The Guardian, 05/23/2023
Diggers trundle across the chalky earth just outside the town of Xpujil, in Campeche state, southern Mexico. The land is being cleared to make way for the Maya train line, a controversial megaproject that will cross the Yucatán peninsula, whisking tourists from the beaches of Cancún and Tulum to Maya archeological sites in the heart of the jungle.
A sizeable area has already been gouged out of rainforest, the second largest in the Americas after the Amazon, for the 1,525km (948 mile) route that will cut through land largely inhabited by Indigenous groups.
“What is being done with the Maya train megaproject is not Mayan in any way. It is a decision from above,” Q’anjob’al Maya leader Romel González Díaz shouted through a megaphone in Xpujil earlier this month. Listening were about 100 Indigenous leaders, activists and international observers who had joined La Caravana el Sur Resiste (the south resists caravan), which passed through the five states where the train will run, encouraging community opposition to the project.
Mexico Institute 