Maya Train construction kicks off in Mexico

The nostalgic pitch made by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to build a "Maya Train" initially found a receptive audience among the primarily indigenous communities that dot the peninsula.

Two years after the announcement and in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, López Obrador kicked off a leg of the project's construction Wednesday assuring that it actually "comes at a good time" to give work to many people who had lost their jobs and to reactivate the economy.

With only one month of delay, work began on a large part of the 1,525 km of roads that will connect the main tourist centers of five states in the Yucatán peninsula and could generate tens of thousands of jobs.

However, in some communities in the train's path the initial enthusiasm has dissipated.

Many communities in the train's path feel deceived by scarce and incomplete information, while activists fear the social and environmental impacts.

In Ejido Leona Vicario, a town about 45 kilometers southwest of popular tourist destination Cancún, police commissioner Moisés Flores Pool hopes the train might bring new jobs for the community.

Ezer May, an anthropologist and historian from Kimilá east of Merida, said although initially many people were swept up in the nostalgia for the Mayan train, as they learned more, they felt the government wasn't telling the whole story.

They worried about developers taking their land for things unrelated to their way of life.

But he says the coronavirus pandemic has changed everything, and has shifted the views of the undecided, who are now more concerned about their economic future.

For Susana Varguez, running a small shop selling vegetables in Leon Vicario, the project only makes sense as long as it actually benefits the locals, but "if they are going to destroy something and it's not going to bring any benefits, then no".

Ezer May cautions tensions will begin once the train is built as people would realize that economic benefits wouldn't actually go for them.

The train will run through Mexico's largest tropical forest, yet few environmental assessments have been made public and those that have warned of significant impacts.

López Obrador, however, denies the train will damage the areas it traverses.