En esta noticia
The Collegiate Court issued a definitive suspension that marks a new chapter in the legal dispute related to the Maya Train works in southeastern Mexico. The ruling orders the competent authorities to carry out immediate verification, inspection, conservation and protection work on the works of Section 5, which connects Cancun with Tulum.
The measure puts under scrutiny the actions of the Subattorney General’s Office for Natural Resources and the Profepa General Directorate for Crimes, bodies that will have to intervene to ensure compliance with the provisions established by the court.
Environmental impact of the Maya Train: challenges and opportunities
Despite being the administration’s flagship infrastructure project to promote tourism, the Maya Train has left a deep mark on the ecosystem.
Various organizations have emphasized that the construction destroyed part of the jungle of the Yucatán Peninsula, polluted strategic cenotes, and fragmented local ecosystems. These damages have even been acknowledged by the Federal Government itself in the controversial Section 5.
This lack of transparency has prompted judicial intervention to ensure that the environmental authorities carry out their oversight functions effectively.
Historic international ruling for ecocide and ethnocide
In the current context, this new definitive suspension in the Mexican judicial system imposes on the competent authorities in environmental protection the obligation to proceed swiftly.
The international ruling is clear in laying out the government’s omissions in protecting the rights of the peninsular Maya peoples. In this regard, the published document sets out an unequivocal position regarding environmental justice: “The Court holds the Mexican State responsible for the violation of these fundamental rights of Nature and the peninsular Maya Peoples”.
At the end of 2025, the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature ratified a historic ruling in which the railway project is considered to have committed ecocide and ethnocide.
The ruling, addressed to President Claudia Sheinbaum and Secretary Alicia Bárcena, recognizes the irrefutable violation of the rights of nature and of indigenous communities.