Photo: Google

PULSE NEWS MEXICO

Two days after it was revealed that the government had already expropriated more than 2,000 hectares of private land for the construction of its controversial Tren Maya tourist train, the leftist administration of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced Friday, May 26, the seizure of an additional 51 private properties, totaling 242,627 square meters, declaring them of “public utility by the federal government” needed to open the right of way for the Tren Maya.

The decree, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), included properties in eight municipalities in the southeastern states of Yucatán and Quintana Roo and depicted the train not only as an government infrastructure work, but also as “a fundamental part of a humanitarian corridor.”

“The Tren Maya will function as a humanitarian corridor through which food, medical supplies and other support will be delivered to indigenous communities and marginalized peoples of the Mexican southeast,” the presidential decree said.

The decree also said that the train will expedite access to rural towns and guarantee security at Mexico’s southern border.