Environmental group Sélvame MX has filed a federal amparo challenging a permit exemption that Semarnat granted to the army-managed Tren Maya for road construction near Tulum.
The case, currently pending admission before the Fifth District Court, targets a road project called Camino Jacinto Pat, which the Mexican Army has begun clearing along the same alignment as the previously contested Libramiento Tulum bypass. It asks a federal judge to halt works that the organization says lack the environmental review required by Mexican law.
At stake is whether a major infrastructure project can advance near the Jaguar National Park without an environmental impact assessment, and whether a road previously closed by federal environmental authorities can resume under a new name.
The Sélvame MX Amparo and Its Legal Path
Raúl Aldama Gavilán, attorney for Sélvame MX, said the organization is waiting for a federal judge to admit the amparo and to rule on requested precautionary measures, including a suspension of the works while the case is heard. The amparo has been docketed at the Fifth District Court.
An amparo is a constitutional protection writ that allows individuals or organizations to challenge acts of authority before federal courts. In this case, the act being challenged is Semarnat's decision to release the Tren Maya parastatal from the obligation to obtain an environmental impact authorization for the project.
If the court admits the amparo and grants a suspension, the army would be required to halt clearing activity until the legality of the exemption is decided. A rejection would allow the works to continue, although Sélvame MX has indicated that further legal avenues remain available.
A Permit Exemption Granted in February
According to documents obtained through a transparency request, Semarnat issued the exemption on February 26 through official document SRA/DGIRA/DG-01735-26. The waiver was granted in favor of the Tren Maya parastatal, which is administered by the Secretariat of National Defense, known as Sedena.
That decision, the organization argues, effectively allowed the project to move forward without the environmental impact assessment that comparable infrastructure works are required to undergo. Sélvame MX learned of the exemption only after filing the transparency request, well after preparatory works had already begun on the ground.
The Same Route as the Disputed Libramiento Tulum
The current Camino Jacinto Pat follows the alignment of an earlier project known as the Libramiento Tulum, a bypass road that had been the subject of repeated environmental complaints and federal sanctions.
"When the road was opened, we had uncertainty about what works were being carried out. When we tracked the data, a prior project emerged that the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation had submitted in 2021 to modify a regional Environmental Impact Manifest, with the goal of building a bypass known as the Libramiento Tulum," Aldama Gavilán said.
For the organization, the overlap of routes is not a coincidence. Sélvame MX contends that the same project has reappeared under a different name, allowing the federal government to push construction forward while sidestepping previous environmental objections.
Clearing Detected Near the Cobá-Tulum Highway
Members of Sélvame MX detected the clearing works on March 31 along a stretch near the Cobá-Tulum highway. The location coincides with the alignment of the Libramiento Tulum, a project that was already denounced earlier in 2025 and that the Federal Attorney's Office for Environmental Protection, known as Profepa, ordered shut down at the time.
That earlier closure was, for environmental advocates, a clear signal that the project lacked legal footing. The resumption of clearing under a new name therefore raises a direct question: how a project that had been formally suspended by federal environmental authorities could restart with a permit exemption rather than a permit.
A Project With Roots in the Calderón-Era Airport Plan
According to Sélvame MX, the road also forms part of a broader scheme that dates back to the administration of former President Felipe Calderón, when authorities planned the construction of an airport for the Riviera Maya.
That airport was never built, but the road infrastructure associated with it has resurfaced periodically in regional planning documents. The current alignment, the organization argues, traces back to those original designs.
The land in question lies near areas now reserved as the Jaguar National Park, a protected natural area created during the current federal administration to safeguard ecologically sensitive jungle and cenote systems. The proximity to a protected zone, the organization argues, makes the absence of an environmental impact assessment particularly difficult to defend.
What Comes Next
In the coming days, the Fifth District Court is expected to decide whether to admit the amparo and whether to grant the precautionary measures requested by Sélvame MX, including a suspension of the works while the case is heard.
The decision will be the first test of how federal courts treat permit exemptions granted to army-led infrastructure projects in the Mexican Caribbean, a region where tourism, environmental protection, and large-scale public works increasingly collide.
For now, the works continue. The road moves forward along an alignment that has been contested in court before, under a new name that, according to its critics, is functionally identical to the project that federal environmental authorities once moved to stop.
Should federal authorities require full environmental impact assessments for army-led infrastructure projects near protected areas like the Jaguar National Park? Join the conversation and share your perspective with us on Instagram and Facebook at @thetulumtimes.