes as a “room full of mirrors” because, like with every nation in the Americas, Mexico would not exist if the Indigenous peoples were not colonized and their land stolen in the first place. And yet, as AMLO proclaims to the anger of the USA-centered, neoliberal status quo: "Mexico is not a colony of the US." And, yes, the majority of Mexicans are not only happy about that, with the second landslide defeat of PAN and PRI on June 2nd, 2024, they are also relieved. Mexico exists in a state of dual-colonization: the continued colonial system that created the country and the neoliberal economic colonization prowling its borders. With the socialist, protectionist Morena government, one level of this two-tiered colonization is being removed. Is this a good thing? Undeniably, eradicating any level of colonial hierarchy that guarantees the exploitation of the many for maintaining the privilege of the few is, indeed, a good thing.
A barrio, Monterrey Mexico. Photo: Karen Moe.
On the 16th of December 2019,
three days before the Tren Maya referendum, there was a death threat against Pedro Uc Be, a Mayan environmentalist and professor who “was threatened with death via WhatsApp, for defending large amounts of land which they seek to convert into different industrial projects, amongst those, the “Tren Maya.” The organization Frontline Defenders explain how:
As a member of the Assembly of Defenders of the Mayan Territory Múuch' Xíinbal and the Indigenous National Congress (CNI), [Uc Be] … has worked on the protection of lands of Mayan peoples affected by mega-projects, including transgenic soybean production, pig farms, renewable energy plants, high-impact tourism and the ’Mayan Train’ …. Front Line Defenders believes the message is referring to the visibility he has given to the defence of land rights, especially in view of his recent denunciations in several media outlets of the inadequate citizen consultation implemented by the federal government regarding the ‘Mayan Train’.[28]
As AMLO defends Mexico against the global economic power that was founded upon the original colonial infrastructure laid during the height of Imperialism when Europe partitioned the globe, with testimonies from frontline defenders like Uc Be, it appears that Obrador continues to exercise the actions of a colonial state by not consulting adequately with the Indigenous. And this is not surprising. Certainly not to excuse colonialism and its continuation, this is what colonial states don’t do. Canada, with its Indian Act and First Nations Band Councils who are paid off by and serve the provincial, federal governments and extraction corporations, only consults with the Indigenous who will agree.
In many ways, consulting adequately with all Indigenous peoples whose economy is rooted in reciprocity with the earth rather than resource extraction would mean relinquishing the very concept of prosperity having any connection at all to capital and perhaps even going so far as dismantling the state. I personally am all for working towards this; however, in the meantime, as a well-intentioned socialist government of a colonial state defending itself against the neoliberal sharks circling its resource-rich borders, Morena has been focused on making improvements for the people within an inherently flawed system, an inherently flawed way of being with the earth. In the day-to-day living conditions of most Mexican people, the improvements to their lives that AMLO has achieved in six years are enormous; yet, in terms of prioritizing the earth and adequately consulting Indigenous peoples, it appears that the Tren Maya project is as guilty as the majority of industrial nations’ mega-projects.
No excuse, of course. No excuse for any of us and no reason not to keep working towards better. This is just reality and another occasion to ask: if Obrador didn’t consult adequately with the Indigenous, if he didn’t do what all other colonial nations don’t do, why is his omission more internationally broadcast than countries like say, mine? Nice Canada that is always obedient to the US and able to keep its lack of adequate consultation with the Indigenous comparatively quiet? Political and social improvements with their inevitable shortcomings must be contextualized. As Rebecca Solnit states: “[no revolution fails] to do something, and many increase the amount of liberty, justice, and hope for their heirs.”[29] Claudia Sheinbaum is that heir and will be building on the achievements and, ideally, improving upon the shortcomings of the first six years of the Morena government and continue to improve the lives of the majority of Mexicans, poco a poco, step by step.
It's important to remember
that Tren Maya is not the only mega-project the Mayan opposition has been and continues to protest. As Frontline Defenders point out, in recent years, there have been solar and wind projects as well as pig farms[30] and transgenic soybean production that Uc Be and other Mayan land defenders have been fighting against.[31] The meat industry is privately owned;[32] the wind farms are (still) typically foreign owned[33] and are also often connected to the Mexican concrete corporation CEMEX, which is well-known to have connections to organized crime.[34] Unlike the profits generated by organized crime and taken offshore by international corporations, the economic benefits of Tren Maya will remain within the country.
