AMLO presents cable-stayed bridge of the Mayan Train

Cancun, QR. The president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, presented this weekend the model of the cable-stayed bridge that is proposed to be built to raise the Mayan Train track and save the Garra del Jaguar cave in the municipality of Tulum, which contains underground rivers, flooded caves and a cenote.

The explanation of the work was given by the director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), Diego Prieto, who explained that the bridge or viaduct will have a total length of 290 meters.

In addition, trails will be built towards the southern part of the Playa del Carmen station, at the height of Puerto Aventuras that will cover four archaeological sites: Paamul 2, the Jaguar’s Claw cave, the Cueva de las Manitas and the Ocho Balas Cave.

López Obrador assured that the cable-stayed bridge project of the Tulum-Cancún section is a sample that the engineering used has an ecological and cultural dimension.

“It means the protection of underground rivers, caves, cenotes and it is being fought, truly protecting the environment, not in a demagogic way,” he added.

“Here are some who opposed the Mayan Train and who destroyed everything, they made artificial underground rivers, they have inside their lands (…) they not only dedicated themselves to creating banks of material and taking gravel to the United States, but they even have archaeological sites ”, he added.

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Environmental organizations alert that both the bridge and the piles on which the train track will be supported are not provided for in the Environmental Impact Statement of Section 5 south of the Mayan Train, which by itself constitutes a violation of the General Law of Balance Ecological and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA, which establishes that works may not be carried out that are not detailed in the project authorized by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).

Although they promoted an amparo, the judges refused to grant the suspension of the works, alleging that it is not proven that with the execution of the project in the authorized section, imminent and irreparable damage to the environment could be caused, as this is confirmed by the authorization already granted by Semarnat.

Despite this, the environmentalists indicate that Semarnat itself in the environmental impact authorization establishes clear conditions to prevent caverns, cenotes, caves or underground rivers from being affected during the execution of the project, however, the plan presented by López Obrador based on the driving of piles through the abundant caves of Section 5 contradict the conditions and are a clear violation of environmental legislation.

Derived from this, they indicate that according to experts, Section 5 of the Mayan Train will affect the most extensive and important underwater systems in the world, known as Dos Ojos-Sac Actun, which has a total length of 371,958 km, which connect with the more than 70 caves, caverns, cenotes and underground rivers that feed the Quintana Roo aquifer.

estados@eleconomista.mx