Mexico City, Mexico — The National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) has called in all six Maya Train hotel environmental impact statements.
Adrián Alcalá Méndez, President Commissioner of the Instituto Nacional de Transparencia, Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos Personales (INAI) says the documents are the legal-normative instrument that allows evaluating the environmental impact that the projects will have.
According to Alcalá Méndez, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) must release the Environmental Impact Statements (MIAs) of six hotels that are part of the complementary work of the Maya Train.
“Only with documents such as those required, through the request for information, will it be possible to know precisely the impact that the Tren Maya hotels would generate on the environment as well as the mitigation measures that must be followed.
“And the INAI constitutes an indispensable link so that society has all the necessary elements that allow it to audit, monitor, corroborate and review that the works comply with the legal requirements,” said Alcalá Méndez.
The MIAs (Manifestación de Impacto Ambiental) have been called in after general concern regarding hotel construction. One of those concerns was of the UNESCO office in Mexico about the construction of a Tren Maya hotel in the Calakmul Reserve.
Juan Luis Montoya Acevez of UNESCO Mexico said that until now, the Mexican government had not informed them about the construction of the hotel (which began in January 2023), despite being located in a UNESCO world heritage site.
Last month, UNESCO reported that they will seek to “clarify the position of the UNESCO World Heritage Center on the construction project of the hotel,” which they found out about through a Mexican media article.
“UNESCO has been informed of the project to build a new hotel within the boundaries of the Antigua Ciudad Maya property and Protected Tropical Forests of Calakmul, Campeche, through the media.
“However, to date, the World Heritage Center has not been notified by the Mexican authorities in this regard. In accordance with the procedure provided for in the Practical Guidelines of the World Heritage Convention, the UNESCO World Heritage Center is contacting the Mexican authorities to obtain precise technical information on this project and its implementation.
“Once this information has been received, the World Heritage Center will carry out a technical examination to verify the possible repercussions of this project on the Outstanding Universal Value of the site, that is, on the elements that justify the inscription of the property on the Heritage World List.
“The review will subsequently be provided to Mexican authorities to guide the institutions responsible for the conservation and management of the site. Any pertinent information resulting from the above will be taken into account in the monitoring of the state of conservation of the property carried out by the World Heritage Committee.”
The archaeological site of Calakmul has been part of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage since 2002.
The under-construction Tren Maya hotels that have had their MIAs called in by the INAI are located in Palenque, Chiapas, Tulum, Quintana Roo, Calakmul and Edzná, Campeche as well as Nuevo Uxmal and Chichén Itzá, Yucatán.
