Government Financing for Mayan Train Violates Socio-Environmental Standards Emilio Godoy - Inter Press Service
go to original May 20, 2023

Carrying the Mayan flag, members of the Colibrí Collective lead a march against the Mayan Train in the city of Valladolid, in the southern Mexican state of Yucatán, in May 2023. (Arturo Contreras/Pie de Página)

Mexico’s development banks have violated their own socio-environmental standards while granting loans for the construction of the Mayan Train (TM), the flagship project of the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The National Bank of Public Works and Services (Banobras), the Nacional Financiera (Nafin) bank and the Foreign Commerce Bank (Bancomext) allocated at least 564 million dollars to the railway line since 2021, according to the yearbooks and statements of the three state entities.

Banobras, which finances infrastructure and public services, granted 480.83 million dollars for the project in the Yucatan peninsula; Nafin, which extends loans and guarantees to public and private works, allocated 81 million; and Bancomext, which provides financing to export and import companies and other strategic sectors, granted 2.91 million.

Bancomext and Banobras did not evaluate the credit, while Nafin classified the information as “confidential”, even though it involves public funds, according to each institution’s response to IPS’ requests for public information.

The three institutions have environmental and social risk management systems that include lists of activities that are to be excluded from financing.

The three entities already had information to evaluate the railway project, since the Superior Audit of the Federation, the state comptroller, had already pointed to shortcomings in the indigenous consultation process and in the assessment of social risks, in the 2019 Report on the Results of the Superior Audit of the Public Account.

Read the rest at IPS

Related: ‘A Megaproject of Death’: Fury as Maya Train Nears Completion in Mexico (The Guardian)

Related: Mexico Leader Defiant After High Court Rules Tourist Train, Other Works Not National Security Issues (Associated Press)

Related: What Is Happening With the México-Querétaro Train Project? (Mexico News Daily)

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