Mayan Community Loses Land to Tourism Boom

Bacalar, Quintana Roo — The Fort of San Felipe in Chetumal succeeded in halting 16th-century pirates but has been powerless against the advance of modernity, a fate now befalling the Mayan community of Bacalar. Just kilometers from the city of Bacalar, home to the fort and the bay of the same name, lies a Mayan community of 41,754 inhabitants, originally established by the people for whom the body of water was named. "Bakhalal," a word from their own culture, means "surrounded by carrizo."

However, after crossing the two-way highway leading to this lagoon in Bacalar, the large tourism hotels offering rooms advertised in foreign languages and the international cuisine restaurants make it impossible to verify the authenticity of the name's origin, according to journalist Ricardo Balderas of poderlatam.org. The same is true for the 45 kilometers along the bay; what was once a prosperous community with indigenous and peasant origins is now surrounded by hotels, houses subleased through digital platforms, and international commerce.

Only three locations maintain public access to the lagoon: the Mágico Bacalar Ejidal Bathing Resort, the Ecological Park, and the Pier. These are the only access points, even for the Mayan community.

"This is a problem that originated in the 1970s, beginning with the PRI-affiliated governor David Gustavo Gutiérrez Ruíz and concluding with Jesús Martínez Ross. Before them, all the lands belonged to the ejido holders and communal farmers of the Mayan community of Bacalar," explained Aldair Tuut, a member of the Múuch’ Xíinbal Assembly.

For Aldair, the problem exploded following the Federal Government's announcement of a megaproject to construct a train station nearly 20 kilometers from his Mayan community.

Megaproject Ravages Mayan Community

"The Maya Train, overnight, razed mangroves, vegetation, and jungle without the authorities giving any notice," he explained.

Many people, Aldair's neighbors and also Maya, had to relocate their homes to avoid being crushed by the train. He explains that following the train's arrival, his community's primary interest is to maintain dialogue with federal authorities to address the problems that appeared in their community with this megaproject, which he claims "stole our identity."

The Bacalar Lagoon is Being Choked

Their greatest concerns are twofold. The first involves a vein of the Chac estuary, a stream that feeds both the Xul-Ha and Bacalar lagoons, where he denounces that authorities have obstructed the water flow, thereby cutting off the life of the lake.

"The Lagoon of Seven Colors has a blocked vein," he states sadly.

The second concern is more complex. He comments that after the management of section 7 was handed over to the Army, the military conducted negotiations with some members of the ejidos. Many of them had no option to refuse due to intimidation. These acts were exposed to the public by the Mayan community itself but were not picked up by local media, he denounces.

Intimidation by the Army

"The negotiations by the Army really end up pushing the ejido. They say – 'Well, I had to do this because I already bought the land from you.' And that has to do with government strategies to divide the community, meaning, they force some to sell and then force others to go and remove their own people from their land. How does the community end up? That's how they start creating conflict and division within the Mayan community," he explained.

Despite the government's assurance that the military is building the Maya Train, except for the border delimitations with Belize, it is strange or infrequent to see soldiers in the alleyways of Chetumal where the Secretariat of National Defense is said to be constructing the passenger train. This is the same at the station facing the airport and in the open-ground segment of section 7 leading to the Lagoon of Seven Colors, right in the heart of the Mayan community.

This makes sense, adds the journalist, as initially, the military would not have been in charge of the work. Originally, the government delegated the contracting processes for the Maya Train's construction to the National Fund for Tourism Development. For this task, the authorities used the state-owned company Fonatur Tren Maya, S.A. de C.V.

Project Changes Hands

The situation changed in September 2023 when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador handed this task over to the Army through the publication of a decree granting administrative powers to the company Tren Maya, S.A. de C.V.; 99% of the shares were assigned to the Army and the remaining 1% to the National Bank of the Army, Air Force, and Navy SNC.

This act generated an expansion of the military budget and determined that they would execute the remainder of the project. In January 2024 alone, with the military in command, the Federal Government spent a total of 75 billion, 455 million, 56.57 Mexican pesos on the megaproject. This was for 23 acquisitions divided between two secretariats: National Defense, with 16 contracts; and Environment and Natural Resources, according to the Mexican Government's public procurement portal.

Lack of Transparency in Invoices

However, some expenditures cannot be explained solely by the invoices the government made public. Their revelation lacks relevant information, such as the reasons for some purchases, which could be questioned for their costs or their scarce and confusing information.

For example, there is the purchase of a series of 50-gallon drums for garbage or waste storage with a cost exceeding 7,000 pesos each. Yet, this same product is offered to the public for less than half the price the military paid.

This contract is part of a compilation of acquisitions that the Federal Government claims will be for equipping the corporate buildings of the Majority State-Owned Participation Company "Tren Maya, S.A. de C.V.", which was supposed to be ready in 2024 and continues to be non-operational.

Regarding the Army's purchase of ejidal lands, the Múuch’ Xíinbal Mayan community asserts they were not properly informed. Through transparency requests, they asked for the list of communities that were informed of these processes. However, the document reporting these activities is so heavily redacted that it is impossible to know if the Mayan community was duly warned about the processes.

"They damaged our river, but no one was held accountable. If it had been us, we would be in prison. Here the government said it was a human error, but it wasn't. So I ask, which Maya Train, which culture?" Aldair Tuut concludes, "They took everything from us, even our name."