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Cancun environmental group files to stop Nichupté Lagoon bridge construction on Malecón Tajamar land

Cancun, Q.R. — A civil association in Cancun has filed Amparos to stop the construction of the a bridge over the city’s Nichupté Lagoon. The Amparos were filed in January by Movimiento Social en Pro de los Derechos del Pueblo who say the land on which part of the bridge is to be constructed belongs to the Malecón Tajamar estate.

The city’s activists also say that the construction of the bridge is within the belt of the Nichupté Mangrove Protected Flora and Fauna Area. For these reasons, Social Movement for the Rights of the People filed protective Amparos.

The association pointed out that there has already been a ruling in which the federal government and Semarnat have been ordered to not grant environmental permits for Tajamar.

The say the bridge “is on one side of the already affected area, where Malecón Tajamar is, which includes the Tajamar estates,” explaining that the area is a belt of wetlands that make up the Nichupté Mangrove Flora and Fauna Protected Area, so they cannot legally introduce infrastructure.

The Malecón Tajamar has been an ongoing environmental issue for the city of Cancun after developers destroyed mangroves to build high rise towers. In 2015, a court ruled the site was to be rehabilitated, something that was never done.

In 2020, another request was made for the court-ordered rehabilitation of the area, but that too, has not been completed. Last week, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador AMLO announced the construction of the vehicular bridge as one of his state mega-projects.