Cozumel, Q.R. — After three years of litigation, a company who has wanted to build a fourth pier off the island of Cozumel won their case. On Monday, company Muelles del Caribe SA de CV held a press conference announcing the official court ruling.
The Monday press conference was led by company representative José Luis Cervantes who reported on the upcoming pier construction. According to Cervantes, the company will move forward with the construction of a pier to accommodate deep-draft vessels that carry more than 7,000 passengers.
He said the project will cost around two billion pesos and will be built in the southern part of the island. He outlined that the fourth cruise ship dock will be built in an area within the 4-kilometer range that the Mexican government and the Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) have defined as a “Maritime Communication Area.”
According to him, the project will not be located within the southern Natural Protected Area, the northern Flora and Fauna Protection Area, or within the Biosphere Reserve, but rather within the area authorized by the federal government.
“We need modern facilities that can accommodate the latest generation of cruise ships which are already self-sufficient in their services,” Cervantes said Monday.
The press conference was held with the support of Canaco, Coparmex, Canirac, CTM, CROC, Uniper and the Taxi Drivers’ Union, among others.
Ricardo Segovia, a member of the Business Coordinating Council, denied that the latest-generation cruise ships arriving at the new dock will consume thousands or millions of liters of water from the island of Cozumel. He stated that this is impossible since cruise ships have their own desalination plants onboard from which they obtain their water for use by passengers and ship services.
José Luis Cervantes added that as a local company they also have a desalination plant on the island of Cozumel for use in their shipping operations and port.
José Luis Cervantes also said he considered important to point out is that the fourth pier was endorsed and announced by the federal government in December 2020 as one of the 32 projects for Mexico’s economic recovery due to the pandemic, when Andrés Manuel López Obrador was the president of Mexico.
Earlier this month, Governor Mara Lezama said permits had not been issued for the construction of a fourth pier on Cozumel. Lezama said she personally verified the status of the project after her May 8 visit to the island. The last pier built off Cozumel was 23 years ago. The island receives approximately 4.6 million cruise ship passengers a year.
