MAYA SCHOLARS RACE AGAINST THIEVES TO THWART THE LOOTING OF A LOST CIVILIZATION

Xpujil Pyramid Site on Pu'uc Route (Yucatan Magazine)

PART ONE

"Tombs are robbed, temples are looted, and the past is destroyed, all to feed the international market for antiquities." Donna Yates, Archeologist and Lecturer in Antiquities Theft and Art Crime, Associate Professor at Maastricht University, Netherlands

In 1997 we drove across Mexico in our Ford Focus wagon, loaded to the nines with our belongings and our cat, heading towards a new life on the Mexican Caribbean coast. Our hearts quickened after passing through Escarcega. At the end of that lonely 170-mile stretch of road, we'd cross from the state of Campeche into Quintana Roo. Then we'd certainly be homeward bound. 

The road narrowed as Escarcega was left behind in our rearview mirror. I settled in for the long drive ahead. We decided when we got to a stretch of little known pyramids at the half-way point we'd take a break, make a sandwich, and let Max, then just a kitten, walk around. I'd recently read about this quartet of pyramids in NatGeo—Kohunlich, Becan, Chicanna, and Xpujil—near the great ceremonial center Calakmul. Though these sites didn't have the star power of Chichen Itza or Tulum, Kohunlich, known for its Temple of the Masks, gained fame in 1971 when looters tried to sell one of its huge eight foot stucco masks to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

We made good time, virtually seeing no other cars on the road. Around 4 p.m. we passed Chicanna. Soon after, I spotted the towers of Xpujil from the road. "Can we stop?" I asked Paul. 

He nodded and we pulled down a sascab lane a good ways past an open wire gate into a rough parking area. I extricated myself from the car while Paul saw to Max. I stretched, then went to the back end of the car to find the cooler. I'd brought bread, mayonnaise and a couple cans of tuna. A quick sandwich would be welcome as we'd had only fruit and juice for a late breakfast around 11, not wanting to take time to stop. I pulled out a plastic container for mixing, located the can opener, mayo and bread, and began assembling a rather unglamorous tuna sandwich. As I finished up spreading the lumpy fish onto Bimbo wheat bread, I called to Paul. 

He'd put Max back inside the car. We leaned against the door, ready for our afternoon snack. After the sandwich I told him I wanted to have a quick look around the site. Just as I bit into the tuna fish, a white, older model International with a large tarp-covered trailer pulled into the parking area, leaving dust in its wake. Two men sat inside; an older man was driving. The vehicle was about 100 feet away when the guy riding shotgun jumped out. He was young and lanky, nineteen or so, and moved fast across the parking lot. The truck had Canadian plates and the driver kept the engine idling. 

"Weird," I said to Paul. "I wonder what they're up to. Why'd just one guy get out and why isn't the driver turning off the engine?"

"It is weird." 

We both watched the young man dart through the fence and run along the path leading to the pyramid site. 

With the truck still idling, we viewed the scene warily. "I don't feel good about this."

"Me neither. What are they doing?" Paul began to push things into the way-back. I followed his lead and closed the cooler, holding my sandwich in one hand. I tossed the can opener and bag of bread into the wayback.

"Let's get out of here. Something isn't right. Maybe they're scouting the ruins for artifacts. What's the trailer for?" I asked.

"Not good," Paul agreed. "And what's with the tarp? The cat's inside? Then let's go."

The truck had parked at just the right angle so we couldn't see the driver, as if it was planned that way. If these guys were grave looters, we didn't want to be around when INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) discovered them, or worse, the federales. 

Paul started the car and headed towards the long driveway that led out to the highway. The white International was still idling when I turned around and gave it one last look.

"Grave robbers? Were they grave robbers? Or looters?"

"We don't want to know," Paul said as we eased onto the uneven asphalt, amped up the gas, and headed towards Chetumal.

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NOT JUST WHITE COLLAR CRIME

Antiquity looters come in many guises as the above tale tells—unassuming tourist types, locals, businessmen looking to make a buck, collectors.

And as the international appetite for Maya culture continues to grow, so does the hunger for illegal artifacts. Researchers say it's a race against time and increasingly tenacious looters.

One of the Remaining Masks at Kohunlich

Art theft is big business. Ask any dealer of antiquities. It's a 'trade' worth billions, and it's not going away any time soon. As long as there's poverty in undeveloped countries where ancient civilizations once stood, you can bank on it. Some art dealers call it the world's second oldest profession. Any country in civil war or conflict is ripe for antiquities looting, says Tess Davis, archeologist from Boston University and legal expert. When conflict erupts in an archeological rich country, the world-wide art market is suddenly flooded with antiquities from that ravaged country. Artifact looting becomes a means of subsistence when homelands are war-torn and ravished, and it's practiced in a variety of environments, from Peru and the Andes Mountains to the Peten jungle and the Central Mexican highlands, for starters.

THE RISE OF NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING

"The public should be aware this is not just a white collar crime. Insurgents, terrorists are using the antiquities trade to fund their efforts. Unless we get it together soon, I fear there is going to be nothing left," Davis said in a lecture titled "Tomb Raiders and Terrorist Financing," for Boston University alumnae.

Of the organized trafficking groups involved in a diversified portfolio of illicit activities, most are dealing drugs as well as other commodities. The market prices antiquities can draw are too high for organizations dealing in contra-band to ignore. 