And I ask: could Uc Be, as one of the main spokespeople against Tren Maya and accusing the government of inadequate consultation with Indigenous peoples, be seen as a threat by other mega-projects, as well? Undoubtedly. Was this a convenient time to further slander the Morena government and their irreverent president? Could be. Did the death threat come from the government? No way to prove that. All that is known in terms of a definitive source is that it was from a phone number from the state of Morelos. Was it an act of sabotage by the neoliberal opposition? Possible. This may seem like the makings of a conspiracy theory, but Mexican politics, with the extent of anger against AMLO by the opposition, the CIA’s connection to previous PAN and PRI administrations (a relationship that Obrador has ended much to the disapproval of the American colonizer)[35], the international corporate stakes in bringing down a socialist government in a resource rich country that was recently a free-for-all, along with the cartel wild-card, is beyond complicated. Anything is possible.
However, if there were no Tren Maya, the impoverished and economically neglected population of the South East, the majority Mestizo (mixed race of the Spanish and Indigenous ancestry) would not have the jobs that have already been realized and, through the extension of the multi-million dollar tourist industry, the millions more yet to come; cleaner, more convenient, transportation would not be an alternative for tourists and the regional workforce, would not help get cars off the road and, through the transportation of freight as well as people, reduce carbon emissions; money generated would not contribute to the national self-sufficiency of a previously internationally exploited state, and continue to fund the social programs that have already raised so many Mexicans out of poverty in a mere six years (see Part One). Tren Maya is a dilemma in the absolute sense: there are negatives on both sides and, in the name of improving the quality of life for the majority, the ethics of Tren Maya are an irresolvable bind.
The highly problematic Line 5
from Cancun to Tulum originally planned to be built along the pre-existing highway that ended up, because of capitalist pressure, a viaduct over the most delicate ecology of the train-system, is an environmental thorn in what is, fundamentally, a well-meaning project. There are very real concerns about underground cave systems collapsing and contamination of the drinking water by the metal columns that support the viaduct, the latter of which scientists and environmentalists claim has already occurred. However, supporters of the train state that the environmentalists and scientists are connected to the political opposition and, as reported in Mexico Business News in March 2024, AMLO defended the responsible building practices:
They [are taking] … special measures, covering columns to prevent damage, conducting studies to avoid subsurface impact, and exercising extreme caution. He criticized environmentalists, accusing them of exploiting nature defence as a business and engaging in extortion. He argued that the project has the support of the local communities.[36]
Whatever way you look at it, AMLO was determined to complete his dream project and fulfill his vision for the betterment of the lives of the majority of the people who live in south-eastern Mexico. And he has succeeded. And, yes, the majority of Mexicans are happy about it.
The last layer
I will discuss in this particular archeological site of Mexican politics: in the Yucatan Peninsula, so rich in archeological heritage, it should go without saying that any of the new tracks built will cross over areas that contain historical artifacts. There have been many reports proclaiming this inevitability that are against the train for this reason. As written in an article in Equal Times, one of the main issues is Obrador’s desire to finish the train while he is still in office upon its completion and that, in March 2022 the ASF (a specialized body of the Chamber of Deputies that audits the use of public resources) warned of the archaeological risks involved in the rush to complete the works: “[w]ith regard to archaeological excavation, the ASF audit group has identified risks related to the time needed for archaeological salvage procedures.” Nevertheless, the article continues to explain how:
“this salvage work is in the hands of archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), who are exploring the paths along which the tracks of the Maya Train will run, equipped with state-of-the-art technology. Their mission is to rescue the remains, clean and restore them in laboratories, study them and return them to the site where they were found. Those found on the route of the future train tracks will be relocated to another area.”[37]
An article that begins critically ends positively as it appears that INAH is doing everything possible to sustainably deal with the inevitable.
An attempt to summarize the Tren Maya tangle:
Is the fact that Mexico, like all colonial nations built with resource extraction, a positive? If you’re a capitalist, yes; if you’re an ancestral Indigenous person or a descendant of the colonizer who stands in solidarity with the rights and wisdom of the Indigenous peoples and the preservation of what is left of pristine eco-systems on earth, of course not.
Is Mexico under Morena the only country that relies on the exploitation of natural resources? Obviously not.
Is Morena working to raise Mexico out of the third world where the elite are the soul beneficiaries of the extraction economy? No argument there.
Is Mexico succeeding. Yes, millions of previously exploited Mexican’s lives have been improved in the last 6 years through access to education, jobs, support for such single mothers, youth and seniors and the doubling of the minimum wage. That's why Morena had another landslide victory one June 2nd, 2024.
Are all governments that promote and rely on extraction and capital destroying the planet? Certainly.
