The Stealth Route
Mayan Train
Esteban Mena Pech is a Mayan farmer from the municipality of Kanasín, Yucatán, who has been working in the fields since he was eight years old. Today, at 76, he has been stripped of his land by the Indara Industrial Project, which includes the Heineken beer processing plant.
They took 13 hectares that had been in his family for over 100 years. Now his property is part of the 1,315,863 square meters on which the brewery will be built, which is expected to operate for a period of 50 years according to the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) submitted to the Yucatán Ministry of Sustainable Development (SDS).
The Mayan farmers say that “selective consultations” were held and that there is no information available on the negative effects and mitigation actions that the company will carry out. When asked for an interview for this report, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) responded that it does not have the authority to assess the environmental impacts of the brewing industry.
“It’s been about six years since I last planted the last ibes (white beans characteristic of Yucatecan food), and then the disease (COVID) started. From then until now, I came to see my land because my nephew told me they had built a road, and they told me that the Maya Train was going to pass through,” says Mena. Businessman Hernán Cárdenas, one of the 13 shareholders of Grupo Industrial Indara, which also owns the real estate companies Grupo Desur and Viva Abitare, took advantage of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 to take over the land.
Like thousands of people, Mena Pech stopped leaving his home to avoid the pandemic. After almost a year, he learned that machinery had already entered his land to open a road into the forest. Desperate, he went to find out what was happening. There he found workers who assured him that they were working on the Mayan Train, but he later discovered that this was false. There were other plans for that land.
“When I came to see, they had already cleared the land to make a road. They told me that the Mayan Train was going to pass through, but they were just deceiving me. Then one of the employees told me that Mr. Hernán Cárdenas was the one who took a piece of it because he bought land from the communal land owners, but I didn’t sell anything,” he complained at the time. They then asked him to leave or else the Kanasín municipal police would arrest him for trespassing on land that was no longer his.
Magdaleno Mena Pech, Esteban’s brother, says he was also outraged by the ban on access to his own land. “I want to plant nearby. I told my brother that we should go and clear the land so we could plant something, but they won’t let us. How can they not let us when we haven’t signed anything?”
Three years after the seizure, on September 14, 2023, under the administration of the now former governor of Yucatán, Mauricio Vila Dosal of the National Action Party (PAN), the construction of a Heineken brewery in the municipality of Kanasín was announced. The investment would be 8.7 billion pesos for the installation of the company’s first factory on the Yucatán Peninsula.
The news did not come as a surprise to Esteban and his family, as they had already been warned. And two years later, on June 11, 2025, the project began to take shape when President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo announced in her daily press conference that Heineken would build a brewery in Kanasín and that from 2025 to 2028 it would inject $2.75 billion into the country.
“PROYECTO ÁMBAR”: TWO ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
The Heineken Brewery will be built in the Indara II Industrial Park, located in the municipality of Kanasín, Yucatán. Its construction required the approval of two land use changes and the submission of two Environmental Impact Statements (EIS).
The land was purchased through the Indara Industrial Group, whose EIS was submitted on October 10, 2023, according to information provided by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).
“As far as Semarnat is concerned, the Environmental Impact Statement for the industrial subdivision where the brewery will be built, called ‘Indara II Non-Residential Real Estate Development Subdivision and Urbanization,’ was evaluated,” Semarnat responded to a request for an interview. EIA No. 726.4/UGA-553/000963 for the Indara II Industrial Development was approved on May 15, 2024.
Meanwhile, the approval of the EIS for the Ambar Project, which corresponds to the brewery, was handled by the Ministry of Sustainable Development (SDS) and was given the green light in July 2024.
The location of the Ambar Project, owned by the Heineken brewery, is strategic: San Antonio Tehuitz is 400 meters from the south side of the project; the Teya station of the Mayan Train is 1.5 kilometers away; and 250 meters to the west is the Kanasín Electrical Substation of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which connects to a series of transmission lines that cross from north to south.
THEY’RE COMING FOR THE WATER
“Now I think they are going to drill the well deeper and we will start to suffer from water shortages. We know it’s a business, the middlemen here make millions, a lot of money, but in 15 or 20 years Kanasín will suffer and we will start to have problems. Most people don’t want a brewery; we have one in Hunucmá, but perhaps right now they only see economic interests,” lamented José Chan, a resident of Kanasín dedicated to defending the land and those who work it.
