Mexican president inaugurates final stretch of country’s Maya Train

MEXICO CITY (CN) — President Claudia Sheinbaum declared Mexico’s army-built and operated Maya Train complete and open for business Monday after riding the train’s final stretch from Palenque to Chetumal the day before.

The route was the train’s missing link since operation began a year ago between tourist hub Cancún and Palenque in southern Mexico, inaugurated by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Dec. 15, 2023.

The train’s nearly 1,000-mile construction began in 2020. It grants passengers access to the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Yucatán and Quintana Roo in the Yucatan Peninsula via a seven-section loop.

In a press conference on Monday, Sheinbaum called the final stretch spectacular, and even more so because of its completion in just four years. The train is a symbolic victory for what she and her predecessor call the fourth transformation of Mexico.

“We made it in six hours from Palenque to Chetumal. We thought, well we had been told, that it would be more than seven hours, but no, it was six hours with some minor issues, but the whole route is ready,” Sheinbaum said.

Marred by controversy from the beginning, the train is one of numerous large-scale infrastructure projects handed over to the Mexican armed forces by López Obrador, who maintained a policy of granting the armed forces what had previously been the work of civilian agencies, a policy that Sheinbaum has celebrated.

Such overlap between the military and infrastructure marks a new frontier in military-controlled business and economy.

“The first thing we are seeing is a really dangerous dynamic where the military is gaining more economic and political power. The military is not just an important institution for national security, but it’s the biggest factor now in making political decisions and policies,” said Jacques Coste, a historian and columnist for Expansión Politica, during a phone interview Monday.

“Alliances between the military and private companies create a new type of crony capitalism and the Maya Train is particularly important because what we have seen is that when the military gets contracts, [the contracts] are granted without transparency and competition,” he said.

Between 2006 and 2023, the Mexican government transferred 291 civilian functions to the armed forces. Seventy-seven percent of these transfers occurred during López Obrador’s presidential term, when 51% of military spending was assigned towards historically civilian functions other than public security, such as infrastructure projects.

Large-scale military infrastructure projects completed in the last two years include the Tulum International Airport, the Santa Lucía Airport located outside of Mexico City, the Islas Marias Tourism Complex and the state-run Mexicana airline, whose inaugural flight flew between the two airports on Dec. 26, 2023.

On Dec. 9, acting as tourism promotor, Maya Train Director General Óscar Lozano Águila addressed the public in a morning press conference to unveil several tourism packages during the December holidays interlinked with all of the military’s new airports and hotels, six of which are still in the process of being launched.

Reports that week showed the train only reached 19% of its goal ridership, transporting 1,600 passengers a day instead of the projected 8,200.

“We are offering the most competitive prices on the market, with the aim of attracting national tourism to explore the Mexican southeast. This effort represents a commitment to bringing the cultural and natural wealth of the region closer to all Mexicans,” Lozano Águila said.

López Obrador vastly expanded the military during his presidential term after he dissolved the Federal Police and granted all of its roles to the newly created National Guard on May 27, 2019, under the control of the country’s public safety secretariat.

In its first year, the National Guard received criticism for its lack of training, lack of clear security function and lack of transparency — including at least 219 complaints to the National Human Rights Commission for human rights violations in the force’s first 15 months of existence.

On Sept. 25, in one of López Obrador’s final acts as president, his Morena party passed a reform that put the country’s National Guard under military command, giving more power to the military to perform everyday security tasks.

Two months later, on Nov. 29, the Mexican Senate dissolved seven independent military oversight agencies in an 86-42 vote as a money-saving measure, including the National Institute for Information Access, Federal Telecommunications Institute and Federal Economic Competition Commission. Existing government institutions will absorb the seven agencies.

The money used for the agencies will go towards increasing military salaries.

On Dec. 4, both chambers of the Mexican Congress approved a new $42 tariff for every passenger on a cruise ship that docks in Mexico. Two-thirds of this fee — set now to go into effect in July after being postponed — will go towards financing the Mexican military due to the military’s management of cruise ship ports.

The Mexican Association of Shipping Agents denounced the new tax.

“The tax, set to take effect after the delay, would impose an additional charge of $42 per passenger in taxes and fees. This is a staggering 213% more than the average cost at Caribbean ports, raising serious questions about the competitiveness of Mexican destinations in the global cruise market,” it said in a Dec. 8 statement.

Coste points to the importance of viewing military involvement in infrastructure projects not just in terms of profit, but also its national symbolism.

“The train is a symbol of political progress. It shows [the Morena Party’s] commitment to development in a historically neglected part of the country, which is important because of territorial structure in political economic terms. Military presence in the tourism industry is also a useful way to gain control and mobilize people in that part of the country,” he said.

“It will be in the interest of the private sector to have a good relationship with the military so they can develop. Both sides will be willing to do what needs to be done at the service of both the military and tourism industry,” he added.