Would PAN and PRI be saving the planet and ending all exploitation? Impossible. Contextualize the Morena government in the previous 95 years of PAN and PRI and you will know the answer (and see the forthcoming section on the environment in Part Three).
Is Mexico beyond complicated? No disagreement there.
Is Mexico with the cartels and non-stop neoliberal incursions on an even playing field with countries like Canada and the US who are regularly the sources of the corporations and the beneficiaries of the neoliberal incursions and the exploitation of the so-called third world and its people? Of course not.
Does, in Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones' words, every person on earth, need to reassess our relationships with each other and the earth? Yes. [38]
Do all people in this world, to quote Elder Bill again: have to now restructure our living, how we provide our living, how we keep alive in order to save the planet? One can only hope. And act (but that's another book).
Do more descendants of the colonizer in the ‘developed’ and internationally exploitative nations like Canada, the US and Western Europe have the ability to acknowledge, act and fight against environmental exploitation and climate change precisely because they are descendants of colonizers than people who struggle daily to feed their families? Obviously.
Is contextualizing a current administration beyond international borders and historical temporality imperative to gain a more balanced perspective? I can only hope. And keeping writing.
At environmental protests in Canada, the majority of protestors are now descendants of the colonizing culture.
And all of this begs the questions:
what is better, not building the train, ensuring zero environmental risk and continuing to ignore the people of one of the most economically depressed parts of Mexico? Building the train and doing as much as possible to, in Ramírez’s words, mitigate the intervention to ecosystems with planned measures to repair the damage as appears to be happening with archeological procedures and is ideally happening as efforts are made to protect delicate ecosystems? Is it better to not build the train and not be able to generate national capital to help support a sovereign state that is no longer prey to and dependent on neoliberal incursions? In so many ways, when one values the natural environment and the prosperity of historically ignored and exploited people, Tren Maya is a dilemma at an impasse.
Yet, in the midst of this impasse,
I can’t help but think in the historical and economic context of a country that, like all nations that rely on capitalism, Mexico is still entrapped in the need for capital and the Morena government is trying their best in a balancing act of doing minimal damage to the eco-system while alleviating poverty. As the first-world West freaks out about a ‘populist’ (don’t forget: this dirty word means prioritizing and protecting the majority of the people over and from the minority elite) president and implies that the entire 1,554 km of tracks is virtually murdering the environment with no mention of the fact that it is one section of the train line that is the most potentially damaging—not a good thing for sure—and that these ecological challenges were caused by the Mayan Riviera hotel industry, we can see that, like everything in Mexico, truth requires digging both within the context of the nation and beyond, and not relying on surface, reductionist, ideologically-driven hysteria.
Any attempt to designate Tren Maya as simply ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is not a simple task and not one I can claim expertise on having only researched it for a couple of months through secondary sources and not having gone there personally (yet). In 2023, the Guardian acknowledged that “[a]ll of this public investment has turbocharged GDP growth in certain states – but it remains to be seen whether that growth will endure once the projects are finished, and how the economic benefits will be distributed.”[39] Yes, it should go without saying that the future always remains to be seen; and, considering the fact that the re-distribution of wealth has been a priority of Morena thus far (read not all going up the wealth ladder and outside of the country), there is no reason why social welfare will not continue and we can only hope, like in the sensitive eco-system of Line 5, none of the concerns of environmentalists come to pass in the name of improving the quality of life for the majority.
Whichever way you look at it, an irreversible environmental disaster or an environmentally conscious project to boost the economy of the Yucatan or a combination of the two, it is undeniable that more international accusations of ecocide have been aimed at Tren Maya than in countries that toe the line of the neoliberal world order. It is also undeniable that AMLO’s commitment to working for the people of Mexico and alleviating poverty for over half of the population is fully intact (which has happened and which we will see more of in Part Three of this essay). Obrador has never wavered from this key election platform promise. And I think one can say without a doubt, Sheinbaum will continue the prioritization of the Mexican people and, when people are not desperate and exploited, the neoliberal forces that once thrived with zero restrictions under PAN and PRI are going to use every method possible to undermine what is negatively affecting not only their pocketbooks, but also their belief system.
