Mexican government sends marines to take over private rail line

The government of President López Obrador has promised to compensate the company for using the railway.

The government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has deployed marines to the south of the country to occupy a section of the railroad operated by a private conglomerate.

Officials called the measure “temporary” and in the “public interest” as the government works to modernize a rail-to-sea network on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow stretch of land between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean .

That project, called the Inter-Oceanic Corridor, aims to help Mexico boost its economy and compete with the Panama Canal, an important trade channel in the region.

However, Friday’s takeover of the railways has caught transportation company Grupo Mexico Transportes off guard, according to a statement it released in the wake.

“The surprising and unusual acquisition of the installations by the armed forces is being analyzed by Grupo Mexico Transportes, its investors and advisors,” the company said. The stock fell more than 4 percent on Friday afternoon.

The Mexican government has promised to reimburse Grupo Mexico Transportes for the seizure of about 120 km of track between Medias Aguas and the port city of Coatzacoalcos.

The company said trains continued to run on the line “under the supervision of the armed forces”. The military takeover took place around 6 a.m. local time (12:00 GMT).

This is not the first time López Obrador’s government has been accused of seizing transportation infrastructure for government use.

In March, the United States-based company Vulcan Materials alleged that members of Mexico’s police and military illegally entered the docks of a port in Punta Venado, along the Caribbean coast.

Once there, the soldiers are said to have facilitated the unloading of cement, crushed stone and other materials on behalf of the Mexican company Cemex – materials destined for the government’s Mayan Train project in the Yucatán Peninsula.

The incident sparked outrage in the US, with Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama calling the move “illegitimate and unacceptable”. The US State Department, meanwhile, said it was “concerned about the fair treatment of our companies in Mexico.”

López Obrador is in favor of the Mayan Train Project, a 1,500 km (950 mi) rail line designed to encircle the Yucatán Peninsula and connect many popular tourist sites.

But the project, estimated to cost $16 billion, has faced strong opposition, including from indigenous, environmental and archaeological groups concerned about the project’s potential impact on fragile ecosystems and historic sites in the region.

On Thursday, Mexico’s Supreme Court gave López Obrador a setback when it ruled that the government had no right to regulate the Maya train and other infrastructure projects on “national security issues” to facilitate construction.

The train project was briefly halted in 2022 after an order was issued for failure to submit an environmental impact assessment. López Obrador, whose term ends in September 2024, has been racing to complete the railroad before leaving office.

In Thursday’s ruling, the Supreme Court — a body with which López Obrador has had an adversarial relationship — said the designation “national security” would violate public works transparency laws.

But López Obrador responded to the court’s decision later on Thursday by issuing an order in the Federation’s Official Gazette, where the government’s rules and regulations are published, reinstating the “national security” designation.

The order would cover projects such as the Maya train, the rail-to-sea network of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and several airports, protecting them from normal permitting procedures.