Mexico’s Communications and Transport Ministry (SCT) has announced the cancelation of the 1,550 km rail line Chiapas-Mayab concession.

The SCT reclaimed control of the railroad, which had belonged since 2007 to the Ferrocarriles Chiapas-Mayab rail company, on the grounds of “public interest, public usage and national security.”

The SCT cited economic motivations to regaining control of the Chiapas-Mayab rail route, which begins in the southern state of Chiapas and connects with a network of trains that head north. The southern region of Mexico has some of the highest poverty rates in the country, but also has important economic potential in petrochemicals, cement, beer and other industries. To develop this potential, the SCT stated it will require an efficient railway to grow and develop the region.

Previouly, the concession had been awarded in 1999 to the American company Genesee & Wyoming, but it suspended operation in July 2007. Because of the damaged produced by the Stan hurricane and the SCT's delay to renovate the rail, Genesee & Wyoming decided to cancel the concession claiming an important economic loss. 

In 2014, the Mexican government planned the recapitalization of the project with a total investment of US$462 million in order to update and improve the bad state of the infrastructure.

There is also an important problem of immigration concerning the rail line. The railway, also known as “La Bestia” (“The Beast”), is used by Central American migrants and refugees traveling north toward the U.S. border.