Claudia Sheinbaum and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Speaking of trains:
here are some I can’t find any controversy with unless you just plain think everything Obrador has done and what Morena under Claudia Sheinbaum will continue to do is bad. There is the Mexico City to Toluca Inter-Urban Train; there is Colibrí Plan, put forward in 2023 by the State of Mexico Morena governor Delfina Gómez one month after her election. [40] The Colibrí Plan will be a mass public transport system made up of light rail and tram lines that will also connect with the Mexibús and Mexicable lines and with the Mexico City Metro. It will have a length of 220 kilometers. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2030 and aims to achieve a substantial improvement in the quality of life and of the people of the State of Mexico.[41] It is, indeed, ironic that most domestic workers for Mexico City’s elite—Morena’s vehement opposition/Fifis—live in the State of Mexico and it is common for the nannies, maids, cooks and chauffeurs to have to commute for an average of two hours each way, every day. Paradoxically, Morena, both federally and municipally, is also serving the elite by improving the quality of life of their servants. One would think this would be a good thing.
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec Corridor
Another one of the AMLO administration’s transportation infrastructure developments
is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Corridor. As reported in the Yucatan Times: “another emblematic project of [Obrador’s] … six-year term that has gone largely unnoticed is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Corridor, which will revive kilometers of old railway tracks to transport passengers between the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz.”[42] The Yucatan Times continues to explain how this train will also revive what was begun in the early 20th Century under President Porfirio Díaz when 60 trains used to cross from coast to coast daily transporting goods. This project was abandoned, though, when the Panama Canal opened six years later. However, the Canal is now facing water shortages and there are restrictions on how many ships can pass through it every day. Obrador is taking advantage of the opportunity to be an alternative to the Panama Canal which would, again, create jobs and economic self-sufficiency for the country. Unless you support the exploitation of a country and the majority of its people because you personally profit from it, this cannot be seen as a negative. Quite the opposite: it’s resourceful, forward-thinking and just a plain good idea.
Stay tuned for Part Three, the grand finale:
the Environment, Feminism, Venezuela, Claudia Sheinbaum will build on Obrador's infrastructure for social justice in increments, and the reality of poco a poco.
About the Writer:
Karen Moe is an author, art critic, visual and performance artist, and feminist activist. Her work focuses on systemic violence in patriarchy: be it gender, race, class, the environment or speciesism. Her art criticism has been published internationally in magazines, anthologies and artist catalogues in English and Spanish, she has exhibited and performed across Canada, the US and Mexico and has spoken on sexual violence internationally. She is the author of Victim: A Feminist Manifesto from a Fierce Survivor Vigilance Press (2022) which received Runner Up at the San Francisco Book Festival. During her North American Tour, she was presented with the “Ellie Liston Hero of the Year Award” by the DA of Ventura County for being instrumental in the life sentence given to a serial rapist. Karen speaks internationally on sexual violence sharing her lived experiences of "trauma & triumph." Victim has recently been translated into Spanish. Karen lives in Mexico City and Vancouver Island, Canada.
IG: @karenmoeart
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Notes:
[1] OECD Country Profiles: Mexico file:///Users/karenmoe/Downloads/Mexico.pdf
[3] https://hir.harvard.edu/the-mayan-train/#:~:text=This%20intervention%20comes%20at%20the,from%20a%20political%20mafia%20group
[5] See Robert Jensen’s amazing book: The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men. The world would be a better place if all men need to read this book.
[6] And now, ironically, the Canadian government is desperately trying to sell their blunder: https://globalnews.ca/news/10019634/trans-mountain-pipeline-cost-analysis/
[7] https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/un-mexico-rights-office-criticizes-government-on-mayan-train/
[8]https://radiozapatista.org/?p=44492&lang=en#:~:text=Sulub%20says%20that%2C%20in%20reality,consequences%20the%20train%20will%20have; https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/train-maya-partitions-yucatan-peninsula-and-maya-peoples-each-other-and-their-lands
[9] Among other legislated oppressions (like the residential schools and Indian reservations) during the colonization of the Indigenous peoples in Canada in the 19th Century, The Indian Act (1876-present) imposed the Band Councils, a Western style governmental system within Indigenous communities which are ostensibly puppet governments that are controlled by the provincial and federal government. When any consultation takes place, the Band Councils are the only First Nations peoples who are consulted, all of whom are paid over $100,000 per year by the government and are typically corrupt. In the way, all of the First Nations people are never adequately consulted. See my articles on the old-growth logging on southern Vancouver Island for more details. Fairy Creek Far Beyond Politics; And meanwhile the Clear Cutting Continues
