Maya Councils Urge Buyers to Avoid Yucatan Land Purchases Amid Allegations of Displacement

Mexico City — Maya community leaders from Yucatan have issued a stark warning to potential land buyers, urging them to avoid purchasing property in the region due to what they describe as widespread displacement of indigenous communities and environmental destruction by real estate developers.

At a press conference titled “The Dignity of the Maya People Is Not for Sale!” held at the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, representatives from several Maya self-governance councils detailed allegations of land seizures, government corruption, and criminalization of land defenders.

“Yucatan is beautiful, Sisal is a paradise, we’re immersed in very attractive real estate, and yet I ask you, truly: don’t buy land,” said Shirley Galaz, a territory defender from Sisal, Hunucmá. “Behind these lands, behind these sales that only enrich real estate companies, is the pain of Maya peoples who are being dispossessed of their territories, criminalized for defending the land where our ancestors have lived. The Maya people live and want to continue living in their communities.”

Representatives accused authorities of failing to investigate the deaths of at least three people in connection with territorial defense efforts. “Three people have died in this struggle because you can see the companies belong to powerful people,” said Baldomero Poot, a territory defender from Dzitnup, Valladolid. He named the deceased as José Luis, Luis, and Arsenio.

Poot described how communities lost cenotes that belonged to the people, with promises of receiving 50 percent of profits. Instead, he said, those lands are now operated by private individuals without any benefit to the community, and people who participated in reclaiming restitution have died under suspicious circumstances. Poot added that he has been pursued in his community by unknown individuals carrying firearms.

Galaz explained that her community in Sisal has suffered land seizures in recent years, affecting even the coastal ecosystem. “The worst thing that has happened to us is that with the designation of ‘Pueblo Mágico,’ which was given without citizen consultation, comes this real estate boom along the entire coast that was already happening,” she said. “They’re selling the entire coast from Sisal to Chuburná and from Sisal to Celestún. Sisal has been left wedged into a very small urban area. Sisal no longer has territory to expand into, its inhabitants no longer have anywhere to expand because all the land along the coast around us has been sold, has been taken advantage of by real estate companies. And those real estate companies destroy our lagoon system, our wetlands, destroy all the mangroves to build. And we no longer have the capacity to provide for all these people coming to the port to build their homes.”

She recalled that a year ago, the people of Sisal decided to rise up against these impacts and were instead criminalized, intimidated, and pursued by the government.

Representatives from Santa María Chi and Molas in Mérida, as well as Ixil and Kinchil, each described struggles against pig and poultry farms, attempts to metropolitanize towns, and sales of ejidal lands to real estate companies.

Wilberth Nahuat from Santa María Chi said a pig farm has contaminated the aquifer for 30 years, and although a definitive closure has been won, there’s no certainty that every last animal will be removed. He questioned how damage caused over three decades would be remediated.

Peregrina Cutz from Ixil said the community refuses to be part of the Metropolitan Zone project due to the continuous threat of losing their lands to investor interest. “We’re not against progress, nor against our state continuing to grow, but as a community we want this progress to benefit the original peoples first,” she declared. “Our beautiful state, Yucatan, has welcomed many who have decided to live in our territory and we don’t refuse them, but we want to grow at our own pace and we want to grow deciding for ourselves, not through imposition.”

Federico May from Kinchil recalled the active struggle in Tzemé against the expansion of a mega poultry farm that threatens to destroy archaeological remains and knock down Maya forest where the community obtains its source of income, despite PROFEPA and INAH having determined the closure of the works.

Rogelio Nárvaez from Molas denounced the privatization of lands that previously belonged to the community and are now operated by private individuals without residents knowing the processes for this administrative change.

In response to these situations, the Maya Councils called for a demonstration on March 21 in Mérida, with a march beginning at 3 p.m. from Paseo de Montejo to the Plaza Grande. They are demanding restitution of Maya lands, guarantees of a healthy environment, and an end to territorial dispossession.