Yucatán Maya Fight Mining Without Permits

MÉRIDA, Yuc. — At least nine Indigenous communities in Yucatán have demanded that Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena order the inspection and closure of a mining company. The company, they allege, is attempting to establish a materials bank for the exploitation of dry strata and a crushing plant, and is conducting extractive activity without an environmental permit.

Representatives of the Maya peoples of San José Tzal, Petecbiltun, Hotzuc, and Texán Cámara, accompanied by the Utsil Kuxtal Human Rights Center A.C., presented a formal request to the Yucatán Secretariat of Sustainable Development (SDS). The petition is also supported by the affected Indigenous communities of Tebec, Xtepén, Molas, Petac, and San Antonio Tzacalá.

The complainants are asking that permit 049/2025 be denied. This permit is related to an environmental impact application seeking to authorize a project called "Banco de materiales Proser." The installation is located on lands of the San José Tzal ejido, but its activities have a range of impacts on the complaining Indigenous peoples, which also include Tebec, Xtepén, Molas, Petac, and San Antonio Tzacalá.

This struggle has been led for several months by residents of Xcucul, who have denounced the impacts of the materials bank, which involves the extraction of wet strata. The company Proser, S.A. de C.V., they assert, has damaged homes and caused harm to the region's environment and the health of its inhabitants.

The exploitation of rocky material banks is not a recent activity on the peninsula. The demand for rocky materials increased due to the rise in large-scale construction projects, such as the Maya Train, which triggered an unprecedented expansion of this activity. Faced with the demands of the industry, other mining companies have obtained authorizations from authorities at all three levels of government.

With the change in land use, they have been permitted to deforest sites destined for new materials banks or to carry out extractions below the water table. The extractive activities have caused irreversible destruction of the karst soil, with direct impacts on the integrity of the aquifer system. Similarly, they mention, the ecological stability of an especially fragile territory located in the north of the peninsula has been put at risk.

Regarding permit 049/2025, the environmental impact application seeks to justify the project's operation without any consultation having been conducted with Indigenous communities, despite the project being planned for development on Maya territory. The inhabitants of this region assert that there is a violation of the right to territory and to the free determination of these peoples affected by the environmental impacts, as well as to housing, health, and water.

The complainants have stated that the permit has not been resolved, yet machinery is already working and clearing land in the territory of the town of San José Tzal, which implies a flagrant violation of the Environmental Protection Law of the State of Yucatán, a reason for which the company must be inspected and sanctioned.

“We call on the Human Rights Commission of the State of Yucatán, regarding the violations committed against said Maya peoples by the SDS, due to its negligence in the approval of so-called development projects on Indigenous territory,” they stated. “There is no process of intercultural dialogue where information is provided to the communities, they are allowed to participate in the environmental impact assessment, and their decision is taken into consideration, as owners of the territory.”

The above, they indicated, represents a clear example of institutional racism that continues to place the rights of peoples and communities far below corporate needs.

The members of the Indigenous communities have asked Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena to order an inspection procedure and the closure of the activities initiated in the territory of the town of San José Tzal. Furthermore, they request that the illegal works be stopped and the damage to the affected communities be repaired.

They asked the state official to deny permit 049/2025, as it violates the rights of the peoples and represents significant risks of damage to the territory, water, environment, and housing.

The complainants denounced that the extractive activities put the health of the people living in the cited communities at risk.