They say there is no benefit for them and ‘there’s nothing Mayan about it’
In a joint statement, they exhort the president-elect to refrain from carrying out any type of auction, authorization, land use change permit or license for the establishment of the service project without first obtaining the consent of the indigenous peoples through whom they would pass. the train.
Indigenous communities of the Yucatan Peninsula today disapproved of the Mayan president-elect’s Tren Maya project and rejected any results obtained from the consultation that will be held on November 24 and 25.
In a joint statement, they expressed their “displeasure” for considering that “no person outside the Yucatan Peninsula” can “decide what can be done or not done” in their territories and called the president-elect, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to be prohibited in a “total and absolute” way before and after December 1 any type of auction, authorization, land use change permit or license for the establishment of the service project, without first having obtained the consent of the indigenous peoples through which the project would pass.
“With respect to the so-called consultation, from this moment we reject any result that it has either for or against. It is not permissible for anyone, any person outside the Yucatan Peninsula, to decide what can be done or not done in our territories, just as we will never try to decide what will be done with their property, rights, and possessions, “they say.
The communities that sign the document are represented in the organizations Coordination “Uniting Forces for the Defense of the Territory”, Prodiversa AC, Network of Producers of Environmental Services Ya’ax Sot ‘Ot’ Yook’ol Kaab AC, Collective of Mayan Communities of Chenes, Muuch Kambal AC, Atasta Indigenous Council, Cladem Yucatan, Civil Resistance Movement, Candelraria Campeche, Cooperativa Turística Repobladores de Chiquila and Ejido de Conhuas in Calakmul.
In their statement, explain that they oppose the project because it already has “budgets, tenders, traces and even start date” and nobody has consulted “absolutely nothing.”
“The only information we have is what the newscasts have transmitted and the leaks that have reached us. Officially, there is no authority that has sat down to talk with us despite the fact that the physical work is intended to settle it in our territories; not to speak in good faith, it does not exist, everything has been carried on our shoulders, and to be able to be culturally appropriate in the first place we would like any decision that is intended to be made in the presence of our representations and in our territories ” .
The communities emphasize that they are not opposed to progress, but to the certainty that the megaproject will not leave them benefits or regional development.
“It is not planned for us ordinary people, it is a tourist project that will only benefit the well-off and foreigners; We, the owners of the land, will only see it happen, since the stations are not included in most of our towns and they are only considered tourist points of interest that have already been taken over by the big capitals; our communities will only have to bear the pernicious part of the project. This situation is already suffered by the communities where the Chepe Train circulates and, in this case, the development is still pending, we do not want the same for ourselves and our children “.
They warn that they will take “the actions that are necessary” so that their rights are fulfilled and called the president-elect to consider them as subjects of collective rights and to use the consultations as a mechanism to collect and gather information to make informed decisions on that basis, not as “A simple survey” to accept or reject the megaproject.
They also ask you to respect the guiding principles that govern prior, free, informed, good faith and culturally appropriate consultation of indigenous peoples, as established by law. “We reject and repudiate any attempt or simulation of indigenous consultation to our peoples, merely as requirements for obtaining our consent for the installation of the Mayan train that is intended,” said the document.
The communities also request that the Environmental Impact Manifestation and the Environmental Impact Assessment be prepared by an independent body of the company that is responsible for the same megaproject, and the government; that it counts as guarantors with an observation mission such as the office of the UN High Commissioner, CNDH or the IACHR, and that this manifestation has a 40-year projection.
They also reject any kind of forestry or wildlife type diagnosis without the participation of the indigenous communities and less if with this “it is intended to justify the affectations and destruction of the forest”, as well as the intention to build or establish cities in the municipality of Calakmul considering that this would “decompose the indigenous communities and impact the entire state of Campeche and the Peninsula.”
They ask for the establishment of working tables by the entity and a table in which the three states of the Yucatan Peninsula are located, with the objective of guaranteeing the fulfillment of their territorial rights and the economic and logistical facilitation of the state for the realization of a “Regional Plan of Good Living Maya”. Said plan should emanate from community, state and regional work tables as a proposal of the Mayan Indigenous Peoples, putting into discussion the development plans that they intend to implement in their territories, they emphasize.
So far, they warn, the train project of the Mayan train “has nothing of Mayan, nor of benefit to the Mayan population. We do not want to be a Cancun or Rivera Maya, where hotel chains, restaurant transportation are the only beneficiaries. “
What requirements does an infrastructure work require (the Mayan Train still does not meet any)
Source: anumal politico
The Mazatlan Post
