PROCLAMATION MAYA MÚUCH XÍINBAL: NO TO THE MAYA TRAIN!

PROCLAMATION
ASSEMBLY OF DEFENDERS OF THE MAYA MÚUCH XÍINBAL TERRITORY
NO TO THE MAYA TRAIN!
MAY 20, 2020
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Canek said:
"We are the earth. Within us, the seeds of life mature. We feed the roots. Under our fields the waters of the cenotes flow.

We are the earth”.

They are the sustainability of dispossession.

(Canek: Ermilo Abreu Gómez)

TO THE MAYAN PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES OF THE YUCATAN PENINSULA

TO CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS TO THE SOCIETY IN GENERAL

We, Indigenous Peoples who are part of the Mayan people of the Yucatan peninsula and who are part of the Assembly of Defenders of the Mayan Territory Múuch Xíinbal, raise our voices to denounce the mega-development commercial projects that are intended to deprive us of land and territory, places and spaces where we live, where our families lives and sustain themselves, where we plant our fields of corn, the milpa which we inherited from grandparents and grandmothers, where we celebrate our rituals and live our identity with dignity and with deep respect for Mother Nature, where we live with the air, the water, the trees, the corn, the sun, but above all, where the seed of the future grows; In our Assembly we are convinced and we struggle to defend our thinking that directs our actions: 

THE LAND IS NOT FOR SALE OR RENT! 
 

In recent years, we have seen with great concern that "outsiders" arrive in our towns and ejidos offering money in exchange for transferring our lands to them for the development of large wind and photovoltaic projects, or for the construction of pig farms to feed thousands of pigs for export.  They come to offer us that through these projects we will have employment, that they will pay us well for the rent or sale of the land, but the reality is that the only thing they have achieved is that in some towns there is division and confrontation between the inhabitants, and even between relatives; the Entrepreneurs do not care that their "great developments" deforest thousands of hectares of jungle, pollute the water in the cenotes, pollute the air, pollute the land, their only vision is to turn into merchandise what for us is sacred: THIS FIGHT IS FOR THE DEFENSE OF LIFE!

Since the beginning of this 2018- 2024 presidential term, major projects have been announced to “detonate development” in the region of the Mexican southeast that has historically been abandoned. They say that now, yes, luck smiles at us because they are going to build us a train and to make us happy it will be called the “Maya Train”, that now, we cannot complain because "development" is going to come and we will no longer be poor, that the Mayan train is an act of "social justice", that this is one of the priority projects of the current administration as indicated in the national development plan. Yet these decisions were made from above for those of us below, as it has always been done, because we in the pueblos and communities have not requested the construction of a train, much less a “Maya” Train.
 

Therefore:

• WHY THE “URGENCY” OF BUILDING A TRAIN?

• WHO REQUESTED THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TRAIN?

• WHO IS BENEFITING FROM THE BIDS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TRAIN?

• DO WE KNOW THE IMPACTS AND DAMAGES TO THE ENVIRONMENT?

• WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE PLANS FOR THE “DEVELOPMENT CENTERS” AND THE MAGNITUDE OF THESE?

• DO WE KNOW THE CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO PREVENT THE ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE OF THE REGION?

• DO WE COMPREHENSIVELY UNDERSTAND THE HOLISTIC NATURE OF OUR TERRITORY THAT IS AT RISK?

These are questions that no one answers. There is only one answer and it is called dispossession, a dispossession that is ordered by governmental authorities, and which without any doubt, we can assuredly state that the authorities make use of militarization as "concomitant” condition to the imposition of these mega-development projects.

For this reason, we denounce to the world the National Fund for Promotion of Tourism (FONATUR) who is the guarantor of the Mexican State to carry out the dispossession of our peoples and the imposition of the so called “Maya” Train:

It is enough to remember that Section 1, of 228 kilometers with an investment of 15,538 million pesos, was delivered to the Consortium Mota-Engil México SAPI de C.V. in agreement with China Communications Construction Company LTD, Grupo Cosh S.A. de C.V. Eyasa S. de R.L de C.V and Gavil Ingeniería S.A.; 

Section 2, of 235 kilometers with an investment of 18,553 million pesos, was delivered to the consortium made up of Operadora Carso (Carlos Slim) Infraestructura y Construcción (Cicsa) and FCC Construcción; 

Section 3, 172 kilometers with an investment of 10,192.9 million pesos, was delivered to the consortium made up of the companies Construcciones Urales S.A. de C.V., Gami Ingenería e Instalaciones S.A. de C.V. and Azvi S.A.U.; 

Section 4, of 257 kilometers with an investment of approximately 25 billion pesos, will be awarded directly by the Mexican government to the Mexican construction company ICA, a construction company founded in 1947 and with operations in a dozen countries of Latin America will be direct because the company already has the Kantunil-Cancun highway right-of-way; 

Section 5, 135 kilometers with an undefined investment, will be delivered to the BlackRock Investment Fund, since according to Jiménez Pons, it already has an advantage in the tender for that segment of the railway project; 

Section 6 and 7, of 510 kilometers with an investment of approximately 32 billion pesos, was delivered to the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA), in order to avoid, according to them, bureaucratic procedures that lengthen the process of building the railway project, as well as to save about 20 percent of the cost of the final sections.

All these companies have a history of dishonesty and corruption that this government has not only not wanted to investigate but has rewarded them with new opportunities in the style of the past six-year presidential terms.

This is the price of dispossession, accompanied by the militarization of the country in order to guarantee it, something that we do not want for our peoples and communities, and so we call for national and international solidarity, to demand the immediate cancellation of the construction of the “Maya” Train.

We, as the Assembly of Defenders of the Maya Múuch Xíinbal Territory, declare that we do not consent with the construction of the “Maya” train project, that we will continue to take legal action at the national and international level to stop its development. Our position is that we will NOT allow any project to invade and rob us of our territory, including this “train for development”, we will NOT allow the destruction and contamination of our natural resources, we will NOT allow decisions to be made for us and we will NOT allow our rights to be violated in the name of “development”, rights enshrined in the Constitution of our country and in international law, we will NOT allow the assault on our dignity as Original Peoples to continue:

THIS FIGHT IS FOR THE DEFENSE OF OUR TERRITORY

AND FOR OUR LIVES!

Consulado de Mexico en Phoenix, Arizona

TRANSLATION:

TONATIERRA