THE LOOTING OF THE PETEN

Palace of Palenque by Frederick Catherwood

Compared with well known ancient civilizations in Europe and Western Asia, archeological interest in the Maya culture came relatively late, partially because of the forbidding nature of the deep-jungle sites. The outside world was first exposed to Maya ruins through the writings and drawings of explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood. Their early adventuring shone a light on the Maya. After their travel memoirs about the Maya and the Yucatan were published in 1843, many adventurers trekked on through, conducting rudimentary recordings of archeological sites with limited removal of Maya artifacts. The first actual excavations were not conducted until the 20th century.

THE BEGINNINGS

Art and antiquity, according to Archeologist Donna Yates in her thesis, "Displacement, Deforestation and Drugs: Antiquities Trafficking and Narcotics Economies of Guatemala," underwent a huge upheaval in the first half of the 20th century. Aesthetic tastes in contemporary art shifted to modern looks and forms and an interest was taken in tribal art. Defined against a classic Western model, these disparate cultural traditions included ancient and modern cultural objects originating from Africa, parts of Asia, and the Americas. The appeal, her thesis stated, was that they didn't conform to familiar Greek and Roman styles. And demand grew as connections from these objects were drawn publicly between them and famous artists of the day such as Picasso, Kahlo, Giacometti, and Rivera. Soon, powerful collectors began to source them from their countries of origin for private collections.

The Maya on Display at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

At the same time, 1957, Nelson Rockefeller founded the Museum of Primitive Art in New York. This was a watershed for the collection of Maya and other "primitive" cultural properties. The Maya were on the market.

MAYA DEBUT

Yates' thesis explained that endemic looting of nearly every known Maya site began around 1960. Collectors and museums, inspired by Rockefeller's acquisitions, were looking to fill the Maya gap in their collections and demanded the very best the Maya had to offer. This meant that even the large carved stone stelas that depicted the events of Maya lords and their recorded histories along with large architectural treasures from Maya temples were looted, trafficked, and sold. Size was not an issue.

Clemency Coggins is a professor of both Archeology and Art History at Boston University, and also holds a degree from Harvard University in Fine Arts. Decades ago she wrote,"In the last ten years there has been an incalculable increase in the number of monuments systematically stolen, mutilated, and illicitly exported from Guatemala and Mexico in order to feed the inter-national art market. Not since the 16th century has Latin American been so ruthlessly plundered."

RANSACKING RUINS

Guatemala Soldier Scouts Site of Xultun for Looters

Unfortunately this plundering tore the stelas, large concrete-like slabs that stood in front of pyramids to honor Maya kings and their empires' procla-mations, births, deaths and marriages, and they were ripped from where they stood. In order to understand any individual site, it's imperative for archeologists to know the provenance of stelas or pieces that have been looted. Without dates and locations it's impossible to place the art, the site, the structure, even the times and historical issues taking place when it was created. The Maya's very history was being torn apart, a story with no context, as various works of art floated throughout the world, moving to private collectors and museums across the globe. 

But looters cared not for the history of the ancient Maya. Their only concern was how to remove stela that could be 15 or 20 feet high, weighing several tons. Removal was their one and only mission and taking a power saw to the stela and cutting it vertically removed the face of it. This was then usually cut into quarters to make it easier to ship and the pieces could be sold off to separate investors. Sometimes the inscriptions along the sides were damaged by their mutilation.

This plundering set the archeology world back several decades in trying to break the Maya hieroglyphic code.

BANDS OF LOOTERS

Map of Yucatan and Guatemala (By NatGeo)

A landmark paper by Clemency Coggins that is often credited with exposing the gravity of the looting situation characterizes the 1960s as a time when bands of looters moved freely through the Maya region, particularly in the sparsely populated and heavily jungled regions of Guatemala's Peten, emphasizing the mutilation of large stone monuments with power tools. Countless Maya sites (Ixtonton and La Corona) were looted before they were even located by archeologists. "It was a terrible time," she wrote.

THE WHY BEHIND THE CRIME

She explained that the 1960s looting of the Peten is tied to two jungle economies: the trade in rare hardwoods and tapping gum trees for chicle. In both instances, she wrote, men (usually) at the bottom of the supply chain moved through vast tracts of wilderness searching for different tree types. In doing so, they encountered recorded but poorly protected remote sites as well as Maya cities yet unknown to archeologists.

THE CHICLEROS

Early on in the 20th century, archeologists worked closely with these men, paying them for info about new sites and monuments. Chicleros, as chicle hunters are known, are credited with locating many important sites in the Peten—Uaxactun, Xultun and even Calakmul, the famous Heritage Site. But when chicle prices bottomed out in the 1970s, financial gains for looting and trafficking in antiquities grew. Chicleros could expect higher rewards by reporting an unknown site to a trafficker rather than to an archeologist. And they could even be employed in the demolition, for added revenue.

Said one archeologist as he peered at the looting damage of a Xultun temple literally cut through the middle, "The humans are more poisonous than the snakes."

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Part Two will delve into a number of pyramid sites plundered, the lack of security at even famous sites, and what can be done to address the trafficking of antiquities. Stay tuned.

If you enjoyed this post, check out  Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is on Amazon.

A KENTUCKY DERBY BET AT A TIJUANA RACETRACK CROSSES PATHS WITH THE MEXICAN CARTEL

Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby

In 1987, Mark "Miami" Paul, who had been watching and betting on horse-races since his teens, tuned in to watch a race at New York's prestigious Saratoga Racetrack. He couldn't take his eyes off Winning Colors, a two-year old gray filly who was bigger than most of the colts. She broke out of the gate and never lost the lead. Transfixed, he knew if the horse ever ran in his home state, California, he and his racing pal and bookie Dino would place bets on her.

