Court Revives Bacalar Lagoon Military Project

Bacalar, Quintana Roo — A divided court has dealt a significant blow to environmental protection efforts in southern Mexico. On November 12, the First Collegiate Tribunal based in Cancún revoked the legal suspensions that had halted a military construction project on the shores of the Laguna de Bacalar, allowing the work to proceed unimpeded.

A Divided Ruling

The decision on Amparo 271/2025 was marked by a split vote. Two recently elected magistrates, Aarón Alberto Pereira Lizama and Lina Victoria Bolio Pazos, voted in favor of revocation, siding with the federal government's appeal. The third magistrate, career judge Teddy Abraham Torres López, defended the collective legitimate interest and environmental protection but was outvoted.

The ruling effectively nullifies the legal obstacles that had stopped the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) from building a purported rest house on the banks of the Laguna de Bacalar, directly in front of the San Felipe fort.

The Legal Argument for Revocation

The legal opinion, or project, drafted by Magistrate Bolio Pazos argued that the definitive suspension should be revoked because the civil association that promoted it, Defendiendo el Derecho a un Medio Ambiente Sano (DMAS), failed to demonstrate it had a "legitimate interest" in the case.

This revocation follows a separate legal action in the First District Court, where Judge Darío Alejandro Villa Arnáiz, also recently re-elected with federal government support, reversed his own prior legal standards to deny a definitive suspension in an amparo filed by 23 children and adolescents from Bacalar. That case was being handled with assistance from the Federal Institute of Public Defense (IFDP).

Background of the Magistrates

The magistrates who voted for the revocation have backgrounds closely linked to the government. Magistrate Lina Victoria Bolio Pazos, prior to her judicial election, served as the head of the Legal Unit of the Treasury for the Benito Juárez municipality, a role that placed her in close association with the Morena and PVEM governments in Quintana Roo.

Magistrate Aarón Alberto Pereira Lizama, while a career magistrate, was benefited by a re-election granted by the federal government.

The End of a Legal Hurdle

With this set of rulings, the suspensions that had kept the military construction project stalled since June are now without effect. The definitive suspension, originally granted to the environmental organizations DMAS and Proyecto Justicia Social on June 5 by the First District Court in Chetumal and ratified in July, has been formally overturned.