MEXICO CITY — The governor of Mexico’s northern state of Sonora acknowledged Tuesday that a secrecy-shrouded train project was an army undertaking that has not yet submitted any environmental impact statement, months after construction had already started.
The rail link between the port of Guaymas and the border city of Nogales threatens to cut through and damage environmentally-sensitive conservation lands.
Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo justified the new rail line project saying it would solve the problem of a rail line that passed through the center of Nogales by diverting rail traffic outside the city.
But while the state is partially financing the project, Durazo said it is “being carried out by the Defense department,” adding that the state’s operational role is limited to helping the Army secure the rights-of-way.
The Sonora state government is trying to convert Guaymas, on the Gulf of California, into a major container port, but the current railway connection to the United States cuts the city of Nogales in half.
The new rail line cuts a completely new path well south of Nogales that threatens to cut through the Aribabi ranch, a federally designated Natural Protected Area, and the town of Imuris, 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
The project illustrates the power that Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has given to the army, which has been allowed to sidestep normal permitting and environmental standards. This has been the case of the Maya Train tourist rail line on the Yucatan peninsula, which cut a swath through the jungle.
In the face of court challenges and criticism, López Obrador in 2021 passed a law stating the projects of importance to “national security” would not have to submit impact statements until up to a year after they start construction.
Under Mexico’s environmental laws, sidestepping impact assessments ought to be “completely illegal,” said said Alex Olivera, a senior scientist with the Center…
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