Though Miami's day job was as a real estate broker, by the time one p.m. rolled around, he'd tidied us his desk and could make the first race at Santa Anita, 30 minutes from Los Angeles, with Dino. "I only had one skill," he told US Bets, "and that was knowing Dino Matteo, my best friend since I was 16 years old and the guy who introduced me to horse racing."

Mark "Miami" Paul circa 1988

FIGURING THE ODDS

"I know a special horse when I see one, but Dino's brilliant. He figured the odds. He studied racing forms and the horse's performance. He'd stay up late at night and watch replays. He might not place a bet for a while but when he had an edge, he'd double down. He was the best I'd ever seen. I learned to bet like Dino." 

Winning Colors did make it to California. She was scheduled to run at Santa Anita Park later on that year. Watching her beat out all the colts in numerous run-up races energized both Miami and Dino and fanned the flames of their obsession with the filly. She was kicking the stuffing out of every contender in race after race. The spell was cast: Maybe she could run in the Kentucky Derby.

THE KENTUCKY DERBY?

Their unlikely enterprise began to take shape. But planning six months in advance that an unknown soon to be three-year old filly could make the entrance requirements to the 114-year old Kentucky Derby sounded Pollyanna-like in the extreme. First off, only two fillies had won the Derby in the entirety of the race's history. And secondly, once entered, she'd have to beat out 19 other horses to bring home the bacon. The odds against Winning Colors were high.

But they held onto hope. One morning, Dino called Miami at 6:30. He was agitated, Miami said, and talking fast. "Listen, I was up all night running stats on her. She's so incredible she's starting to get noticed. They did a news article about her yesterday. Soon the odds on her will change. We've got to go to Tijuana, today."

Miami pushed back. "Vegas is closer and no border crossing." 

UNBELIEVABLE ODDS

"She's 12 to 1 in the future book betting in Vegas," Dino said. "But down in TJ, she's 50 to 1 at Agua Caliente. This is a chance of a lifetime! Pick me up and bring all the money you have. I'd like us to bet 2500 each. At 50 to 1 odds that gives us a payday of 250 grand."

Historic Agua Caliente

Even as semi-professional gamblers, Miami wrote in The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told, they'd had wins in the past, but closer to five thousand dollars. He was skeptical. What were the chances an unknown filly could get entered in and win the Kentucky Derby? Plus at the time, 2500 was a lot of cash. Dino pushed back. "Just do it," he said.

After the four hour drive to the track they went to the gaming window and explained they wanted to play their future book—Winning Colors for the 1988 Kentucky Derby, 50 to 1 odds. Dino asked the guy to confirm it.

"The teller's eyes lit up," Miami said. "He stared at Dino and asked, 'You want to bet 2500 dollars that a filly will win the Kentucky Derby?'

"Dino answered, 'Yeah, I know it's crazy but I still want to place the bet on her.'" The last thing Miami remembered was Dino counting out 50 hundred dollar bills.

THE PLOT THICKENS

Now they had to wait five months hoping Winning Colors could win races that would earn her a spot to qualify for the Derby. One day Miami ran into a friend and he told him about his and Dino's bet. 

The friend said, "Dude, do you know who owns Agua Caliente? A member of the Arellano-Felix drug cartel. The track owner, Jorge Hank Rhon, uses it to launder money. It's going out of business fast. Even if they had that much money, what makes you think they're gonna hand over 250 thousand and let you waltz out of there alive? You guys are out of your minds."

Jorge Hank Rhon, Owner Agua Caliente

Miami said he worried about it for a minute then thought, what are the actual chances of Winning Colors even getting into the Derby? First she has to run and win a series of stakes races. And she'd have to run against Goodbye Halo, an up and coming champion in the initial qualifier at Las Virgenes.

GOODBYE HALO

The Las Virgenes Stakes Race day came and Winning Colors lost to Goodbye Halo by a head. Dino was devastated. He was worried she had to go up against 19 colts and win come Derby day. She had one final shot to make it into the Derby and that was winning at Santa Anita Oakes Derby in April where she'd be trotted out against the best colts on the West Coast. If she could come through that, she might have a shot at the Derby.

Santa Anita Racetrack exuded a typical sunny southern California vibe the day of the race and there was an expectant energy in the air. Miami and Dino were amazed at the crowd of seventy thousand—the stands were filled with women and girls who had come out to watch the filly run against the boys. She had a fan following."Girl Power"and "Go Girl Go" signs were everywhere.

FILLY POWER

"It was a cult scene. There was an electric energy," Miami told an interviewer for Snap Judgment. "Winning Colors had gained a following. We just hoped she could remain calm."

Jockey Gary Stevens on Winning Colors at Santa Anita, 1988

She was known to be bothered by loud noises; they rattled her nerves. The fellow gamblers settled in to watch the race, hoping the fans' screams wouldn't affect their filly's sense of well being.

"The other three-year olds were stirring and moving around in the cages, but Winning Colors was undisturbed. Then the race starts, and she breaks perfect like a waterfall out of a dam," Miami said. "She takes the lead from the beginning and she wins! By eight lengths! We're yelling, on to Kentucky!" 

JOURNALIST DOWN

But cloud nine didn't last long. Two days later Dino called and told Miami that a Mexican journalist named El Gato from a Tijuana magazine, Zeta, had been writing negative pieces about the owner of the Agua Caliente track, Jorge Hank Rhon. The journalist had been assasinated in his car, blown away with a shotgun on his way to work. The head of Agua Caliente security had been arrested for his murder along with Jorge Rohn's personal bodyguard.

