How are two Canadian corporations – TC Energy and CPKC Rail – implicated in the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject in Mexico?

To join a webinar that will look at the connections of TC Energy and CPKC Rail to the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject, click here.

Following the participation of PBI-Mexico in the Civilian Observation Mission to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, PBI-Canada is looking at the role of Calgary-based CPKC Rail in the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus megaproject and Calgary-based TC Energy in the Southeast Gateway pipeline that would take fracked gas to the Isthmus.

Proceso has reported: “During its three-day tour [July 25-27], the Civilian Observation Mission recorded human rights violations, framed in the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus megaproject, against members of indigenous peoples and communities, most of which involve the Navy and the National Guard.”

First of all, what is the Interoceanic Corridor?

Mexico News Daily has explained: “The so-called Interoceanic Corridor will include 10 new industrial parks across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec — the narrow ‘waist’ of southern Mexico between Salina Cruz, Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.”

That article adds: “Another key component of [Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador] AMLO’s industrial strategy for southern Mexico is a 300-km transoceanic freight rail line that would link the proposed industrial parks. The ports of Coatzacoalcos and Salina Cruz would be expanded, and a new gas pipeline would be constructed in the oil-rich region. There are also plans for four new wind farms across the region to support the boom in industry that the government hopes will follow investment.”

Photo: The Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus (CIIT).

How are Canadian corporations implicated in this megaproject?

Let’s take it step by step, project by project:

Sur de Texas pipeline

This TC Energy pipeline takes fracked gas from the city of Brownsville in southern Texas to the city of Tuxpan in the Mexican state of Veracruz. This pipeline is currently in operation.

Tula pipeline

The Sur de Texas pipeline in Tuxpan would connect with the Tula pipeline (now under construction) that is being opposed by the Regional Council of Indigenous Peoples in Defense of the Territory of Puebla and Hidalgo. Notably, the Regional Council has reached out to the Wet’suwet’en in Canada who oppose the TC Energy Coastal GasLink pipeline (also now under construction). More on this soon!

Southeast Gateway pipeline

The TC Energy Southeast Gateway (aka Puerta al Sureste) pipeline would also begin on land in Tuxpan and continue across the ocean and flow to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz and the refinery in Dos Bocas, Paraiso, Tabasco. Greenpeace Mexico confirms that “this new pipeline would be the extension of the Sur de Texas-Tuxpan gas pipeline”.

This pipeline is opposed by the Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus (UCIZONI).

This past February, La Jornada Veracruz reported that campesinas, Indigenous peoples and environmental groups protested in Sierra de Santa Marta against this pipeline “to demand an end to the criminalization and persecution of their leaders. …The activists [also expressed concern that] a great campaign has been deployed to militarize the towns that are within the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT).”

Greenpeace Mexico has also explained that the Southeast Gateway pipeline “will seek to connect this infrastructure [the Sur de Texas pipeline] with megaprojects such as the Dos Bocas refinery, the Mayan Train, two combined cycle plants in the Yucatan Peninsula, the liquefaction terminals of Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos, all this with the aim of exporting liquefied gas to the Trans-Isthmus industrial corridor, as well as to Europe and Asia.”

Mayan Train

Bnamericas reports: “Following a meeting between President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, US officials and CPKC executives in Mexico City [in May of this year], the government unveiled that it invited the company to participate in the 1,500 kilometre Maya train.”

The Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research (PODER) has further noted: “The main source of income for the Mayan Train will be the transportation of fuels.” They list two Canadian companies, Vancouver-based Renaissance Oil Corp. and Regina-based provincial Crown corporation Sask Energy Incorporated, among the companies that would benefit from the building of the Mayan Train megaproject.

The Interoceanic Corridor

How does this all connect to the Interoceanic Corridor and the Civilian Observation Mission that PBI-Mexico took part in?

The Sur de Texas pipeline concludes in Tuxpan, Veracruz, which is situated just north of the Isthmus. The Tula pipeline begins in Tuxpan.

The Southeast Gateway pipeline begins in Tuxpan and flows to the city of Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, a key location for the Interoceanic Corridor.

This pipeline also connects to the Dos Bocas refinery located on the Isthmus.

Expansion also reports that the Southeast Gateway pipeline connects with the Trans-Isthmus pipeline that would flow from Jáltipan, Veracruz to Salina Cruz, Oaxaca.

Lastly, Bnamericas reports Mexican president López Obrador has invited CPKC to participate in the “the rehabilitation of the 300 kilometre Tehuantepec isthmus rail corridor between Oaxaca and Veracruz states.” And Radio Fórmula has reported: “AMLO has confirmed that the Interoceanic Corridor would connect with the Mayan Train.”

Webinar, September 21

PBI-Canada will try to further understand these connections in an upcoming webinar with Carlos Beas Torres of the Union of Indigenous Communities from the North of the Isthmus (UCIZONI) and Margherita Forni of PBI-Mexico.

Frontline Defenders has highlighted: “In the early hours of 24 March 2023, a protest-camp of UCIZONI [that had been blocking for 24 days the modernization works of the railroad of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec] was attacked by civilians and police from the State of Oaxaca, leaving two people injured.”

On TC Energy beginning construction of the Southeast Gateway pipeline this past May, Beas says: “We are witnessing this Canadian company threaten the Laguna del Ostion estuary, in the south of the state of Veracruz.”

To register for this webinar, click here.

—

CPKC and TC Energy in Canada

In Uncovered tracks: The bloody legacy of Canada’s railways (National Observer, December 2020), Joe Bongiorno commented: “Although the railway has always been a private corporation, it was — and remains — a wrought iron symbol of Confederation. But for First Nations peoples, Canada’s railways are vehicles for expropriation.”

Photo: The Last Spike completed the CPR railroad in Canada in 1885. Photo: The “final spike” ceremony in April 2023 celebrated the merger of the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railway companies into CPKC.

TC Energy is building the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia, Canada. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has repeatedly called on Canada to stop the building of this pipeline until it gains the consent of the Wet’suwet’en peoples.

Photo: The controversial Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) arrest Wet’suwet’en land defenders opposed to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in February 2020.