Cancún, Quintana Roo — New expropriation decrees for the Tren Maya project have exposed a sharp disparity in how the federal government values ejido land in different parts of Quintana Roo, with landowners in the south receiving up to seven times more per square meter than those in the north, despite similar plot sizes.
On Friday, the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu) formalized the occupation of 4.8 hectares divided between the Leona Vicario ejido in Puerto Morelos and the Aarón Merino Fernández ejido in Bacalar. However, appraisals conducted by the National Institute of Sustainable Land (Indaabin) reveal a stark financial contrast.
In Leona Vicario, a high-value area near Cancún and the Ruta de los Cenotes, the government expropriated 2.46 hectares for the Izamal-Cancún section. The total compensation amounts to just 890,095 pesos — roughly 36 pesos per square meter.
In contrast, the Aarón Merino Fernández ejido in Bacalar lost a slightly smaller area of 2.38 hectares for Tramo 6 but will receive over 6.2 million pesos, equating to more than 260 pesos per square meter.
According to the decrees published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF), the ejido commissioners in both communities were notified and did not file any legal challenges within the established period, allowing the expropriations to proceed under the legal principle of “public utility.”
The state-owned company Tren Maya S.A. de C.V. will handle the payments for the common-use lands, which now formally pass to the federal government for the railway’s infrastructure, operations, and right-of-way.
The compensation gap comes amid intense real estate pressure across Quintana Roo, leaving ejidatarios in Leona Vicario with what critics describe as a minimal payout relative to the development expected on their doorstep.