El Gato, Hector Felix Miranda

Fear stuck its ugly head smack dab in the middle of their dream. Miami started to fear for both his and Dino's lives more so than cashing in on a bet. Now they're killing journalists who write stuff? Dino however was not content to walk away as the filly's star rose higher and higher. He decided they should go to TJ and watch the race at Agua Caliente on simulcast, the day of the Derby. They figured with thousands of people at the track that day, it was safer than going back a week later to collect a quarter of a million dollars with no one around.

The TJ race track was electrified on Derby day, mariachi bands mingled with merry revelers and street vendors. This Kentucky Derby in Louisville had attracted 135,000—the largest sports crowd in all the world. It was the toughest derby field in the last 30 years, and included an undefeated champion along with 16 notable colts as well as other Derby winners. Winning Colors was the sole female entry.

SERENE ON SIMULCAST

Miami and Dino spotted Winning Colors on one of the simulcast screens. She looked serene and calm. This was it: the 114th Kentucky Derby. The starter gun sounded and they were off. Within a quarter mile, their filly was running away from the others. Right from the start Winning Colors led the way. Turning towards home, she shortened her stride— she was tiring out, but she kept going. Down to the stretch, she hung on, and the photo finish proved her win by a neck. She won!

Photo Finish

After initial exhaltation, they knew they had work to do. They let the crowds settle before heading to the window to collect their earnings from the teller. "Oh, a big one," he said.

He had to get a supervisor. After a delay, he returned with his boss. "Hmm, that's a big ticket. No, not today. You'll have to come back."

Dino looked at the guy and said, "What do you mean, not today. It says Winning Colors to win the Kentucky Derby, 250 thousand dollars. You have to pay us."

RAINCHECK?

The guy shook his head. "No, you gotta come back."

Miami said, "You mean come back on Tuesday when nobody's here?" He looked over his shoulder and saw guards standing behind them, rifles slung over their shoulders.

He said to Dino, "We gotta get out of here. Not good."

At first Dino resisted but then he went along with Miami. They headed for the staircase; the guards were following. Miami said to Dino, "Run!"

They clambered down the staircase. Five guards clacked along behind them—they flew into the parking lot and jumped into Miami's car. He hit the gas doing 70 mph even before hitting the street. As they roared up the boulevard he shouted, "Look behind. Is anyone following us?"

THE CODE

With no one on their tail, they headed for the border. Dino was ticked off and kept yelling, "They broke the code. You always pay your gambling debts first."

They met the next morning for breakfast to talk. It came down to the gamblers' code. Since Dino had engineered the stats on Winning Colors and had essentially given them the win, Miami felt it was his job to bring home the bacon and get them back safe. Time to step up. Dino's job was done.

Their next move had to be orchestrated just so. Dino knew three professional fighters with martial arts skills. They decided to hire them for backup at the track that Tuesday. They'd bought six backpacks to carry the loot.

EL JEFE

After parking at the track Tuesday, Dino, Miami and their fighters passed three armed guards en route to the window. They handed the ticket to the teller; she immediately called for a supervisor once she saw what the ticket was worth. A well-dressed man in a suit appeared ten minutes later. He said, "Follow me. Gotta talk to el jefe. Only you two."

Dino frowned. "I don't like this," he said, as he motioned to their muscle to stand down.

Miami shrugged. "What can we do?" 

They followed him down a flight of stairs and through two sets of oak doors plus a third with a set of bars. It began to feel like a dungeon, Miami wrote. The guy opened another door. Inside it was dark. Through a cloud of smoke they could see a heavy set man sitting at a table in back, cigar in hand. He waved them in, indicating they should take a seat.

Without preamble he said, "We know who you are."

That spooked Miami, but he was quick with a response. "Yeah, we're good customers and we're here to cash our tickets."

"Wait a minute," the cigar smoker said. "We just want to be fair."

Rattled, Dino said, "Well then just give us our money. We won our bet. She won the Derby 50 to 1. Pay us, godamm it."

"Calm your little friend down."

THE CON

Things were spinning out of control. Dino spoke again, "Listen, we know all about you, too. We know all about Jorge Rohn. We know about your cartel connections. And before we came down today, we went to the LA Times and talked to a friend of mine who's a reporter. We told him about our tickets, we told him about Rohn. We told him about Winning Colors. We told him about winning our bets and we gave him a copy of our tickets. And if you guys don't pay us, you and your boss, Rohn, are going to be on the front page of every newspaper in LA tomorrow. They're going to know who he is, what you did to us, how you stole from us and it's not going to go away." 

El jefe seemed taken aback. "Give me a minute." He left the room.

After he left, Miami looked at Dino in total disbelief. "Where did that come from? That was brilliant, man."

He said, "I don't know, it just came to me. What do I have? I can't threaten him. But publicity? We're still gonna die, but it was a good idea."

Miami and Dino waited. Five minutes, ten minutes. Finally el jefe returned. "Come with me," he said.

They all marched back upstairs and at the counter, the teller proceeded to count out 250 thousand dollars. El jefe looked at them, gave a short nod and said, "We don't ever want to see you back here again."

Miami nodded back. "Agreed."

As they filled up the final backpack, Dino took out three hundred dollar bills and handed one to each of the guards before they walked down the hallway, the fighters trailing behind. Everyone got into their cars and booked it for the border.

THE FINISH LINE

As they got to the border, Dino looked right, Miami looked left, and were waved through on the Mexican side. At the US border they crossed without incident, and it was done. They'd just made 250 thousand dollars for a winning on Winning Colors at the Kentucky Derby.

By the time Miami arrived at Dino's house, they were too tired to celebrate. "I felt like we ran the Kentucky Derby ourselves," he said.

