The Stealth Route
Mayan Train
“The Mennonites arrived in Tekax about five or six years ago (at the same time as construction of the Mayan Train was progressing). They started by renting hectares, but while they were renting, they were keeping an eye out for who was selling,” says Alan, a Mayan beekeeper from the municipality of Tekax, Yucatán, as he stands looking at the land deforested by this religious group that settled in Mexico in the early 20th century and on the Peninsula more than 40 years ago.
Alan’s plots are part of the San Antonio Tekax ejido, a place where, until 2019, the tajonal flourished as a sign that there would be a good honey harvest all year round. Now, only the memory of that remains. “Here where we are, they have about 50 hectares of land and they have been destroying the environment, mainly the trees, such as the tajonal and the bejuco, which used to provide honey early in the season and helped us with beekeeping,” he explains.
The landscape along the 49.1 kilometers from downtown Tekax to the Becanchen police station now looks different. What used to be covered by trees now looks like a “gringo” field, in the words of Alan, the farmer who accompanied this team on a tour of the affected lands. For him, it is the first sign of what is happening: the Mennonite agro-industrial expansion invading Yucatán.
Amidst the green hills covered with trees and undergrowth, the construction of a Mennonite barn can be seen progressing. In the distance, an air-conditioned mobile home stands out. The land no longer has trees; it is levelled, ready for monoculture.
Mennonite communities contributed significantly to the 285,000 hectares of land deforested between 2019 and 2023 in the Yucatan Peninsula, according to the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Forestry (CCSS). The state of Campeche recorded the greatest loss, with 29,281 hectares, followed by Yucatán, with 27,519 hectares, and Quintana Roo, with 14,595 hectares.
The progress in the Yucatan Peninsula is no coincidence. It coincides with the statements made by the governor of Campeche, Layda Sansores San Roman of the Morena party, who on December 15, 2023, accompanied by the then president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, promised during the inauguration of the Mayan Train to make that state a “rice bowl.”
“We are going to turn Campeche into a rice bowl, as it was in my father’s time, as well as a soybean and corn basket, and the crops will be transported by train. If we don’t do this, instead of this fiery horse, we will have a white elephant,” said the governor.
The route of the megaproject revealed the path that the Mennonite plantations would take. A train that was announced as essentially a tourist attraction, though Mayan organizations warned from the outset that it would be used for freight.
WORKING WITH APIARIES IS NO LONGER PROFITABLE
In Mayan communities, there is a reality far removed from the capital cities of southern Mexico, such as Mérida, San Francisco de Campeche, and Chetumal. The Mayans are being forced to gradually abandon their apiaries.
The agro-industrial production model used by Mennonites and commercial farmers requires the use of pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Over the past three years, the use of highly dangerous pesticides by both Mennonites and commercial farmers on different monoculture plots has caused the death of bees.
Between 2023 and 2025, the Ecosur Bees team has documented five cases of poisoning, resulting in the loss of more than 4,600 beehives. The insecticides found in the dead bees have mainly been fipronil and imidacloprid, insecticides from the neonicotinoid family, which are banned in European Union countries but are frequently used in the Yucatan Peninsula. The poisonings recorded by Ecosur have occurred in Tekax and Tizimín, Yucatán, as well as in Hopelchén, Campeche, and José María Morelos, in Quintana Roo.The
Working in apiaries is no longer profitable. Business owners, using the excuse that honey from southern Yucatán is contaminated, want to pay 15 pesos per liter. “They tell you that you come from the Southern Cone, where there are Mennonites, and your honey is already contaminated. They buy it from you for 15 or 20 pesos. Last year, halfway through the season, they were already buying it at 15 pesos per liter, and suddenly they weren’t buying it even at that price. The bees are already taking pollen from sorghum, soybeans, and genetically modified corn that is sprayed with Faena, which is supposed to be banned in Mexico, but the Mennonites continue to use it,” Alan complains.
The Mayan people who work the land are the first to feel the effects of the Mennonite advance in Yucatán. Another example is the Noh Becan watering hole. Two years ago, this body of water had two uses. During times of drought, they used the watering hole to irrigate their plots and give their animals water. In addition, during the summer season, they took advantage of it to go fishing for mojarras and spend the day. Today, neither of these things is possible, as the water is now contaminated by the agrochemicals used by the Mennonites.
In reality, no environmental or research authority has confirmed the existence of the chemicals to the Mayan farmers and beekeepers, although this is not necessary. Packaging from Faena is scattered along the dirt road leading to the watering hole.
The Mennonites’ expansion is advancing ever more rapidly, encroaching on areas adjacent to protected zones such as the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche and now Tekax, one of the towns that forms part of the Puuc Biocultural State Reserve in Yucatán.
Quintana Roo is no exception, as they have purchased communal lands in Xmabén and Iturbide, which, although they belong to Campeche, are strategically located on the edge of the Bala’an K’aax Flora and Fauna Protection Area in Quintana Roo, where the land is also fertile.