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Heineken brewery contemplates the construction of 13 wells with a depth of 50 to 55 meters and approximately 60 meters from the halocline or salinity. There will be a distance of 250 meters between each well, and the extraction will be ten liters per second. The document states that 0.18 percent of the aquifer’s available volume, which amounts to 2,386.92 cubic meters per year, will be used.
The brewery will be located within the “Semicírculo de cenotes” (Semicircle of Cenotes) geohydrological zone, which is part of the Chicxulub sedimentary basin and the Anillo de Cenotes (Ring of Cenotes). Finally, the distance from the Ambar Project (brewery) to the Anillo de Cenotes State Geohydrological Reserve is 2.70 kilometers, and to the Cuxtal Reserve is 4.83 kilometers.
To the question “Is Heineken coming for Yucatan’s water?”, the federal government responds: “Remember that companies are looking to set up where there is water, so it’s the southeast, and that’s because it has water availability,” said Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in 2025, when announcing the brewery’s investment in Mexico. The population’s concern about water scarcity is not far from reality.
“I think the brewery will bring the risk of running out of water, not only for us, but for the entire population of Kanasín. We are not ejido members, we are a green area, and we were not notified of any indigenous consultation,” said Laureano Magdaleno.
The report of the 2021-2024 Regional Hydrological Program of the National Water Commission (Conagua) reveals that “there was an availability of 5,759.22 Hm³/year according to the 2003 publication, and for the latest publication in 2020, an availability of 2,386.92 Hm³/year, 59 percent less in 17 years, which, arithmetically, would lead to an alarming situation in 15 years,” the document reads.
NO TRACE OF THE INDIGENOUS CONSULTATION. WHO VOTED?
The Mayan farmers of Kanasín explained that the consultations were not open to all citizens. They claim that groups of people who they knew would vote in favor of the project were invited. “The commissioner brought them in, which I find strange, because there is a meeting place at the Casa Ejidal. Why do it in secret, in private? Logically, it is easier to manipulate groups than to do so in an assembly or with an indigenous consultation, as it should be. What does the municipality say? It doesn’t just affect the peasantry, it affects everyone. What do the young people say? What do the women say? Everyone’s voice should have been heard,” argued José Chan.
In Heineken’s EIS, which the Yucatan Secretariat of Sustainable Development (SDS) allowed to be consulted in person, it states that the installation of the factory is “compatible with the human rights recognized both in the Constitution and in the international treaties to which Mexico is a party, by virtue of the 2011 Constitutional Reform.” They also point out that they complied with the prior consultation process as specified in Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
In this regard, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) confirmed that the Kanasín city council was in charge of the indigenous consultation on January 19, but that they are unaware of the results, as the information is in the hands of the municipal authority.
The response from Semarnat is noteworthy, since by law it is the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), headed by Adelfo Regino, that is responsible for organizing public consultations. Although there are records that consultations were held in the communities of San Pedro Noh Pat and San Antonio Tehuitz in Kanasín, there is no confirmation of the minutes or the announcement.
“TOAST TO A BETTER WORLD”
The brewery plans to implement the “Toast to a Better World” or “Brew a Better World 2030” strategy. It says it will seek to generate no carbon or CO2 emissions, as it plans to meet all its energy needs with electricity. It will try to achieve “zero waste to landfill,” as the EIS guarantees that “everything will be recyclable.”
Regarding water consumption, it stated that it will be less than 2.6 hectoliters of water per hectoliter of beer. In addition, there will be 100 percent industrial symbiosis called “Balanceo,” meaning that what is extracted from water will be returned. Water consumption during the construction phase will be approximately 133,500 liters per month, and drinking water will be sourced from local suppliers, while water for sanitation will be obtained from “gray” or treated water sources. The EIS also proposes a program to rescue and relocate flora and fauna that will be affected by the construction.
During the preparation of this report, the Yucatán state government was asked whether it was aware of the environmental impact that the brewery would have. It responded that it had been assured that measures would be implemented to reduce the environmental and social impacts. Above all, it emphasized that the new factory is designed to be integrated positively into the community.
The government reiterated that the state is currently seeking investments that are sustainable and that in turn promote economic development. “It will generate quality jobs and strengthen our relationship with local communities and authorities,” it claimed.