He gave Dino a hug and drove home. He climbed out of his car, walked inside, went straight to his bedroom and opened the backpacks. He spilled all the cash from their winnings onto his bed and called it a night.

Kentucky Derby 1988 Winner

"Seabiscuit" Meets "Narcos"

Mark Paul wrote about his and Dino's adventure in The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told-A True Tale of Three Gamblers, the Kentucky Derby and the Mexican Cartel. When pitching it to film studios, he billed it as "Seasbiscuit" meets "Narcos." And there's a real possibility it may make it to the silver screen. Stay tuned.

If you enjoyed this post, check out  Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is on Amazon.

MEXICO'S MAYA TRAIN PROJECT— ON THE RIGHT TRACK OR OFF THE RAILS?

 

Protestors Against Mayan Train in the Yucatán

Tren Maya is an ongoing high-caliber infrastructure project laying 1,525 kilometers of railway tracks set to cross five states in southeastern Mexico, connecting Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo. Depending on who you talk to, it's either "the greatest railway project being built anywhere in the world," (Amlo, Mexico's president) or "an attack on the environment and the Mayan identity," (Pedro Uc, member of the Assembly of Mayan Territory Defenders, Múuch X'iinbal).

At first the cries were but a whimper, with conservationists and the occasional archeologist or Riviera Maya environmentalist sounding alarm. But now, two plus years into its construction and the forest purge, the cries of elimination and contamination can be heard from as far off as The South China Post, Japan Times and New Delhi Times to periodicals and newspapers much closer to home. This 'feat' promised by President Andrés López Obrador (Amlo) has been both lauded and maligned in media coverage everywhere and continues to heat up.

Mexico's President López Obrador has promised the 200 billion peso project (9.8 billion USD) will provide a needed alternative to road and air transport for the "Mayan Riviera" and lift southeastern Mexico's economy which has lagged behind other parts of the country. The president's goal for completion of the train is December 2023, one year before his term ends.

Mayan Train Route

CONCERNS

Environmentalists, archeologists, concerned locals, and even the U.N., have voiced concern that the railway and its hasty construction will critically endanger pristine wilderness and ancient cave and eco-systems beneath the jungle floor. Portions of the train route extend over a fragile system of underground rivers, including the world's longest, that are unique to the Yucatán Peninsula.

The plan for the 910-mile rail is that it will carry both diesel and electric trains through the Yucatán Peninsula connecting Mexico's golden goose, Cancun, to popular tourist destinations like Chichen Itza as well as more remote, off-the-grid sites like Palenque in Chiapas. Twenty one stations with 14 stops comprise its total. 

JOBS AND ECONOMY

FONATUR (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo), Mexico's tourism arm spearheading the project, predicts the railway will lift more than a million people out of poverty by 2030 in the creation of a whopping 715,000 jobs. 

But with the train already billions over budget and behind schedule, scientists and activists, according to Reuters which has closely monitored and documented the evolution of Amlo's flagship project, says the government cut corners in its environmental risk assessments in a bid to complete it while López Obrador is still in office.

U.N. CLOCKS IN

U.N. experts warned in December the railway's status as a national security project allowed the government to side-step usual environmental safeguards and they called on the Mexican government to protect the environment in line with global standards.

FONATUR however defended the speed with which the studies were produced claiming that, "Years are not required. Expertise, knowledge and integration capacity are required," in response to questions from Reuters. It also declined to comment on the U.N. statement.

CENOTES

The Mayan Train route cuts a swath 14 meters (46 feet) wide through some of the world's most unique ecosystems, bringing civilization closer to vulnerable species such as jaguars and bats. It will pass above a system of thousands of subterranean caves carved by water from the region's soft limestone bedrock over millions of years.

Open Air Cenote (By Journey Wonders)

 

Early on, July 2020, researchers from 65 Mexican and 26 international institutions signed "Observations on the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Mayan Train" claiming it would cause "serious and irreversible harm."

Said one environmentalist, "When you destroy territory, you destroy a way of thinking, a way of seeing, a way of life, a way of explaining the reality that is part of our identity as Mayan peoples."

The ancient Maya's descendants have continued to live on the Peninsula, some still speaking Mayan, wearing traditional clothing, and also conserving traditional foods and recipes, crops, religion, and medicine practices, despite the Spanish conquest between 1527 and 1546.

When interviewed by NBC Latino, Lidia Camel Put, a resident of the area being cleared in Vida y Esperanza (Life and Hope) said, "I think there is nothing Maya about the train. Some people say it will bring great benefits but for us Maya that work the land and live here, we don't see any benefits.

"For us, it will hurt us because they are taking away what we love so much, the land," continued Put.

When marines showed up to start cutting down trees to prepare for the train on the edge of the village, residents who hadn't been paid for their expropriated land stopped them from working.

POLLUTION FACTOR

For residents of Vida y Esperanza, the train will run right by their doors. They fear it will pollute the caves that supply them water, endanger their children, and cut off their access from the outside world. In Vida y Esperanza, the train will run directly through the rutted four-mile dirt road that leads to the nearest paved highway. FONATUR says an overpass will be built for Vida y Esperanza, but such promises have gone unfulfilled in the past.

SAFETY ISSUES

The high-speed train can't have at-grade crossings (where a roadway and rail lines cross at same level), and won't be fenced. One-hundred mile per hour trains will rush past an elementary school, and most students walk to get there. Equally jarring, the train project has actually divided the pueblo Vida y Esperanza in half.

