Interoceanic Corridor: A Story of Imposition, Dispossession, and Violence

Since 2019, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his government started to develop the Mexican alternative to the Panama Canal: the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Beyond the offer to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through railroads, Mexico offers a nearshoring model for international companies in territories inhabited by Indigenous communities and rich in ecosystems.

Despite the government's claims, Indigenous people have been excluded from the project that is transforming their territory and culture, driving land dispossession, and increasing the violence in Oaxaca and Veracruz. In addition, authorities resorted to trumped-up charges to make activists give up on the defense of their territory. According to a government document—obtained exclusively for this research—building such industrial parks will damage forests, jungles, and hydrological regions, increasing air, water, and soil contamination and killing animals and flora.

Environmental damage is one of the major concerns in the face of the nearshoring model, as it is the decision to give the Mexican marines the responsibility to implement the whole plan. 

The government expects the Interoceanic Corridor to contribute 2.65% of the country's gross domestic product, attracting an investment of up to $50 billion. It is the long-term bet for national development.

But below these estimates are those who have lived through historical abandonment, exploitation of their resources, and dispossession of their lands.