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Riviera Maya responds to announcement of expropriation of 198 properties for Maya Train

Riviera Maya, Q.R. — The AMLO government will expropriate land that is located where section 5 north of the Maya Train will pass. The government wants to ‘make way’ for the Maya Train, for which it seeks to expropriate 198 properties in Quintana Roo.

The Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu) declared as public utility, that 2.4 million square meters of land in the municipalities of Solidaridad, Benito Juárez and Puerto Morelos will be expropriated to serve for the passage of the Maya Train.

The Secretaría de Desarrollo Agrario, Territorial y Urbano (Sedatu) detailed, in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) Monday, that the public utility will affect 198 private properties for which it will proceed, with prior notice, to expropriate said land located in section 5-north of the railway project.

The 5-north section, which runs from Cancun to Playa del Carmen, will be built by the Mexican army who was awarded this section directly by the federal government.

In recent days, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a change in section 5 , which will no longer pass through Highway 307 to avoid affecting tourists and hotels. The change was also made to avoiding passage through sinkholes that appear along that section of federal highway.

Now, the train will pass through the “backs” of the coast, the president said at the time. He even said that an agreement had been reached with the hotels for the purchase of those lands, which would be the ones that Sedatu seeks to expropriate.

Since the announcement, Playa del Carmen mayor Lili Campos has said that she will legally defend the lands that correspond to the municipality.

She says the city is collecting, with the Public Registry of Property and Commerce, all the information of the deeds and areas of municipal heritage, which would not enter into that expropriation.

She warned that, if necessary, they will take legal action to defend the municipal lands. “There is documentation that proves that it is private property of the municipality,” she said.

Riviera Maya businesses have also since responded, insisting that the federal government privilege the agreements reached with the owners of the properties that are to be expropriated in the municipalities of Benito Juárez, Puerto Morelos and Solidaridad.

“We request by this means that the agreements that are instructed in this declaration be reached,” said Toni Chaves, President of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association (AHRM), in response to the publication in the Diario Oficial de la Federación (DOF).

The hotel leader reiterated that as an association, they will be aware of the expropriation process and although the agreements will be taking place between owners and the federal government, they will be ready to provide the necessary support to their associates involved in the declaration.

“We are confident that agreements can be reached based on dialogue and negotiation,” he said noting that among those affected are associated hotel chains.

According to what was published by the Official Gazette of the Federation, a total of 198 privately owned properties will be expropriated by the federal government, of which 22 are located in Benito Juárez (Cancun), 142 in Solidaridad (Playa del Carmen) and 34 in Puerto Morelos.