Not far from where acres of trees have been felled to prepare the land for train tracks, an archeologist and cave diver, Octavio Del Rio, pointed to a cave that lay directly beneath the train's path. "The cave's limestone roof is only two or three feet thick in some places," he told NBC. "It would almost certainly collapse under the weight of a speeding train."

Crystalline pools or cenotes punctuate the Yucatán Peninsula where the limestone surface has fallen in to expose groundwater. Along with the world's longest known underground river, this area is the site of discoveries such as ancient human fossils and a Maya canoe estimated to be more than 1,000 years old.

FRAGILE ECOSYSTEM

"If built badly, the railway could risk breaking through the fragile ground, including into yet-to-be discovered caves," said Mexican geochemist Emiliano Monroy-Rios of Northwestern University. He has extensively studied the area's caves and cenotes.

"Diesel," he added, "could also leak into the network of subterranean pools and rivers, a main source of fresh water on the Peninsula." With less than 20 percent of the subterranean system believed to have been mapped, according to several scientists interviewed by Reuters, such damage could limit important geological discoveries. 

In 2022, López Obrador wanted to finish the entire project in 16 months by filling the caves with cement or sinking concrete columns though the caverns to support the weight of the passing trains, as reported by The Chicago Sun-Times. This could block or contaminate the underground water system, the only thing that allowed humans to survive in a land of fickle rain fall. "I rely on water from a cenote to wash dishes and bathe," said Mario Basto, a resident of Vida y Esperanza. 

Uncharted Cave in Yucatán

IMPACT STUDY

The government's environmental impact study for Section 5, a 68-mile and most controversial stretch that runs from Cancun to Tulum, states its environmental impacts are "insignificant" and have been adequately mitigated, Reuters wrote. The study adheres that the risk of collapse was taken into account in the engineering of the tracks and that the area will be observed through a "prevention" program.

However, dozens of scientists disagree, writing in open letters that the assessments are riddled with problems, including outdated data, the omission of recently discovered caves, and a lack of input from local hydrology experts.

"They don't want to recognize the fragility of the land," said Fernanda Lases, a Merida-based scientist with UNAM, calling the problems identified "worrisome." And adding insult to injury, the names of the 70 experts who participated in the government study were redacted from the publication.

Bulldozer Clearing Land in Puerto Morelos (Photo AP)

Monroy-Rios said his research highlights the need for extensive surveillance and monitoring for any infrastructure project in the region, and this has not happened. "I guess their conclusions were pre-formatted," he continued. "They want to do it fast and that's part of the problem. There is no time for proper exploration."

The railway has deeply divided Mexicans and the controversies surrounding the construction exemplify struggles developing countries across the globe face to balance economic progress with environmental responsibility, Reuters wrote.

LOOMING MILITARY

López Obrador has already given the military more tasks than any other recent Mexican president, with armed services personnel doing everything from building airports to transporting medicine to running tree nurseries. The army will operate the train project once it is built, and the proceeds from that will be used to provide pensions for soldiers and sailors. The president said the army is among the most trustworthy and honest institutions in the country.

For more than two years Maya communities have been objecting to the train line, filing court challenges arguing the railway violated their right to a safe, clean environment, and that they be consulted. Back in 2019, the Mexico office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights found that the consultations the government did prepare were flawed.

How will it all play out? As of February 28, the military-controlled Tren Maya S.A. de C.V. announced the passenger and cargo rail route will begin operations on December 1, 2023.

"It will be one of the best rail systems in the world," said Javier May Rodriguez, general director of FONATUR. "Its trips will be safe because it will have state of the art technology." 

December 1 marks the date of the fifth year anniversary of Amlo's presidency. Auspicious timing? Or not. Time will tell. 

Cenote Choo-Ha in Yucatán (Photo Sandra Salvadó)

If you enjoyed this post, check out  Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is on Amazon.

GRINGO HUNTERS TRACK AMERICAN FUGITIVES WHO FLED TO MEXICO TO AVOID CAPTURE

The Gringo Hunters (Photo Washington Post)

While living in Mexico, occasionally I heard about various unlawful actions performed by fellow gringos. And having a business, eventually everyone in our small town made it through my door, some with pretty tall tales to tell. I'm sure you've seen movies or read books where the protagonist or anti-hero's future looks so iffy that their only recourse is to run—to Mexico. Even the GPS on OJ's white Bronco was steering him to the Tijuana border until a parade of police cars following him called his bluff. 

The question screams to be answered: What makes Mexico so appealing to the criminal mind? Is it the desire to disappear in a country awash with bountiful beaches, tequila, and fewer identity checks? Or do those who cross the border to escape justice hope the Mexico legal system is less sophisticated than that across the border and they'll be able to simply disappear into the vast and rugged countryside?

Sierra Madre Mountains

AMERICANS MOST WANTED

Living south of the border, it was impossible to not hear about some over-the-top crimes that 'Americans' Most Wanted committed. The overall worst was the guy apprehended in 2002 at a campsite in bohemian Tulum, 60 miles south of Cancun. He'd murdered his wife and three children less than a month earlier in Oregon and his despicable crime had earned him face time on "America's Most Wanted" a mere week before his capture. A Canadian tourist saw the episode and reported him to a crime hotline. Within 48 hours he was arrested on a nearby beach by 20 Mexican law enforcement officers along with several FBI agents from the American Embassy in Mexico City.

INTERPOL AT WORK

Another incident took place in our pastoral pueblo, Puerto Morelos, in 2000 when a youngish computer techie, wanted by Interpol, was apprehended for spearheading a pornography ring using local underage kids. There were plenty of other incidents but these two stand out. The memories of these Interpol arrests came rushing back to me after reading an article in the Washington Post about a police unit in Baja California whose sole job is to apprehend unpunished criminals making their escape across the U.S. southern border. 

