Not all grounded travel is just. The Maya Train is a railway loop created by the Mexican government that connects Mayan archaeological sites and seaside resorts in the Yucatan peninsular. Indigenous communities have been resisting the devastating project for years because of its role in destroying the local environment and disrupting connections between Indigenous communities in the region. In October 2025 Mayan activists sent a powerful message in denouncing this deadly project.

Mayan activists denounced the Mexican state for the ethnocide and ecocide caused by its Maya Train project in front of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica on 21st October 2025. Standing before the court they presented the Legal Director with a document from a tribunal on the Maya Train which confirmed the project to be ecocidal and ethnocidal and a resolution on the impact of the project.

As they presented the documents, representatives from the Maya Community Centre U kúuchil ch’i’ibalo’on of the Yucatan Peninsula called out the ecocide and ethnocide of the megaproject and reinforced the findings of the tribunal. The tribunal irrefutably recognised the Maya Train’s violation of the rights of nature and the biocultural rights of the Mayan peoples of the peninsular. The Mayan people of the peninsular have been, and continue to be, the protectors and guardians of their territory, their cenotes, caves and coasts; their forests, their biodiversity and their traditional crops, and the nonhuman beings that inhabit their ecosystems. The Tribunal held the Mexican State responsible for the violation of these fundamental rights of nature and the Mayan peoples of the peninsula.

The Tribunal ordered the Mexican state to:

• Immediately suspend the Mayan Train and demilitarise Indigenous territories.
• Stop the dispossession of communal lands and territories and ensure the protection of defenders of nature.
• Give rights to cenotes, given their vital importance to local ecosystems and communities.
• Provide comprehensive reparation for the affected ecosystems and territories, with independent, intercultural and interdisciplinary audits.

The Mayan activists expressed confidence in the commitment of the InterAmerican Human Rights System to justice for the peoples. The two documents they presented were: the Resolution of the Assembly of Judges of the International Tribunal for the Rights of Nature on the impacts of the Maya Train and the Ruling of the Tenth Local Tribunal for the Rights of Nature.

This action took place as part of the Mesoamerican Caravan for the Climate and Life and they were joined by other members of the caravan – Indigenous peoples from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica – who denounced other serious cases of violations of human rights and the rights of Indigenous peoples. Between 12th October and 11th November, the caravan travels from Mexico to Belém, Brazil where COP30 takes place. The caravan is a powerful, collective response to the destruction of Mother Earth – defending territories, resisting violence, and building alternatives to capitalist “development.” It aims to unite the struggles across Central America in a journey of resistance and hope.

We are proud that our regional network, Permanecer en la Tierra, is part of this Caravan, helping to denounce the impacts of aviation and touristification as part of that same destructive system. The climate collapse is already here, devastating lands and lives, with the peoples of the Global South at its epicentre. There can be no climate justice under colonialism and extractivism — only through people’s sovereignty and autonomy. As the caravan heads toward COP30, we echo their message: The real solutions come from the people organising from a grassroots level — not from the summits of those who caused this crisis.