Mexico City, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed his surprise Monday after learning of a Maya Train lawsuit against his government.
During his morning press conference, López Obrador admitted he was surprised to learn that Grupo México is suing the Federal Government for pulling their construction contract for section 5 of the Maya Train early.
Grupo México is suing the government for canceling their contract early and handing over the section 5 construction contract to the Ministry of Defense (Sedena), who in turn, hired three companies to complete the project.
According to the president, the government had reached an agreement with Grupo México after having terminated its contract early for not complying with the construction requirements that runs from Playa del Carmen to Tulum.
“An agreement was going to be sought because they worked and invested and they want an amount for what they did, and Fonatur technicians maintain that that amount (they want) is not the one that corresponds to them, that is, they are wanting to charge more or Fonatur wants to pay less is what we understand,” he explained.
“It strikes me that I sent word to Germán Larrea, the President of Grupo México, to seek a negotiation that the military engineers prepare an opinion for us, and that if he accepted that opinion, to define the cost. He said that he accepted, but oh surprise, today it appears in the news that he is going to sue us and that it is already a million-dollar matter, but I did not know that he had already sued, so it already became public,” AMLO said.
At the beginning of August, López Obrador announced that the contract for the construction of section 5 of Grupo México had been revoked. After declaring the megaproject a national security project, it was decided that Sedena would assume control of the northern part, while the southern section was granted to Mota Engil, Azvindi and ICA.
The consortium made up of Grupo México and Acciona Infraestructuras, to whom the contracts had originally been awarded, carried out the project until July 15, for which Fonatur offered to pay 37.9 million peso.
On Monday morning, López Obrador said “there was a breach in the contract, of a section I think from Playa del Carmen to Tulum, about 50 kilometers, by Grupo México.
“Then an agreement was reached that other companies were going to participate because they (Grupo México) were not complying. That was the reason. They were notified that we urgently needed to finish that stretch so it was delivered to three companies”, ICA, Mota Engil and Azvindi.
AMLO said he offered German Larrea, owner of Grupo México, to reach an agreement, but in the end, he opted for the lawsuit.