A federal judge denied the injunction that communities of Chiapas filed against the Palenque-San Cristóbal superhighway, whose works were inaugurated in June despite the “rigged consultations”, the lack of information and transparency on the environmental and cultural impact of the project, and the threats by authorities to the Tseltal and Tsotsil populations that oppose the construction.
The first district judge Doris Yadira Ponce Figueroa denied the provisional and definitive suspension requested by the peoples, who have been fighting against the highway megaproject for more than 20 years, arguing that “the plaintiffs did not prove the alleged omission”.
According to the lawyers and organizations accompanying the communities, the judge’s decision was “without studying the merits or contemplating that the nature of the failure to provide information is a burden of proof that the government must disprove, not the plaintiffs”.
They added that Ponce’s resolution “leaves the indigenous communities in a state of defenselessness, since it allows the road to continue its course without the affected parties having accurate information on the details of the project and the impact it will have on their territories and culture”.
The legal representatives of the Tseltal and Tsotsil communities that oppose the highway accused that with her decision the judge “has failed to recognize the relationship between the right of access to timely environmental information in public consultation processes and environmental destruction,” which represents “irreparable damage” to the territory and the environment.
Finally, they specified that for now the process will be suspended until a complaint appeal filed by the Infrastructure Secretary of the state of Chiapas against the admission of the injunction lawsuit is resolved, and recalled that to date a review appeal filed by the communities against the denial of the definitive suspension of the project has yet to be resolved, which will be heard by the Collegiate Circuit Court in Administrative Matters of the state of Chiapas.
Despite the communities’ rejection and the environmental and community impacts that the megaproject represents, the Chiapas authorities and the state governor gave the go-ahead for the construction work with a “Mayan ritual” and the blessing of the machinery on June 8.
The 153-kilometer superhighway, which includes an 18-kilometer branch that connects with Ocosingo, is only the first section of the Route of the Mayan Cultures. Its construction dates back to 2009, when the Centro Integralmente Planeado Palenque (CIPP)-Cascadas de Agua Azul project was announced and was part of the Mesoamerica Plan, later renamed Plan Puebla Panama.
The project was formally approved in December 2019 by the Chiapas Congress under the name “Pijijiapan-Palenque Transversal Highway Axis”, which aims to connect the Chiapas Coast region with the Jungle and function as a link between the Inter-Oceanic Corridor and the Mayan Train.
Original text published by Desinformémonos on July 16th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.