The president-elect said that on November 24 and 25 a national consultation will be held on his government’s plans.
The elected president Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the completion of a citizen mega consultation for November 24 and 25 with questions related to the construction of the Mayan Train, the refinery in Tabasco, the connection plan in the Isthmus, as well as various programs social issues that he promised in the campaign.
“On the 24th and 25th of this month we are going to carry out a wide-ranging citizen consultation to ask the Mexicans, not only the inhabitants of the southeast, but all Mexicans for their opinion about this Mayan Train project and we will take advantage of it to Also ask about the opinion of Mexicans about the new refinery and also about the Isthmus of Tehuantepec project.
“And we are going to take this opportunity to ask people if they agree with the support project for the elderly, for people with disabilities,” the president-elect informed after his meeting in Merida with the governors of the southeastern states.
Rogelio Jiménez Pons, proposed by López Obrador as director of Fonatur, informed in a later press conference that the first works for the Mayan Train will begin in the second half of December, although unlike the president-elect, he pointed out that the national consultation and other directed to the indigenous peoples of the region, as required by law, would be carried out later.
Accompanied by the governors of Yucatán, Mauricio Vila Dosal; from Tabasco, Arturo Núñez Jiménez, and from Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González, the future official said that a significant ceremony will be held on December 16 in Palenque and simultaneously in seven different points of the circuit.
During the conference in which the elected governor of Tabasco, Adán López Hernández, was also present, the next director of the National Fund for Tourism Promotion (Fonatur) explained that for the first works a public budget of 6,000 million pesos will be allocated.
The announcement to the press was made after a meeting between President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of several people who will occupy various secretariats of state and the governors of the five states through which will pass the 1,500-kilometer circuit that will make up the complete project .
The president-elect withdrew from the Mérida International Congress Center after his meeting and did not participate in the press conference, as he had planned his flight back to Mexico City shortly after 2:00 p.m.
On the project of the Mayan Train, the future director of Fonatur detailed that the first works will be steps of fauna and complementary infrastructure, while the two consultations are carried out, for which there is still no specific date.
However, he said that the criterion in general is not to displace the communities, but to associate them. As an example, he pointed out that if there is a community where a train station is to be established, he will be invited to participate in the project in an associated way, instead of moving it.
The consultation informed to the indigenous towns will be done in native languages and in the involved zones. Regarding the national consultation, he did not offer more details.
The ceremony on December 16th in Palenque will mark the beginning of the works, although it will not be properly the laying of the first stone.
Meanwhile, in later dates, during the second half of December, there will be seven other ceremonies with indigenous communities in other points of the five states, with the help of the future director of Indigenous Peoples, Adelfo Regino Montes.
Jiménez Pons detailed that the train will be tourist during the day and of load at night, which will help to its financing, as it happens in 90% of the cases in the world in projects of this type.
Regarding the bids, he said that they will begin once the results of the consultations are known and that the aspects of the work should be known in detail.
There will be services from very austere for workers who are transported in this train to their work centers, even luxury for international tourists, who in this area are high income.
In this regard, the governor of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González, explained that at the International Tourism Fair in Madrid, Spain, which will be held in January next year, the project will be presented with videos for different segments, both the operators of tours of that nation as well as of other countries gathered in that meeting.
In turn, the governor of Yucatan, Mauricio Vila Dosal, confirmed that the consultations for the construction of the Mayan Train will be the responsibility of the communication team of the president-elect, although the governors of the five states will support its realization in everything that is required.
He added that he is convinced that the support for this project will be transcendental for the development of the states through which the train will pass.
Source: Notimex, Forbes
The Mazatlan Post
