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Will la Tren Maya go off the rails?

he Maya, it appears, want nothing to do with la Tren Maya.

Incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s signature campaign promise is a massive infrastructure project to create a rail corridor linking the states of the Yucatan Peninsula. The corridor would theoretically bring huge economic benefits.

But a coalition of indigenous Maya organizations of some political clout have come out as strongly opposed to the project, regardless of how the Mexican public votes in a nonbinding national referendum on whether or not to go ahead with the project.

The Maya say their primary concern is their exclusion from rail-corridor planning. This includes excluding Mayan knowledge of regional biodiversity from environmental-impact research used in project permitting.

They also call for an alternative sustainable-development plan for the region that would be developed with leadership from local Maya communities.

Source: Animal Politico (Mexico)

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