The Mexican government has invoked national security powers to forge ahead with a tourist train along the Caribbean coast. The plan threatens caves where some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered.
Activists say the heavy, high-speed rail project will fragment the coastal jungle and will run often above the roofs of fragile limestone caves known as cenotes, which — because they’re flooded, twisty and often incredibly narrow — can take decades to explore.The cave systems have mainly been through the efforts of volunteer cave divers working hundreds of yards inside the flooded caverns.
The 950-mile Maya Train line will run in a rough loop around the Yucatan peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites. The caves along the coast were probably dry 13,000 years ago, during the last ice age, and so once sea levels rose at the end of the ice age and they flooded, they acted as time capsules — very fragile ones. The government’s plan is to sink beams and cement columns through the roofs of the caves, probably collapsing them — and the invaluable relics they hold — to support the railway.
But the government archaeologist who is responsible for ensuring the train won’t damage such artifacts, Helena Barba, told local media her team will catalogue all the dozens of sites in the few weeks or months before the heavy machinery rolls in.“Quite possibly none of them have the experience or technical preparations to do this kind of dive in the most extensive flooded caves in the world,” Del Rio said.
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