Riviera Maya, Q.R. — A Yucatan judge has said no to lifting the suspension on section 5 south of the Maya Train. Yucatan Judge Adrián Fernando Novelo said no to reversing the suspension, but indicated that there will be modifications.
The First District Judge in the state of Yucatan, Adrián Fernando Novelo Pérez, has accepted the incident of modification or revocation promoted by the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur) for processing, but refused to reverse the definitive suspension of section 5.
The incident modifying the suspension was presented by Marco Aurelio Colín, legal representative of Fonatur and the company Fonatur Tren Maya, who are in charge of the infrastructure project along the Yucatan Peninsula.
In his resolution, Judge Novelo Pérez established that the definitive suspension against the construction of Section 5 south, which runs from Playa del Carmen to Tulum, will not be revoked, but did say that a part of it will be modified, but without making those modified changes public.
The ongoing legal conflict between the government and environmentalists involves section 5 in particular. In May, a request for protection was filed through a legal representative.
In their request, the complainants detailed a lack of planning, knowledge, precaution and studies related to the karst soil in the area, in addition to the fact that the environmental impact studies were not presented.
On May 30, the first definitive suspension was granted by the Yucatan court, however, the federal government has since started construction again, arguing that the Maya Train is a national security project.
Both Fonatur and Fonatur Tren Maya presented the review incident after lawyer Antonella Vázquez, representative of environmentalists, found that the federal authorities did not comply with the suspension.
Judge Novelo Pérez set a date for August 1 for the next hearing in which it will be decided whether or not the Government of Mexico complied with the suspension.
