Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
The Tren Maya: infrastructure and indigenous culture
Claims that Amlo’s Mayan Train project around Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula is a form of ‘savage capitalism’ do not stand up to scrutiny, explains DAVID RABY
CROSSED WIRES? (L to R) Protesters in front of the National Palace in Constitution Square in Mexico City: ‘I don't want a refinery, I don't want the Mayan train, I want a planet to live on;' Maya Train route through the Yucatan Peninsula [(L to R) Francisco Colín Varela/CC and Gabomiranda/CC]

THE Mayan Train is President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s biggest infrastructure project, with a 1,550km route looping round the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico’s neglected south-east. 

Amlo claims that it is the greatest railway project currently being built anywhere in the world. 

Planned early in Amlo’s term, it is being built in seven sections, each contracted to consortia of public and private enterprises (Mexican, European and Asian) with supervision by the federal tourist agency and the armed forces. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum looks on during her morn
Features / 20 June 2025
20 June 2025

DAVID RABY reports on the progressive administration in Mexico, which continues to overcome far-left wreckers on the edges of a teaching union, the murderous violence of the cartels, the ploys of the traditional right wing, and Trump’s provocations 
 

TRANSFORMATION: President Claudia Sheinbaum waves as she arr
Features / 8 February 2025
8 February 2025
By taking a firm stance against the ‘Monroe Doctrine Mk II’ President Sheinbaum has won plaudits from across Mexican society, says DAVID RABY
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum
Features / 2 January 2025
2 January 2025
Mexico’s unflinching stand has earned praise from across Latin America and the world, writes DAVID RABY
A rally demanding changes to the Trump administration’s re
Features / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
Global South governments’ sovereignty and ability to decide future economic policy are severely compromised by signing free trade agreements, whose terms are heavily weighted in favour of the already wealthy countries of the global North, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG