EZLN Seen as a Risk for the Train

Fonatur asked for an action manual manual for authorities before potential contingencies in the Mayan rail

By Paris Alejandro Salazar

The Government of México sees the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the National Indigenous Congress as risk factors for the development and construction of the Mayan Train in the southeast of the country.

For this, Fonatur (the National Trust for the Promotion of Tourism), has in effect a process for hiring security, investigation and intelligence to develop the protocols of action, prevention and mitigation of the incidents in the construction of the Mayan Train.

It asked for “an analysis of subversive movement with a presence in the region,” particularly of the EZLN and CNI, as well as the migratory phenomenon in the southeast of the country from Central America.

The protocols solicited by Fonatur should consider the participation of federal, state and municipal forces in light of these risks.

“To generate a proposal for protocols of collaboration between security agencies and the Mayan Train for the prevention, mitigation, attention and development of a manual of attention and response to incidents on site, ensuring that agencies like the National Guard, Secretariat of Defense (SEDENA), Secretariat of the Navy (MARINA), and state and municipal security corps tend to the calls for support or assistance in the case of any sudden event that occurs,” explains the contract document.

The EZLN has rejected the megaproject in the southeast, and affirmed that it would defend its lands even “with its life.”

In each one of the seven sections of the project, the service provider must identify in detail the modes of local communication (print and radio), political and social actors, peasant and indigenous organizations, unions, and criminal groups, which prevail.

The winning consultant must have a trained, certified and experienced team “with the capacity to design tailored solutions to mitigate risks, strengthen capacities and attend in a planned and strategic way to eventual security crises, and which must be available, exclusively for the provision of the service”.

In 150 days of the contract, the consultant must deliver five protocols, mainly for collaboration between security institutions and for the management of strategic information.

European Tour

In July, August, September and October of 2021, a delegation of the EZLN and the CNI will travel to Europe to “carry out meetings, dialogues, exchanges of ideas, experiences, analysis and evaluations between those among us who find ourselves engages, from our distinct conceptions and on different terrain in the struggle for life. 

The Zapatistas will be accompanied by members of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of Water and Land of Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala, and after Europe, they seek to reach Asia, Africa, Oceania, and America.

This piece was originally published in El Heraldo de México on the 6th of January, 2020. https://heraldodemexico.com.mx/nacional/2021/1/3/ven-en-ezln-un-riesgo-para-el-tren-240897.html This English interpretation has been re-published by Schools for Chiapas.