Journal of Haiti and the Americas

Mexico: the Mayan train project on hold

Audio 7:30 p.m.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Obrador, during the laying of the foundation stone of the Maya train in El Ideal, June 1, 2020. © ELIZABETH RUIZ/AFP

By: Mikael Ponge

2 mins

Much criticized by environmentalists, the "Mayan train", a mega flagship project of Mexican President Andrès Manuel Lopez Obrador is controversial.

On Monday May 30, 2022, a judge ordered the definitive suspension of work on one of the sections.

The government announces that it will appeal.

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It is a railway line that should loop through the entire Yucatán peninsula over 1,550 kilometers and cross five states.

The pharaonic project of the Mayan train, estimated at 10 billion dollars, is criticized by environmental defenders who denounce its impact on nature and historical heritage such as the Mayan ruins in the region.

On May 30, 2022, a judge ordered the permanent suspension of work on one of the sections located between Playa del Carmen and Tulum, two cities on the Caribbean coast very popular with tourists.

The judge ruled on an appeal by a collective of divers and speleologists filed in the name of the environment of the Yucatan peninsula: forest, caves and underground freshwater wells, the pre-Hispanic "cenotes" of a large archaeological value.

President Obrador immediately reacted.

The Mexican government will appeal the judicial stay.

Haiti: a 5th investigating judge for the Moïse file

The Dean of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince appointed, on Monday May 30, 2022, Judge Walter Wesser Voltaire to investigate the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse at his home on July 7, 2021. Judge Voltaire was transferred in January 2022 to the jurisdiction of Port-au-Prince after having spent some time in the jurisdiction of Croix-des-Bouquets as a judge and examining magistrate, underlined Me Bernard Saint-Vil.

“

,” he said.

The dean stressed that Judge Voltaire will not have a problem with the end of his mandate like his predecessor Merlan Belabre, whom he had also appointed to investigate the case of the assassination of Jovenel Moïse.

The lefts back in power in Latin America

In Latin America, the left is back, whether in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and perhaps soon in Colombia, conservative governments have recently been rejected by the population.

For 20 years, alternations between left and right have punctuated political life on the continent, with a few exceptions such as Venezuela or Cuba.

What is its alternation, why have the governments of the right and the left failed?

Jean-Jacques Kourliandsky, specialist in Latin America and researcher at the IRIS Institute, offers in his new book "

" a political analysis of the last two decades.

He is on the microphone of Achim Lippold.

And on the front page of the newspaper of the 1st

The 2022 hurricane season officially begins this Wednesday, June 1, 2022.

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• Mexico

• Haiti

• Chile

• Bolivia

• Peru

• Colombia

• Climate

• Justice

• Jovenel Moses

On the same subject

Mexico: a judge orders the suspension of work on a section of the "Mayan train"

Assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse: indictment in the United States of a second suspect

geopolitics the debate

Colombia: turn left?