We once again traveled across seas, rivers, jungles, valleys, plains, and, of course, indigenous communities in five states of the Mexican Republic to report, more than six years later, on what has happened in these territories where, in 2018, then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) announced three of the megaprojects that would mark his newly begun six-year term: the Maya Train, the Morelos Integral Project, and the Interoceanic Corridor, all of which have now been visited by current President Claudia Sheinbaum to confirm their unrestricted implementation.
Three teams of journalists, communicators videographers, and photographers convened by Desinformémonos report in this Special on two impacts on the environment and community life of each of the aforementioned megaprojects. These are intercultural teams, most of the communicators originating from each region reported on, with in-depth knowledge of the localities over which the works extend.
In 2019, in the special report “Right of reply. The people speak,” Desinformémonos documented concerns about water and agro-industrial fields, among many other impacts, that the Maya Train would bring in its wake (this tourism and freight project runs through the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo). In 2025, we investigated the arrival of the Heineken brewery in the community of Kanasín, Yucatán, and the expansion of Mennonite monocultures and national and foreign companies throughout the Yucatán Peninsula. In both reports, the advancement of dispossession, which follows the train route, is confirmed.
In Morelos and Puebla, we return to the territory occupied by the Morelos Integral Project (PIM), which includes a thermoelectric plant, a gas pipeline, and an aqueduct. The murder of land defender Samir Flores Soberanes on February 20, 2019, was the first blow suffered by the community of Amilcingo since the presidential announcement that the project would go ahead. Here we discuss the family, organizational, and community repercussions of the still unpunished murder. In this same territory, the journalistic investigation explored the ravages of “progress,” but also the struggles that are rising up, mainly in defense of water.
And in Oaxaca, one of the investigations focuses on the consequences that the seawall, which began construction four years ago in the port of Salina Cruz, has had on the Ikoots Cuauhtémoc community, as part of the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT), a project that will connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for industry and freight transport. The second report from this region refers to the expansion of militarization and criminalization and repressive acts against those who have opposed the Interoceanic Corridor works that affect their communities.
Dawn seems far away, not only for the indigenous peoples who inhabit these territories, but for humanity as a whole. It is the indigenous communities who are committed to preserving the territories they inhabit, because not only does the land they work depend on it, but also the survival of their cultures.
Before nightfall, the peoples have their say.
Original text, photos and videos by Desinformémonos, Gloria Muñoz Ramirez, General Coordinator, October 2025.
Translations by Schools for Chiapas.