Video: A representative of PBI-Mexico (in green vest) speaks (starting at 35:26) at the observation mission media conference, July 27, 2023.
Prior to the visit of Canadian prime minister Mark Carney to Mexico City on September 18-19, 2025, Canadian media reported on the megaprojects he might discuss during meetings with Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum, including the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
On September 16, 2025, The Globe and Mail reported: “A Mexican official, speaking on background, said Mexico is eager to attract Canadian investment as it modernizes six of its ports and assembles a new shipping route with its Interoceanic corridor that runs a railway line between the Pacific port of Salina Cruz and the Atlantic port of Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico.”
In July 2023, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project participated in an international observation mission that documented abuses against Indigenous territorial defenders opposed to the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus.
The Mission reported: “Among the authorities responsible for the human rights violations identified during the mission are the National Guard, the Navy, the Sedena [the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense], the State Police…”
On June 27, 2024, El Universal Oaxaca reported: “The Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (CIIT) project has been developed in Oaxaca through authoritarian methods that include cases of disappearance and forced displacement of indigenous communities, as well as a total of 226 attacks on community defenders including women and children, reveals the report of the Civilian International Observation Mission.”
Educa Oaxaca, that was also part of the Observation Mission, specifies: “From May 1, 2021, to May 1, 2024, a total of 72 attacks were recorded, in which at least 226 various attacks were perpetrated against defenders.”
Significantly, the Mexican State is linked to “94 occasions out of the 72 documented attacks, with a permanent and leading presence of the Army, Navy and National Guard in the indigenous territories of the Isthmus.”
Pagina 3 adds: “At a press conference [that was held on June 27, 2024], members of the Observation Mission said that 92% of the victims of human rights belong to an indigenous people. In this context, the Mixe (Ayuujk) and Zapotec (Binnizá) peoples faced a greater number of aggressions against them.”
Further reading: On May 14, 2024, a federal judge in Mexico revoked a 46+ year prison sentence against Indigenous Binnizá land defender David Hernández Salazar, an opponent of the Interoceanic Corridor.
Avispa Midia has further reported that the Interoceanic Corridor megaproject was promoted by Mexican officials who visited Washington, DC in June 2024 and Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Spain in May 2024.
Avispa highlights: “In these places, working meetings were held with members of the European Union, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the European Commission, as well as representatives of governments, industrial sectors and investment conglomerates.”
The article notes: “Transnational corporations have also been targeted by the Mexican government’s actions. The Ministry of Economy reported that it initiated, since May 8, 2023, a round of actions to promote the corridor. At least 330 companies from 23 countries were hit by these actions, including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.”
Canadian connections to the megaproject
The Interoceanic Corridor is a megaproject that has been described by a proponent as including “two deep sea ports, railroads, highways, three airports (Minatitlán, Ixtepec and Huatulco), a gas pipeline and a fiber optic network.”
That pipeline appears to be the Jaltipan-Salina Cruz Gas Pipeline Expansion (Interoceanic Corridor Gas Pipeline). Calgary-based TC Energy is building the Puerta del Sureste/ Southeast Gateway pipeline that will connect to Jáltipan-Salina Cruz Gas Pipeline to transport gas across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the proposed Salina Cruz LNG export terminal.
The Toronto-headquartered Royal Bank of Canada and other Canadian banks are financing the US company Sempra Energy that through its Mexican subsidiary Sempra Infraestructura -a partner of TC Energy- that will develop that LNG terminal in Salina Cruz that would export gas to Europe and Asia.
Video: On February 15, 2025, several coastal communities of the indigenous Nahua and Nuntaj++yi’ municipalities of Pajapan, Tatahuicapan and Mecayapan in southern Veracruz protested against the TC Energy Puerta del Sureste pipeline.
The Trans-Isthmus Railway
Railway Gazette International has reported: “The ports in both cities, the railway and related terminal infrastructure are all managed by Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuantepec, a state-owned enterprise which is part of the Mexican Navy.”
That article notes: “The primary aim of the reconstruction of the Trans-Isthmus Railway is to develop freight traffic through the two ports; investment in the Minatitlán and Salina Cruz oil refineries is also expected to generate more rail flows.”
In January 2024, the International Railway Journal reported: “Freight operations began in September 2023 following an upgrade under the Isthmus of Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor (CIIT) project, which aims to provide a rail alternative to the Panama Canal for freight moving between the Atlantic and the Pacific.”
A railway for grain, petrochemicals, mining concessions
That article adds: “According CIIT director general, Mr Raymundo Morales Ángeles, the upgraded railway known as Line Z can accommodate freight trains up to 65 wagons in length, as well as double-stack trains carrying up to 260 containers or 5200 tonnes. Line Z is also expected to handle bulk traffic including grain, chemical products and petrochemicals.”
In October 2024, the Pulitzer Center quoted Binnizá environmental defender Martín Regalado saying that Line K “is a Trojan horse that is leaving unprecedented environmental disasters in its wake. No one will travel on this train because its purpose is to provide roads for mining concessions and extractive companies.”
Canadian wheat shipped on the railway
On January 10, 2025, Breakbulk Events & Media reported: “The Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuantepec (FIT) or Isthmus of Tehuantepec Railway [and] Mexico’s Ministry of the Navy announced in November that grain producer Viterra Mexico successfully transported 2,000 tons of wheat grain using the railway. The cargo, which was imported from Canada, arrived at the Port of Salina Cruz via the SSI Prudence and was then transshipped to bulk hoppers before heading to warehouses operated by wheat distributor Trimex near the Port of Coatzacoalcos.”
CPKC involvement
There are snippets of information available about a potential role being played by the Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railway company in this megaproject.
In May 2023, Bnamericas reported: “Following a meeting between President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, US officials and CPKC executives in Mexico City, the government unveiled that it invited the company to participate in the 1,500km Maya train that will connect five states in the southeast and to the rehabilitation of the 300km Tehuantepec isthmus rail corridor between Oaxaca and Veracruz states. However, during his morning press conference on Thursday, López Obrador also said that he asked CPKC to take over the Mexico City-Querétaro high-speed train that the previous government attempted to construct.”
By March 2024, Mexico News Daily reported CPKC had submitted proposals for two routes not in the Isthmus: Mexico City-Querétaro and Querétaro-San Luis Potosí-Monterrey-Nuevo Laredo.
Furthermore, in January 2024, FreightWaves quoted Pawan Joshi, executive vice president of products and strategy of the Austin, Texas-based supply chain software provider e2open suggesting that the CIIT could offer another option when global disruptions or droughts interrupt trade flows in the Panama Canal. Joshi says: “The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern railroad is looking to start to invest some money on the Panama side to build more infrastructure and provide an alternative.”
Further research needed
Further research is needed to document and map the role Canadian companies and investment capital may be playing in this megaproject.
We continue to follow this.
