A German television station has published a video report criticizing the Mayan Train for the environmental pollution it is causing.
“The new train in the Mexican jungle is turning into an environmental horror,” is the title of the report broadcast by the n-tv television station, which warns that “the new Mayan Train line is intended to take tourists through the Mexican jungle. Conservationists are sounding the alarm because the mega-construction project is putting enormous pressure on wildlife and polluting water. However, the Mexican government wants nothing to do with it and by decree prevents countermeasures from being taken.”
N-TV, a channel that broadcasts news, economic information, and interview programs, and which is controlled by the French radio station RTL, took a tour on the train, starting in Cancun. The television station recalls that it is a construction project but that it is already operating in certain sections. “We don’t see many tourists on the train and there are many empty seats,” says the reporter.
The report refers to the estimated cost of the work: 24 billion euros. “The view is the same. You see a lot of trees, nothing more,” and two stops after the trip began, it ends because it is the section of the Train that has been completed.
However, N-TV spoke with environmental activist Guillermo de Christy, who retweeted the report on his X account, and who showed the television station the damage caused by the construction of the tourist train.
The German television shows that within the Maya Train project, they have been finding remains of diesel and cement for a year.
The German media went into one of the stalactite caves in the region that are part of a cave system. In one of the cenotes, De Christy shows one of the 15 thousand piles that support the Maya Train and that cross the cave. “These piles are the result of a perforation that reaches 25 meters deep.”
The video shows the various piles that cross the cave. The construction, the reporter warns, contaminates the water where fish and turtles live. Jaguars, pumas, and bears, he points out, using images from the Jaguar Regional Wildlife Center as evidence, also enter the cave to drink water.
Un tren “turístico”, sin turistas, pero que se pretende dedicar a la carga y en donde ya el @GobiernoMX ha informado que el 80% de la carga serán hidrocarburos de la petrolera @Pemex. Imaginemos lo que ahí un derrame podría significar.
— Guillermo DChristy (@gchristy65) August 25, 2024
Un tren “turístico” alejado de los centros… pic.twitter.com/xmVAoSSj7f
The television station explains that the entire Maya Train is being built on hundreds of cenotes and that during construction “nature was not taken into account.” In addition, he adds, 10 million trees have been cut down. The report includes photos of dead pumas and jaguars, running away from the jungle towards the road out of fear of the noise.
However, the report continues, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador describes the Maya Train as a “prestigious project” that should be implemented before his term ends on October 1.
It indicates that in response to complaints from activists, López Obrador issued a decree declaring that the entire project is of “interest to national security,” so any lawsuit against it is impossible.
Despite a regional court ordering the suspension of the works, N-TV secretly filmed how the work continues.
The report talks about the section that López Obrador intends to have finished before leaving office, and the reporter explains that it is not even close to Tulum, so it will hardly attract tourists, since they would have to walk for about an hour to get there.
Los alemanes no se van a subir al Tren Maya
— CrisNo (@cris_n0) August 25, 2024
👇 #ecocidio pic.twitter.com/RZUslhRKFT
When interviewing tourists in Tulum, they pointed out that to get there they take buses or taxis, and that the area where the train stop is located is very far away, so it would not be an option.
According to activist Gemma Santana, with N-tv there are already 20 international media outlets that talk about the destruction caused by the Mayan Train. In the past, media outlets such as the French Le Monde have referred to this issue.
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