Standing up to the Mayan Train

José Urbina, a Playa del Carmen-based diver, also known as “Pepe Tiburón” on social media, is a co-founder of the group @SélvamedelTren. He shares that his group, dedicated to jungle preservation, has won legal battles against the Maya Train project, despite going up against a powerful government. They successfully achieved a definitive suspension from the judiciary. If the law had been respected, the construction would have ceased, or perhaps never commenced.

Pepe Tiburón features in the documentary Voices of the Maya Jungle, which Greenpeace launched on March 7 at the Memory and Tolerance Museum in Mexico City. The hour-long film depicts the destruction caused by the Maya Train, along with real estate developments and industrial pig farms. “The Maya jungle loses 196 hectares of territory every day,” he states.

Despite the Mexican left once championing environmental causes, Pepe Tiburón has faced criticism and discrediting from groups claiming to be on the left. He was falsely accused of being financed by Claudio X. González, a person he was unfamiliar with. He humorously suggests that they should introduce him to González, as all expenses have been self-funded.

He has also been questioned for not protesting against Calica, a plant whose operation was halted by President López Obrador. To this, he responded that he had always opposed Calica. He says his critics showed no interest in viewing his videos documenting the damage caused by the plant to cenotes and underground rivers. Instead, they resorted to insults and false accusations.

Pepe Tiburón’s videos show the plant injecting large amounts of cement into the fragile ecosystems of cenotes and underground rivers. He is not an activist who rejects all development, but believes that if a train were to be built, it should be done correctly. It could have been constructed along the existing highway on the coast of Quintana Roo. However, he asserts in the Greenpeace documentary, “Nobody needed a Maya Train in the Maya jungle. Maybe transportation, yes, but not the Maya Train”. He also criticizes the military infrastructure accompanying the train, stating, “They militarized the area.”

In the same documentary, indigenous activist Wilma Esquivel Pat criticizes the government for attempting to “folklorize our culture”. She claims that they exploit the Maya communities and use the term Maya to present a misleading image of the train and conceal the destruction it has caused. The train was imposed without considering the views of indigenous communities. “They have no intention of listening to us,” she says.

Araceli Domínguez, another activist, describes it as “a train that doesn’t come from anywhere and doesn’t go anywhere.” She points out that the train will need to be subsidized as it was built without considering transportation needs. It cannot compete with the existing passenger buses in the area. The project has not only destroyed the jungle in violation of the law and judicial suspensions, but it has also left behind an unnecessary train that will have to be maintained with public funds.