In Baja, the unit is made up of state police—ten men and two women—who are assigned to catch them. Their agency's official title is International Liaison Unit, but locally they have a catchier name—the Gringo Hunters.

ESCAPE TO BAJA

Home to "bad hombres?" But they're gringos, not Mexicans. With deserted beaches and sprawling cities that promise anonymity, "Escape to Baja" might sound like a sick idea for a tourist campaign aimed at criminals seeking cover. 

Central Pacific Coast

"Mexico appeals to those running from justice. Oftentimes it's just another guy who thinks he can create a new life in Mexico," says Ivan, a former bodyguard and now a member of the force. 

The unit catches an average of 14 Americans a month. Since it's formation in 2002, more than 1,600 criminals have been apprehended. Many of those suspects were inspired by one of America's oldest cliches: the troubled outlaw striding into Mexico in the hope of disappearing forever, explains Moises, who heads up the elite unit targeting wayward gringos.

BAD GUYS APLENTY

"Regular people don't know how many bad guys are out there," he told reporter Kevin Seiff. "We catch about 140 to 150 a year, and they just keep coming. It's like they all came on the same bus or something.

"You can find them everywhere," Moises continued. "On a beach, at night clubs, in cars with sex workers, in a Carl's Junior parking lot. Some have new identities, some have had plastic surgery, some were found dead. We've found amateur surfers to Playboy models on the run."

BLENDING IN? UNLIKELY

"It's like they think, I can go and hide there and the police will never find me. A lot of them are white guys who think they can blend in, but they can't. The way they dress, talk, express themselves. It's totally different from the locals. They stand out."

One of the two women on the team, Abigail, has her own strategy on outing gringo criminals. She makes numerous profiles on Facebook as a woman looking to hook-up and catfishes them. She says she puts herself out there because the stakes are so high. Gringos who've committed crimes come to Mexico and repeat the same crimes on her side of the border, making it less safe.

She told reporter Seiff about a sex offender who'd fled the U.S. after being charged. He skipped justice system preliminaries, escaped to Mexico, and parked himself in an apartment near an elementary grade school where he could duplicate his previous crimes.

LAYING LOW

The Gringo Hunters always work under cover. While Seiff was interviewing the unit, they were given a tip on the whereabouts of a fugitive murderer—a Mexican American from Fresno who had murdered someone at a traffic accident. They got a tip that he was cutting hair at a local Tijuana barber shop.

Seiff waited with Ivan and Abigail outside the shop, and finally, the man who fit the description walked out. Abigail approached him and Ivan cuffed him. He'd been on the run for two years.

Enroute to the border to hand him back over to U.S. police, Seiff asked Ivan if he could ask the fugitive some questions. Ivan agreed.

"Why didn't you go further into Mexico? Why stay so close to the border?"

"I was tired," the American fugitive told the reporter.

BORDER EXCHANGE

At the border, the Mexican unit walked the man across the border in front of the lines of people waiting to cross over to Mexico. As they approached the American police, they uncuffed the suspect and the Americans placed their handcuffs on the man. The Gringo Hunters had just apprehended an alleged murderer. A gringo back in gringo hands.

US-Mexico Border

Moises told Seiff later that sometimes when he's hanging out with friends who aren't cops, he gets the feeling regular people aren't aware how often they rub shoulders with marginal people. They don't know how scary it is to catch bad guys. But his final words to Seiff were these: "Sometimes when I see U.S. criminals all day, it shapes the way I see the States. We've caught an infinite number of Americans. It never ends.

"Chasing U.S. criminals makes it seem like everyone there is armed. I'm living next to a country where everyone has a gun. Unsafe."

How strange, Seiff thought. It was the same lament he heard so often from Americans, the way they talk about a lawless Mexico.

Imagine Television is developing a thriller drama series for Netflix based on Kevin Sieff's Washington Post story. Stay tuned.

If you enjoyed this post, check out  Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is on Amazon.

 

THE TRAGIC LOVE STORY OF THE YUCATAN—ALMA REED AND FELIPE CARRILLO PUERTO

 

Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Alma Reed (By Merida de Yucatan)

Star Crossed Lovers, Part 2

Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Yucatan's progressive governor of the Yucatan, and San Francisco journalist Alma Reed are two names forever linked to Yucatan history. Their romance fueled pages in newspapers on both sides of the border, but the unlikely outcome of their very public romance enlisted all the elements of Greek tragedy. 

Reed was born in San Francisco and became one of the city's first women reporters. An advocate for the poor, Reed assisted a Mexican family in commuting the death sentence of their 17-year old son in 1921. The story was picked up by the Mexican press and due to heightened publicity, Mexico President Alvaro Obregon invited Reed to visit his country.

ENTER EDWARD THOMPSON

As a stringer correspondent, she also reported for The New York Times and was sent to meet Edward Thompson, the leading archeologist excavating Chichen Itza. During the visit, Reed met Felipe Carrillo Puerto, dynamic governor of the State of Yucatan, also known as an agrarian reformer.

Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Agrarian Reformer

Carrillo had commissioned a road to be built from Merida to Chichen Itza, opening the budding archeological site to both tourists and scientists. To commemorate the event, he'd organized a welcome ceremony inviting North American journalists and archeologists. 

UXMAL AND CARRILLO 

At the ruins, Reed interviewed the famed Thompson who had gone to Yucatan specifically to excavate Chichen Itza. Thompson took a liking to Reed and divulged he had in fact dredged Chichen Itza's sacred cenote, garnering gold and jade jewelry and ornaments he'd taken from the sacrificial victims. Astonished by the enormity of Thompson's admission, like the true-born paparazzi she was, Reed asked Thompson to sign a confession, which he did.

