On August 15, 2025, the leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize gathered for a high-stakes summit that could reshape both the region’s future and its most treasured landscapes. The meeting, held first in Guatemala’s lush northern Peten region and later in Mexico’s Campeche state, brought together Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo, and Belize Prime Minister Johnny Briceño. Their agenda was as ambitious as it was controversial: tackling cartel violence, forging tighter economic and security ties, and, most notably, debating the expansion of the Maya Train—Mexico’s billion-dollar rail project—into Central America, all while unveiling a massive new tri-national nature reserve.
At the heart of the talks was the Maya Train, a 1,554-kilometer rail line that loops around southern Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. Since its launch in December 2023, the train has ferried more than 1.5 million passengers, connecting Caribbean resorts with remote Mayan archaeological sites and rural communities. According to BNamericas, the project has been celebrated by Mexican officials as a strategic leap for the historically neglected south, with President Sheinbaum calling it “a different vision of development, where communities are integrated.”
But the Maya Train’s expansion has been dogged by controversy from the start. Environmental groups and local communities have repeatedly sounded alarms about the environmental toll. Over four years, roughly 7 million trees were cut down to make way for the railway, according to government figures cited by the Associated Press, and the train’s route has damaged delicate cave systems that supply drinking water to the region. Former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the project’s chief architect, fast-tracked construction without detailed environmental studies, often brushing aside judicial orders and public outcry. His successor, Sheinbaum, has continued to champion the train’s extension—this time aiming to connect it with Guatemala and Belize.
For Guatemalan President Arévalo, the economic promise of the Maya Train is clear, but so are the risks. Speaking after his meeting with Sheinbaum, Arévalo emphasized, “Connecting the Maya Train with Guatemala and eventually with Belize is a vision we share.” Yet he was adamant that the extension “will not pass through any protected area.” His stance, reported by The Independent, marks a sharp break from Mexico’s earlier approach. “I’ve made it very clear at all times that the Maya Train will not pass through any protected area,” Arévalo reiterated, underscoring the need for careful environmental studies and suggesting alternative routes that would loop around, rather than slice through, Guatemala’s dense Peten jungle and Belize’s reserves.
The leaders’ solution? A tri-national working group, announced at the summit, will analyze options for connecting the Maya Train and Mexico’s Interoceanic train to Central America. Guatemala will take the lead on construction within its borders unless it opts to formalize a partnership with Mexico. “We greatly value Mexico’s initiatives seeking rail interconnection between the two countries. We are ready for it,” Arévalo told reporters on the Guatemalan island of Las Flores, per BNamericas. “For this, we agreed to promote the start of trinational negotiations, as well as the respective feasibility studies.”
Sheinbaum, for her part, has highlighted the train’s popularity and strategic importance. “It is a strategic project that visualizes the south of our country, when historically, development was only envisioned in the north,” she said at her daily press conference, as reported by BNamericas. The Maya Train’s expansion, she argued, would usher in new opportunities for rural areas “with few economic opportunities.”
Yet the environmental stakes have only grown. In a move that environmentalists cautiously welcomed, the three leaders also announced the creation of a tri-national nature reserve spanning more than 14 million acres (5.7 million hectares) across southern Mexico, northern Guatemala, and Belize. This new protected area, described by Sheinbaum as “historic,” would become the second largest in Latin America, trailing only the Amazon rainforest. “This is one of Earth’s lungs, a living space for thousands of species with an invaluable cultural legacy that we should preserve with our eyes on the future,” Sheinbaum declared, standing alongside Arévalo and Briceño, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Environmental groups like Mexico-based Selvame, which have long criticized the Maya Train’s environmental impact, greeted the reserve announcement as a “monumental step for conservation.” Still, their optimism was tempered by skepticism. “We’re in a race against the clock. Real estate and construction companies are invading the jungle, polluting our ecosystems, and endangering both the water we consume, and the communities that depend on it,” the group cautioned, urging Sheinbaum’s government to establish effective monitoring systems to “stop any destructive activities.”
The creation of the reserve raises new questions about the Maya Train’s future route. While the leaders agreed in principle that the rail line should not cross any nature reserves, the precise path remains undecided. Earlier in 2025, Sheinbaum suggested routing the train through Belize first to avoid Guatemala’s El Petén protected forest, and both Belize and Guatemala have expressed strong interest in the project—so long as it respects environmental boundaries. As Arévalo stressed, initial talks will establish “principles of commitment to environmental preservation and environmental sustainability in the development of the Maya train,” which will be reflected in comprehensive environmental impact studies.
Beyond the environmental debate, the summit also addressed mounting cartel violence along the Mexico-Guatemala border. The region has long been a battleground for criminal groups vying for control of lucrative migratory routes, and just days before the summit, around 100 Mexicans fled across the border to escape a burst of violence in their communities, according to The Independent. The leaders agreed to strengthen coordination on migration, law enforcement, and economic development, hoping to tackle the root causes of instability.
Later on August 15, after their initial talks, Sheinbaum, Arévalo, and Briceño traveled to Calakmul in southern Mexico to continue discussions. There, they reaffirmed their commitment to a “more dignified, equitable and free future,” as Sheinbaum put it, and to moving forward together as “sister nations, with governments committed to justice and their peoples.”
The Maya Train’s next chapter remains unwritten. Will economic development and environmental protection find a workable balance? The trinational working group now faces the daunting task of charting a path that delivers prosperity without sacrificing the irreplaceable rainforests that have defined this region for millennia. For now, the promise of a greener, more connected future hangs in the balance, as leaders and citizens alike watch closely to see whether this ambitious vision can truly take shape.