A LONG-STANDING PROBLEM: THE “REAL ESTATE MAFIA” IN KANASÍN
For the farmers of Kanasín, the dispossession of their lands is a plan that began decades ago. Kanasín is a municipality in the metropolitan area located 5 miles from downtown Mérida, the capital of Yucatán. It is known for its high crime rate and is colloquially referred to by Yucatecans as “no man’s land.” The residents of Kanasín have become accustomed to dealing with insecurity and a lack of public lighting and water supply in their homes.
The land was thought to be worthless, but the ejido members—mostly elderly—had already been dispossessed of their land since 2000. They were forced to sell at lower prices through the use of public force and the former mayors of Kanasín. Among the names are William Pérez Cabrera of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and Francisco Canul Uicab, known as “Pancho Huech.”
Aristeo Pech was imprisoned two years ago by municipal police officers. He did not commit any crime, but rather the former mayor, “Pancho Huech,” demanded that he leave his land because it had already been sold. The Maya Train tracks run 200 meters from the property. Since the Covid pandemic in 2020, people from the municipality of Hunucmá, where the Modelo brewery is “coincidentally” located, have been trying to dispossess him. “I had them draw up the plan, but they took a piece of it away from me. The Mayan Train is about 200 meters away,” he claims.
“About two years ago, they caught me on my land. I had already harvested a bucket of ibes and wanted to leave to go to another tree, but they stopped me. All the police officers from Kanasín were on my land with Pancho Huech’s lawyer,” he said in an interview. Aristeo spent 36 hours in the municipal jail, and his family was denied access to him for the first 12 hours.
Another case is that of Jose Puch Baas, whose land is constantly invaded by cattle from Mario González’s ranch. They destroy his crops, and although he has reported this twice, justice has not been served. He also went to the ejido commissioner of Kanasín, Eleuterio Pech, who told him that his agrarian certificate is not valid and that he will have to pay for a new one with his signature.
Puch has ten mecates of land, equivalent to 18 hectares, and the commissioner intends to charge him five pesos per square meter, an amount he cannot afford to pay: “I replied that if the agrarian certificates are not valid, why do they continue to take possession of land and charge for it, if his signature is not valid either?”
Other names that stand out among the complaints are those of Antonino Cascio González, who is identified as a former employee of the National Agrarian Registry (RAN), and Marcelino Uicab Uicab, nicknamed “San Ku,” who is accused of selling a square meter of land in the San Francisco neighborhood to Sofimex for six pesos.
In an attempt to defend themselves against the dispossession of their land, the peasants of Kanasín twice sought the help of the governor of Yucatán, Joaquín Díaz Mena, “Huacho.” The first time was on September 2, 2024, and the second on November 7 of the same year. They delivered a letter requesting his support in obtaining the public deed to their plots and achieving the legal security that guarantees legitimate possession. This would prevent the illegal dispossession that the ejido authority has been carrying out for years. The request was forwarded to the Undersecretary of Agrarian Affairs. They have not given up hope of receiving a response.
ORGANIZING COLLECTIVELY FOR THE DEFENSE OF WATER
In the struggle to defend Yucatán’s water and against the harassment of the Mayan peoples, the collectivization of information is what put the installation of the Heineken brewery on the public agenda. In the municipality of Kanasín, activities were carried out to inform citizens about the medium- and long-term effects of the brewery. Meanwhile, protests have been organized in the city of Mérida.
This is not the first time that the Yucatan Peninsula has fought for water against a beer company. In 2022, the Mayan people of Hunucmá organized against the installation of the Modelo brand. They were unable to prevent its construction, but their demands have evolved into the organization that exists today against the mega-industries that are coming for the state’s water.
“Those in white guayabera shirts are selling Yucatán to the highest bidder” is one of the slogans on the banners during a march to raise public awareness that water is not an unlimited resource. Children also drew pictures of the future on cardboard, painting eyes with the Heineken logo reflected in their pupils and a stream of water spilling out, with a beer bottle on the side that, they say, represents something of what is to come.
Heineken arrives to the Yucatán amidst the dispossesion of lands and water from the Mayan people of Kanasín
(Use auto-translate for subtitles.)
Research and Article by Claudia Victoria Arriaga Duran.
Photos by Robin Canul.
Antes de que Anochezca, Desinformémonos, October 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.