By: The opinion Posted 04 Sep 2023, 13:46 pm EDT
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, officially handed over to the Army on Monday the administration of the Mayan Train, a priority work of the president for the southeast of the country that will begin operating in December.
“There is already a decree, the delivery of the company managed by Fonatur has already been formalized (National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism), Tren Maya, for everything related to the construction of the 1,554 kilometers of tracks, the acquisition of trains, stations, garages, workshops, everything related to the Mayan Train,” reported the leader.
In his morning press conference, the president announced that General Óscar David Lozano Águila will be the new general director of the Mayan Train company.
In addition, Javier May, general director of Fonatur, the public body that has been in charge of the project until now, will leave office to seek the candidacy of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) for the governorship of Tabasco, López Obrador’s home state.
The mandatary justified that the Armed Forces administer a public work such as the Mayan Train in the midst of the growing power that he has granted them during his Administration, including tasks of public security, construction works and management of airports and customs.
“Why are we going to leave this work in custody at the Ministry of Defense? Because this work, like others, is being financed with public investment, it is not debt, it is not those public-private association mechanisms, no. It is the public budget, the people’s money, that is being invested, ”he argued.
The Mayan Train, with an investment of between 15,000 million and 20,000 million dollars, It is an emblematic work of López Obrador for the five states in the southeast of the country: Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatán.
“How do we guarantee that there is good, honest administration, that there is no waste, and that they do not want to deliver the Mayan Train to individuals in the future? We have to leave it to a serious, responsible institution that represents the nation, that represents Mexico, in this case the Ministry of National Defense,” he remarked.
López Obrador recalled that the train seeks to promote tourism in the areawhich houses the popular destination of Cancun, in addition to serving to transport local residents and cargo.
“There are five states that are going to have growth possibilities like never before, we must not forget that the southeast was abandoned for 40 years,” he commented.
With information from Efe.
Keep reading:
• Andrés Manuel López Obrador tours the first sections of the Mayan Train
• AMLO celebrates the arrival of the first wagon of the Mayan Train to Cancun and that will travel through the Mexican southeast
• AMLO criticizes the campaign of “celebrities” against the Mayan Train: “they hire pseudo-environmentalists”