BURNING LAND TO OBTAIN A CHANGE IN LAND USE
Augusto is another communal landholder in the municipality of Tekax who also works as a beekeeper. His land is located beyond the area known as Valle Faisán, a border zone between the states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo, very close to Punto Put, where the boundaries of the three states meet.
The farmer is a staunch defender of the territory. On several occasions, he has had to confront the Mennonites who entered this area of national land, which is supposedly protected and where only beekeeping is allowed.
“Since they want to expand their plowing and destroy the forest, they burn it every year. It burned here two years in a row, in 2024 and 2025. Until 2023, they hadn’t built any roads, but when they built the new road from San Juan Tekax to the foot of Macoba, they started bulldozing everything,” says Augusto.
The presence of Mennonite farms is visible along the road that passes through the Becanchen police station, the San Diego Tekax ejido, the Nohalal police station, the Sinaí ejido, and national lands (i.e., lands that still belong to the Mexican people), such as Faisán and Valle Escondido.
To reach Augusto’s apiaries, it is necessary to enter the Mayan jungle and travel kilometers through the undergrowth between the hills. Along the way, more apiaries belonging to Mayan farmers from Yucatán can be seen. The Mennonites’ strategy is to seek out flat land far from public view so that environmental authorities, such as the Federal Attorney General’s Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa), cannot stop their advance.
Even so, Augusto suspects that authorities in the state of Campeche are involved in dispossessing the Maya people of their land and selling it to the Mennonites. He also believes that the federal government is aware of the situation, because he has encountered military personnel in the area.
“Here in this section, the destruction was not slow, it was immediate. In two years, they cleared the forest and set it on fire, it was that fast. In 2024, they cleared only two hectares, and in May of this year, they came in and bulldozed everything. Now they have a lot of plows,” he says with visible anger.
Article 155, section XXV of the General Law on Sustainable Forest Development states that a change in land use on burned land will not be authorized until 20 years have passed, but for the Mayan farmers who live far from the city, this is a lie.
“Near Macoba, in Campeche, the only things that haven’t burned are the archaeological sites. The surrounding mountains are burned, and they’ve already started bulldozing them with their machines,” said the beekeeper.
The area of expansion of the Mennonite fields in Campeche is interconnected with seven of the 11 stations of the Mayan Train: Escárcega, Centenario, Calakmul, Xpujil, Candelaria, Tenabo, and Hecelchakán.
40 YEARS OF DEFORESTATION BY MENONITE MONOCULTURES
The Mennonites arrived in the Yucatan Peninsula in 1983, 43 years ago. They first settled in Hecelchakán, Campeche, and founded Yalnón. Three years later, in 1986, they built the largest agro-industrial farm in their community in Hopelchén and named it “Nuevo Progreso.”
The Mennonite farms in Mexico proved to be the perfect fit for transnational agribusiness companies that implement monocultures and agrochemicals that harm the environment. In 1998, the planting of genetically modified crops began in Campeche, which in 2003 led to the state becoming the first in the Yucatan Peninsula to cultivate 650 hectares of land with modified soybeans.
In 2012, the federal government granted Monsanto a permit to plant genetically modified soybeans, whose genetic modifications make them resistant to the herbicide glyphosate. In response, Mayan communities filed an injunction against its use, which was granted by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) in 2014.
In 2016, an indigenous consultation was initiated regarding the planting of GMOs. Two years later, it was the indigenous peoples themselves who halted it to request a dialogue with the then president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. However, all they got was a statement during his visit to Hopelchén urging them to “respect thy neighbor.”
“The Mennonites have been here for 20 years. We must respect them, and they must also respect the indigenous communities, all together, because we must not reject anyone. The Bible tells us that we must not mistreat foreigners, never mistreat anyone, and be respectful. We must all work with love for our neighbors in mind,” López Obrador said in a speech in 2019.
Finally, in 2021, federal authorities announced the signing of a “zero deforestation” agreement with Mennonite communities in Campeche. But it was of little use, because in August 2025, the Federal Attorney General’s Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa) closed down 147 hectares of land owned by Mennonites in the municipality of Tekax for illegal land use change, thereby acknowledging that the “Zero Deforestation” agreement had not been fulfilled.
In parallel with the Mennonite expansion is the Mayan Train in its cargo phase. They follow the same route and seem impossible to stop. These train cars will be used to load and transport corn, soybeans, and sorghum, most of which are genetically modified. On the other side are the Mayan farmers who, like Alan and Augusto, are resisting and daring to speak out because, they say, they have not lost hope of preserving their water, air, plants, and bees.
Research and Article by Claudia Victoria Arriaga Duran.
Photos by Robin Canul.
Video direction and editing by Claudia Victoria Arriaga Duran and Robin Canul.
Antes de que Anochezca, Desinformémonos, October 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.