Despite the environmental controversy, their negative ecological impact and the debts owed to countless suppliers of the project, five hotels of the Maya Train had less than half of their occupancy in their first weeks of operation, which coincided with the December holidays.
Questioned for being built without the necessary environmental permits, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) announced that the hotel in Tulum had 442 guests from December 15 to 31, and it can receive up to 996 people.
The hotel in Chichén Itzá had 195 guests, from December 1 to 31, and the facility can receive a maximum of 420 people; the one in Calakmul, in Campeche, received 192 visitors and has capacity for 372 guests.
Another hotel, the Edzná Hotel, also in Campeche, received 104 guests from December 21 to 31, and its capacity is 420. Finally, the Tulum Airport hotel had only 56 from December 15 to 31, when it can receive a maximum of 324.
Those in Nuevo Uxmal (Yucatán) and Palenque (Chiapas), according to the Sedena, had not yet started operations. In the request via the National Transparency Platform, the most up-to-date data was requested, but they only gave it up to the cutoff date of December 31.
The Defense refused to give the data on income from lodging, arguing that “no commercial entity can reach its break-even point in the start-up period, test of operations, or the period of one month.”
On January 23, the director of the military company in charge of the hotels, Adolfo Héctor Tonatiuh Velasco Bernal, said that “promotional campaigns boosted” occupancy, reaching 1,229 guests in the peak winter vacation season.
However, the five hotels in operation can receive up to 2,532 guests in total. In addition, at another time the military said that overall occupancy had been “moderate.”
In the previous six-year term, AMLO indicated that the hotel in Calakmul would begin operating in September 2024; however, it was postponed until December, already in the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum.
This lodging center was built in the middle of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, in one of the largest tropical forests in Mesoamerica, starting work without an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was also not informed, since it is located in an area designated as a World Heritage Site in 2002.
In 2018, the specialized media Mongabay indicated that around 100 communities were consulted about the Maya Train, but neither residents nor environmental groups were told about the intention to build hotels, which were not included in the original plans.
The debt of Ingenieros Civiles Asociados (ICA) with its suppliers continues to increase and already exceeds 136 million pesos, according to a complaint by the consortium “Entrepreneurs Affected by ICA and its Affiliates.”
Three new companies for key projects such as the Maya Train, the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), and the modernization of the Mexico City International Airport (AICM), among other works, have joined the lawsuits.
Now, the construction company run by Guadalupe Phillips Margain has accumulated more companies affected by non-payments, which generates serious economic problems for its operations and the coverage of the payroll of its suppliers.
The firm that reports non-payment for work, announced that the companies that joined the consortium are Infraestructura GS SA de CV, Toposervis and Mezclas Asfálticas y Caminos SA de CV, whose debts come from contracts with subsidiaries of ICA.
Infraestructura GS reported a non-payment of 2.3 million pesos for the rental of machinery used in Playa del Carmen, in Section 5 of the Mayan Train, a section in which ICA had partial participation.
Toposervis, a Yucatecan firm with more than nine years of experience in surveying services, reported a debt of 11.4 million pesos from several ICA subsidiaries for works on Section 4.
Mezclas Asfálticas y Caminos reported that it is owed 9.8 million pesos for the rental of machinery in projects such as the Mayan Train, the rehabilitation of the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and the construction of the Querétaro Road Interchange.
The cases were registered in files 521/2024 in the Twenty-Sixth Civil Court of Oral Process; 522/2024 in the Twenty-Ninth Civil Court of Oral Process, and 585/2024 in the Forty-Fourth Civil Court of Oral Process.
Source: Quinto Poder
