Mayan Train Construction Stops/Electric Industry Law

Mayan Train. Last month President López Obrador accused the opposition of hiring celebrities and “pseudo-environmentalists” to attack the Mayan Train. Today, he said doubts about the impact of the Mayan Train on the environment will be clarified.

Earlier today, a federal judge shut down the construction of the section traveling from Playa del Carmen to Tulum due to the lack of environmental authorizations and indications of irreparable damage to the areas affected by the site.

The Mayan Train is set to be inaugurated in 2023 and is one of the flagship projects of the current administration. The train will connect the main regions of the Yucatan Peninsula and is conformed of 7 sections. It is supposed to start in Palenque, Chiapas, going all the way to Bacalar, Quintana Roo. However, many experts have warned about the great environmental impact the project could have since many trees will have to be cut and many different ecosystems will be intervened.

Ministry of Security. Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Minister of Security, informed that kidnappings decreased by 74 percent compared to January 2019. She highlighted that March 2022 is the month with the lowest kidnapping numbers since 2014. Moreover, she reported that feminicides reduced 34.8 percent against August 2021 when record numbers of feminicides were registered. Lastly, Rodríguez showed that Mexico shows a 13.5 percent lower homicide rate against 2018.

Even though crime has gone down, recently INEGI issued a report that shows security perception among the population is very high, meaning that around 66 percent of the people do not feel safe in the cities they live in.

AMLO calls for negotiations. President López Obrador urged private companies with electric self-supply permits to dialog and negotiate the suspension of these contracts to avoid taking the issue to court. During the morning conference, AMLO pointed that after the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) reactivated the Electric Industry Law (LIE), the self-supply figure was rendered illegal.

Mexico’s federal government is making a move against private power production contracts. Following the ruling of the SCJN that reactivated the Electric Industry Law (LIE) of 2021, the president’s office announced that it will review electricity self-supply contracts and permits that do not comply with the reformed legal framework. If necessary, it will proceed to revoke them.

"Self-supply permits containing serious irregularities will be reviewed and revoked. There are 234 self-supply schemes, of which 110 are illegal and have 77,000 member-customers," informed last week the presidency through a press release. In reality, the ambiguously named self-supply scheme involves legacy contracts from before the 2014 Energy Reform, which have been a key focus of the current government’s desire to reform the energy sector.