Chicen Itza (By Frederick Catherwood)

After Chichen Itza, the assembled entourage went on to Uxmal. During this leg of the journey, Reed and Carrillo got acquainted. Reed was fascinated with the charismatic Carrillo who had been called both a Bolshevik and a Marxist for his sweeping reforms.

Caught in the Act, Thompson Dredging Chichen Itza Cenote

In her interview with the governor, Carrillo explained Yucatan had been inhabited by a handful of powerful families dating back to 1542 when Merida was founded. These wealthy landowners were basically slave masters and notorious for their cruel treatment of the Maya. 

REVOLUTIONARY IN THE MAKING

In 1910 Carrillo had fought alongside Emiliano Zapata in Central Mexico. From their association he took Zapata's battle cry, Tierra y Liberdad, (Land and Liberty) for his own. Back in Yucatan, Carrillo claimed part Maya, part Creole heritage and began his reforms by setting up feminist leagues in Merida that legalized birth control and the first family planning clinics in the Western Hemisphere. As governor, he became an agrarian reformer: He seized uncultivated land from powerful hacendados and distributed it to the Maya, stating it was their birthright. He built schools. He reformed the prison system. 

Carrillo Puerto Amongst His People (By Instituto de Anthropologia)

No small wonder Reed named him the Abraham Lincoln of Mexico. As a liberal she agreed with his reforms. And besides that, she was smitten. But as a divorced woman and a Catholic, she tried to ignore the feelings she was developing for the married father of four. She left for the U.S., vowing never to return, in hopes of severing ties in what was becoming amor calido or steamy romance as the English translation went.

Two months later, however, The New York Times sent her packing back to Mexico to cover the archeology scandal involving Edward Thompson and his dredging of the Chichen Itza cenote which she exposed. She had a job to do.

Carrillo Puerto and Reed (By Forasteros)

On her second round in Mexico, both Reed and Carrillo's feelings couldn't be ignored. In the ultimate taboo, Carrillo divorced his wife to become engaged to Reed. He even had a romantic love song composed for her, still popular today, La Peregrina (The Pilgrim). 

It seemed a match made in heaven. The two idealists prepared for their wedding which would take place in San Francisco. Reed hastened back to the U.S. to make arrangements before her permanent move to Mexico. 

SEND LAWYERS, GUNS AND MONEY

Shortly after her departure to the U.S., however, another Mexican revolution seemed imminent. Fighting had broken out in the Yucatan and henequen planters and hacendados were trying to overthrow Carrillo due to his reforms. President Obregon's right hand man, de la Huerta, was opposing him and because Carrillo backed Obregon, he was at risk. Carrillo was forced to find guns to fight both the planters and de la Huerta's forces. And to make matters worse, he now had a $250,000 reward on his head. 

To secure the guns and ammunition they would need to do battle, Carrillo went by night to the Progreso coast with three brothers and six friends as guards to catch a boat to New Orleans. Just as they waded out to the launch that would take them to the U.S. where they'd acquire the firearms needed for their revolution, a Navy captain signaled to soldiers lying in wait on shore. The soldiers rowed out and captured Carrillo who told his small group to not fight but to go peacefully.

De la Huerta's forces took them back to Merida and jailed them overnight for an arraignment in the morning. Carrillo refused to make a plea. He was, after all, governor of the state and refused to recognize a kangaroo court. He was condemned on January 3, 1924, and taken to Merida Cemetery where he, his brothers and friends were lined up against the wall to await the firing squad. The first round of volleys was sent over their heads—the soldiers didn't want to kill them, so fiercely loyal were the Yucatecans to Carrillo. 

The commander shouted that those soldiers were to be shot, and over the dead bodies of the first soldiers, Carrillo, brothers and friends were executed as they stood with their backs against the cemetery wall.  

Merida Cemetery Where Carrillo Puerto Is Buried

A MARTYR'S DEATH 

In San Francisco, Alma Reed had been alerted that trouble was at hand. She heard the news shortly afterwards that Carrillo had died in Yucatan, a martyr's death, at 49.

Reed insisted on returning to Merida to see the spot where Carrillo fell. She stayed but briefly in the Yucatan and on arriving back to New York, was sent on an assignment to Carthage to explore ancient ruins. She would never re-marry. Her reporting life eventually took her back to Mexico where she helped establish the artist Jose Clements Orozco. 

One of Reed's fears was that President Obregon had a hand in killing Carrillo. He had, after all, assassinated Zapata after luring him to a truce meeting along with Pancho Villa. Reed thought Carrillo's radicalism may have aroused opposition from the Mexican president but she could never prove the link. 

Isignia of Pueblo Felipe Carrillo Puerto

The pueblo of Chan Santa Cruz, south of Tulum, changed its name to honor the Yucatan governor, and goes by the name Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Alma Reed died in Mexico City at age 77 in November, 1966, while undergoing surgery.

Antoinette May's book The Passionate Pilgrim, the Extraordinary Life of Alma Reed, tells the story of Reed and Carrillo Puerto as does Alma Reed's Peregrina: Love and Death in Mexico.

If you enjoyed this post, check out  Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, on Amazon. My website is www.jeaninekitchel.com. Books one and two in my Mexico cartel trilogy, Wheels Up—A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival, and Tulum Takedown, are also on Amazon. And my journalistic overview of the Maya 2012 calendar phenomenon, Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, is on Amazon.