Army’s Sian Ka’an Project Sparks Environmental Fury

Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Quintana Roo — The environmental organization Territorios Diversos para la Vida (TerraVida) has demanded that the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) deny authorization for the "Puerta al Mar" project, promoted by the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) in the port of Vigía Chico. The group alleges the project violates environmental legislation.

As has occurred with other projects under its purview in the Yucatán Peninsula, the Army began work on this project two years ago without having obtained the required environmental impact and land use change authorizations. The application was submitted in December 2024 and was resumed in July of this year, after its evaluation was suspended in April.

Ecological Impact of the "Puerta al Mar" Project

The project, which is associated with the Maya Train initiative, fragments the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, a federally protected natural area. It is alleged to seek to replicate the model of military control applied at the Jaguar Park in Tulum, with the likely privatization of access to the beach area it aims to create, including charging a fee.

In an interview, Viridiana Maldonado, a member of TerraVida, explained that the project is not limited to improving the rustic access road to Vigía Chico, as the National Defense and local authorities have publicized. Instead, it proposes a large-scale tourist and recreational complex with new infrastructure and facilities within the reserve's buffer zone.

"What is being proposed is a set of works within the buffer zone of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, which includes the widening of the rustic access road to Vigía Chico," she warned.

According to the Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) submitted by the Defense Department to Semarnat for evaluation, the project indeed contemplates the rehabilitation and widening of the rustic access road with a hydraulic base and asphalt surface, not just its remodeling.

It also intends to construct a pier and a seawall for small vessels, for which mangrove was cleared; tourist service areas including restaurants, sanitary modules, a commercial zone, parking for over a hundred vehicles, and rest areas. Furthermore, it includes facilities for recreational and nautical activities; a wall to honor political prisoners who were taken to the area as punishment during the era of then-President Porfirio Díaz; and, notably, an access gate controlled by military personnel that would function as a surveillance point and, according to the activist, a probable toll point.

"It reminds me a lot of what they did with the Jaguar Park in Tulum," she said, referring to this protected natural area which, in addition to absorbing another protected polygon, the Tulum National Park, without a clear legal explanation, has privatized access to public beaches, which now require payment to enter unless accessed on foot via the traditional entrance.

TerraVida emphasized that this gate would replace the access currently administered by the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp), modifying the site's management scheme and transferring its operation to the National Defense, implying a change in the authority responsible for regulating activities within the reserve.

This same situation prevails in the Jaguar Park in Tulum, where the administration and collection of fees to enter that protected natural area should fall to Conanp, according to the law, but was left in the hands of the Defense Department, through a company now identified as Grupo Mundo Maya.

The most serious aspect of the issue is that the Army began the "Puerta al Mar" works two years ago, violating the Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure (PEIA) outlined in the General Law of Ecological Equilibrium and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA). The military institution requested environmental impact authorization from Semarnat on December 18, 2024; the process was suspended in April 2025 and resumed on July 31 of this year.

Both acts generated negative reactions and strong criticism from organizations and residents of Mayan communities, who have allegedly been silenced under the argument that the project is a long-awaited "demand" of the indigenous population.

Local Communities and Activists Reject Works Conducted Without Public Consultation

Residents of Punta Allen and Rojo Gómez requested that Semarnat open a public consultation and hold a public information meeting so that the Defense Department could present the project. The latter took place on October 15.

Viridiana Maldonado stated that 90 percent of the attendees expressed their rejection of the works, which, in addition to violating the preventive nature of the law, also contravened the legal prohibition on clearing mangroves.

Ninety-one people attended the meeting; there were 10 oral participations "with very general interventions," and diverse questions were raised against the project, the interviewee indicated.

TerraVida, she said, documented that within the project's polygon, clearing of mangrove and coastal vegetation has occurred without possessing land use change permits for forested lands or federal environmental authorization. She recalled that such actions are prohibited by the General Wildlife Law (LGVS) and the norms protecting coastal wetlands, thus constituting a serious infraction.

The Defense Department's argument to justify the project is to "open access to the sea" for the communities of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, fulfilling a "historical debt." However, the activist maintained that this discourse conceals a tourism model of control and revenue collection that replicates the strategy of the Jaguar Park in Tulum, where, under the pretext of conservation, access was militarized and resources were allocated to infrastructure for recreational and commercial purposes.

The organization warned that the installation of the gate controlled by the National Defense anticipates a scheme of restricted or paid access, contrary to the principle of free enjoyment of national assets and the mandate for public conservation of natural protected areas.

It indicated that the project does not include mechanisms for community participation nor strategies for sustainable use that integrate local fishermen and inhabitants.

It highlighted that the Management Program for the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, which is traversed by the paved and widened rustic road, does not permit several of the works carried out. Therefore, "Puerta al Mar" alters the ecological integrity of the coastal corridor by introducing tourist infrastructure into an area designated for protection, which fragments habitats and modifies the natural dynamics of coastal ecosystems.

The group asserted that the militarization of environmental management in Quintana Roo responds to a growing pattern, with the presence of the Defense Department in projects within conservation zones in Bacalar, Calakmul, and Cancún, where residential and tourist installations are being constructed under the argument of national security.

Consequently, TerraVida demanded that Semarnat deny environmental authorization for the "Puerta al Mar" project for contravening the principles of legality and environmental prevention, as well as for having initiated works without prior evaluation. The organization also requested an investigation into the administrative and environmental responsibilities stemming from the unauthorized clearing of mangroves and change of land use.

It warned that authorizing the project would set a precedent that normalizes construction without permits and weakens the country's environmental legal framework, while consolidating a model of militarization and privatization of natural protected areas under the justification of tourism development and public access to the sea.

This past weekend, personnel from the Defense Department and Governor "Mara" Lezama conducted a tour of the works, which they described as "an emblematic project that responds to a historical social demand in Felipe Carrillo Puerto."

Lezama Espinosa affirmed that with 22 paved kilometers and an additional 32.2-kilometer rustic road, "the Puerta al Mar will guarantee safe access to the coast and trigger new opportunities for the Mayan zone."

For the National Defense, the construction engineer, Apolo Castillo, detailed that 22 kilometers in length and 8 meters in width are being worked on with asphalt, and that the 32.2-kilometer long and five-meter wide rustic road "is very advanced."

This confirms that the works are proceeding in violation of the PEIA, and it is presumed that they are protected by provisional permits stemming from the agreement issued by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the end of 2021, to allow the advancement of works for "emblematic" government projects. This agreement was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) in May 2022.