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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

A Mexican federal judge from the First Court of the District of Yucatan on Monday, April 18, granted a provisional suspension of the construction of section five of  President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s pet megaproject Tren Maya tourist train  due to it not having environmental authorization to proceed.

The section of the track, which would run from Playa del Carmen to Tulum in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, has not obtained an authorization in terms of environmental impact, the judge ruled, thus granting a legal injunction that had been filed by a local group of divers claiming that the railway would damage local cenotes (underground rivers).

Judge Adrián Fernando Novelo Pérez determined that the suspension was necessary to avoid imminent damage to the environment that would be difficult or impossible to repair.

Asked about the ruling during his daily press conference on Tuesday, April 19, AMLO said that his administration had not yet received any formal notification of the suspension, and added that it was no doubt the act of polítical sabotage by his opponents, “financed by businessmen and international organizations.”