Greenpeace Climbs Monument to Save Maya Jungle

Mexico City — The environmental organization Greenpeace in Mexico staged a protest by climbing the monument known as the Estela de Luz to demand government action for the protection of the Maya Jungle against deforestation, agribusiness, tourist projects, and the construction of railway infrastructure for the Maya Train.

During the protest, nine activists scaled the 70-meter-high monolith located in Mexico City to unfurl a 27-meter-long banner addressed to the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat). The banner read: "The Maya Jungle is Crying Out. Semarnat, Save It!"

"Public resources are not being allocated to environmental preservation. We must be emphatic about that. Therefore, the country's environmental authority must take action," stated the campaign coordinator, Carlos Samayoa, in a message to the media.

Greenpeace accused Semarnat of being complicit in the degradation of the land and of having become an "environmental guarantor of the devastation" in southeastern Mexico.

According to data from the environmental group, over 300,000 hectares of jungle have been lost in the last five years, a territory 16 times the size of Mexico City. Among that deforested area, the organization explained, nearly 10,000 hectares have been devastated for the extraction of stone materials used by the public company CEMEX.

Furthermore, they indicated that the construction of "mega pig farms" will contaminate "the country's largest aquifer, the largest underground water reserve we have left beneath the jungle."

Faced with this situation, Greenpeace Mexico demanded that Semarnat "urgently work on a comprehensive plan" for the protection of the "green lung of Mexico" in collaboration with organizations, experts, and communities.