[11] https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/733938077/canadas-trudeau-approves-controversial-pipeline-expansion; https://globalnews.ca/news/10019634/trans-mountain-pipeline-cost-analysis/; https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/trudeau-afn-pipeline-1.4932663
[12] See my articles on the BC government’s lack of action due to its alliance with the corporate elite:https://www.vigilancemagazine.com/post/fairy-creek-far-beyond-politics
[14] https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/mexico-groups-say-maya-train-construction-has-caused-significant-deforestation/
[16] https://www.live-eo.com/article/the-history-of-deforestation-in-europe-past-trends-and-current-challenges
[18] https://www.unthinkablebuild.com/tren-maya-mexicos-29-billion-controversial-railway-project/ The project will generate a direct impact on employment by creating 379 thousand direct jobs and 113 thousand indirect jobs. https://www.gihub.org/quality-infrastructure-database/case-studies/mayan-train-tren-maya/
[20] This article, written by independent journalist Louise Morris is part of a subsidiary of the Guardian:
a US-based foundation that partners with the Guardian on independent editorial projects. Support for the global development project comes to theguardian.org from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
[21] https://www.seattletimes.com/business/mexicos-maya-train-is-destroying-ancient-caves-learn-about-the-beautiful-cenotes-under-threat/
[22] https://mexicobusiness.news/infrastructure/news/environmental-organization-fails-stop-mayan-train-construction?tag=selvame-del-tren
[24] https://www.bnamericas.com/en/features/is-the-maya-train-what-mexico-needs-or-an-environmental-disaster
[25] https://lopezobrador.org.mx/2024/02/29/tramo-cancun-playa-del-carmen-del-tren-maya-facilitara-movilidad-de-locales-y-turistas/
[26] https://www.networkrail.co.uk/industry-and-commercial/network-rail-property/film-on-our-property/#:~:text=News%20and%20current%20affairs,fall%20within%20our%20safety%20guidelines; https://metrolinktrains.com/customer-service/filming-requests/; https://media.viarail.ca/en/contact
[27] https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/all-aboard-tren-maya-heres-what-we-found-riding-mexicos-controversial-railway/; for more testimonies from local residents who live on the train line see: https://www.trenmayaenquintanaroo.com/p/videos-testimonios.html
[28]https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/land-rights-defender-pedro-uc-be-receives-death-threats
[29] Rebecca Solnit A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster. USA: Penguin Books, 2009/2010/ 2020: 19.
[30] https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/mexico-court-in-yucat%C3%A1n-upholds-decision-to-suspend-pig-farm-due-to-negative-environmental-impacts/
[31] As a political vegetarian, of course, I am against the rabid consumption meat and cruelty inflicted onto fellow creatures, the same way I am against the clearing of land in the Amazon to feed the ravenous beef market. It is an underacknowledged fact that the meat industry has a huge environmental impact, but the meat-eating and climate change does not have a direct connection to a death threat against a Mayan activist and Tren Maya unless we connect it to the fact that the train is one of many projects being protested by the Indigenous of the Yucatan.
[33] https://antixhistoria.wordpress.com/2020/05/29/the-criminal-record-of-cemex/#:~:text=According%20to%20testimonies%20of%20the,AUC%20Bloque%20Colima%20paramilitary%20group; https://antixhistoria.wordpress.com/2020/05/29/the-criminal-record-of-cemex/#:~:text=According%20to%20testimonies%20of%20the,AUC%20Bloque%20Colima%20paramilitary%20group; cciona.com/updates/news/acciona-energia-receives-two-cemex-works-development-and-innovation-awards-for-the-ventika-wind-farm-complex-in-mexico/?_adin=11734293023; https://www.cemex.com/w/mexican-president-inaugurates-first-phase-of-eurus-wind-farm
[34] As one of many sources on Obrador no longer obeying the dictates of the US and their interference in what he deems a sovereign state: https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-26/scandals-leaks-and-power-games-the-deas-turbulent-relationship-with-mexico-and-president-lopez-obrador.html
[35] As one of many sources on Obrador no longer obeying the dictates of the US and their interference in what he deems a sovereign state: https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-02-26/scandals-leaks-and-power-games-the-deas-turbulent-relationship-with-mexico-and-president-lopez-obrador.html
[36] https://mexicobusiness.news/infrastructure/news/mayan-train-section-5-inaugurated-amid-concerns-court-decision
[38] Quote from Canadian Indigenous Elder from our forth-coming book:
Flying the Coop: The Fairy Creek Blockades & the Legacy of Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones will inspire personal transformation through reacquainting ourselves with our Great Mother and rediscovering our original Aboriginal selves.
[41] https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/edomex/2024/01/10/metromex-cual-sera-la-ruta-del-metro-que-conectara-al-edomex-con-cdmx-esto-sabemos/
[42] https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2023/10/what-is-the-interoceanic-corridor-and-how-does-mexico-want-to-compete-with-the-panama-canal/
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