Mexican government sends marines to seize private railway

The administration of President López Obrador promised to compensate the company for the use of the railway.

The government of the Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has sent marines to the south of the country to occupy a stretch of railway operated by a private conglomerate.

Officials called the move “temporary” and in the “public interest” as the government works to upgrade a rail network to the sea on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow region of land between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.

That project, dubbed the Inter-Oceanic Corridor, aims to help Mexico boost its economy and compete with the Panama Canal, a main conduit for trade in the region.

However, Friday’s takeover of the railway caught transport company Grupo México Transportes by surprise, according to a statement it issued afterwards.

“The surprising and unusual takeover of the facilities by the armed forces is being analyzed by Grupo México Transportes, its investors and advisors,” the company said. Its shares fell more than 4 percent on Friday afternoon.

The Mexican government has promised to indemnify Grupo México Transportes for the seizure, which involves approximately 120 km (75 miles) of railway between Medias Aguas and the port city of Coatzacoalcos.

The company said the trains continued to operate on the line “with the surveillance of the armed forces.” The military coup took place around 06:00 local time (12:00 GMT).

This is not the first time the López Obrador administration has been accused of seizing transportation infrastructure for government use.

In March, the US-based company Vulcan Materials alleged that Mexican police and military officers illegally entered the docks of a port that operated in Punta Venado, on the Caribbean coast.

Once there, the soldiers allegedly facilitated the unloading of cement, crushed stone, and other materials on behalf of the Mexican company Cemex, materials intended for government administration. mayan train project in the Yucatan Peninsula.

The incident sparked protests across the US, with Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama calling the move “illegal and unacceptable”. The US State Department, for its part, said it was “concerned about the fair treatment of our companies in Mexico.”

Lopez Obrador has championed the Mayan Train projecta 1,500 km (950 mi) railway line designed to encircle the Yucatán peninsula and connect many popular tourist sites.

But the project, estimated to cost $16 billion, has faced much oppositionincluding from indigenous, environmental and archeological groups concerned about how it might affect fragile ecosystems and historic sites in the region.

Thursday, supreme court of mexico he delivered a blow to López Obrador when he ruled that the government had no right to govern the Mayan Train and other infrastructure projects on “national security” grounds to facilitate construction.

The train project was briefly put on hold in 2022 after a court order was issued for failing to file an environmental impact statement. López Obrador, whose term ends in September 2024, has rushed to complete the rail line before leaving office.

In Thursday’s ruling, the Supreme Court – the body with which López Obrador has had a adversarial relationship — said the “national security” designation would violate transparency laws on public works.

But López Obrador responded to the court’s decision later Thursday by issuing an order in the Official Gazette of the Federation, where government rules and regulations are published, reinstating the “national security” designation.

The order would cover projects such as the Mayan Train, as well as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec sea rail network and several airports, shielding them from normal permitting processes.