A controversial Maya train, elves and a stubborn president.
In Mexico, the mega-works of the section which should eventually connect the seaside resorts of Playa del Carmen and Tulum are advancing at a forced march.
The goal ?
An inauguration in December, as Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador repeats.
“
They are already putting pressure on us
,” Victor Chan, an engineering student who works on the site with dozens of men under 35 degrees in a village in Yucatan, in the east of the country, told AFP.
The tourist train, colossal project of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, must cover a loop of 1554 kilometers through the peninsula.
It is supposed to allow the development of the hinterland, beyond the Cancun-Tulum tourist showcase on the Caribbean coast, according to the president originally from Tabasco, one of the five states which are on the route of the train Maya.
The train "
will bring us a lot of prosperity, more visibility, more visitors
", hopes Victor Chan.
For her part, Ana Maria Sanchez, 64, has improvised a small restaurant at her home in the village of Maxcanu, near the future station.
The tourists ?
Ironic smile: “
They don't come to eat, they come to see the craftsmen, the museums
”.
However, the project is not unanimous.
Some environmental activists denounce a threat to the cenotes, networks of underground freshwater wells of great historical and tourist value, and to the forest.
They took legal action which suspended work on the symbolic Cancun-Tulum section (130 km).
Mr. Lopez Obrador announced in September the resumption of operations on the Cancun-Tulum axis, after decreeing that the Maya train was a “
national security
” priority.
He also entrusted the construction to the army.
Read alsoIn Mexico, a new episode in the controversy surrounding the future “Mayan train”
“Everything is mystical”
The Battle of the Rails has recently taken on a mystical dimension.
On February 25, President Lopez Obrador, returning from a works inspection tour, posted on Twitter an image representing, according to him, an "
alux
", a kind of goblin or elf.
In the Maya cosmogony, these mythological beings defend access to sacred places.
The president said the photo was taken by "
an engineer
" in late February.
And concluded: “
Everything is mystical
”.
This dates from “
at least two years ago
”, corrected Twitter.
Already, in December 2018, at the start of the works, the Mexican president had participated in a Mayan ritual of homage to the land.
The train will be inaugurated "
in December of this year in all its extension (1,554 km)
" he declared at the end of January on his return from one of his many site inspection weekends.
“
The inauguration date in December remains irremovable
,” he repeated.
The president will enter the sixth and final year of his single term on December 1.
The Maya train is “
like a dream that will soon, very soon come true
”.
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