In fight over wetland development, Mexico City residents turn to international court

The petition accuses Mexico of violating UNESCO agreements, which require governments to inform the UN agency if they’re planning “major restorations or new constructions” at a World Heritage Site. They say Mexico City failed to do a required environmental assessment. 

Cielito Lindo is near construction, and the Xochimilco wetlands have already been damaged. Still, as Reyes sees it, a victory would nonetheless hold the Mexican government accountable and help safeguard other environmentally protected areas in the country.

Sheinbaum led Mexico City from 2018 until 2023. Her tenure saw a focus on economic development, including in Xochimilco.

The borough was already growing: Since 2013, Xochimilco has seen an explosion of construction, including new supermarkets and malls. 

A Walmart, a country club and one of those malls were ultimately shut down amid concerns they were built on protected land and were causing ecological damage. The construction of new military barracks was also halted after Xochimilco residents complained to the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City in August 2022.

"It's not a town anymore — this is the city now," said Max Emiliano Negrete, a member of Coordination of Towns and Neighborhoods of Xochimilco, another local advocacy group. "And this urbanization has meant, at least in this area, more militarization."

In June 2023, Sheinbaum introduced a security plan for the area, known as Xochimilco Seguro or "Safe Xochimilco.” Under the pretense of combating crime and drug trafficking, 120 military vehicles and 650 National Guard troops were deployed to the neighborhood.

"Xochimilco Seguro means militarization," Emiliano Negrete said. "The best way to defend ourselves is through legal action. Through legal action we can at least hope to stall some of the construction, to make it difficult for them.”

Besides militarization and general development, activists have also decried the bridge plan itself, which prioritizes commuters over public transit and pedestrians. The plans — including the small number of bus stops — are designed to accommodate private vehicles over other modes, according to an analysis from Xochimilco Vivo.

"The designated biking area is very narrow and dangerous. The cars come up very close,” longtime resident Tomás Reyes said as he maneuvered his bicycle through the narrow bridge area on a recent afternoon. “They need to put in a larger bike lane here.”

To bypass environmental rules, Mexico City officials began construction under a 2019 “Facilities Agreement” decree which allowed the construction of public works without the necessity of an environmental impact statement. 

In a statement in 2021, Marina Robles García, head Secretary of the Environment for Mexico City, highlighted promised improvements in Xochimilco that never happened, including improved trails, lighting, benches, waste management and the supposed creation of a Valley of Mexico museum.

"We want the Inter-American system to recognize that the Mexican government's international agreements were not followed,” said Chantal Reyes, the local activist. She and other activists hope to stop construction before “they put other natural areas in Mexico at risk.”

Luis Zambrano, an ecologist and researcher at the Institute of Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has studied the ecology of Xochimilco for 25 years.

In an interview, he said bridge construction has been a disaster on multiple levels.

"Every politician thinks second levels of highways are marvels,” he said. “In reality they are urban destroyers in every way. They are mobility destroyers, aesthetic destroyers, ecological destroyers.”

This section of the Periferico — the name for Mexico City’s system of outer beltways — used to have large avenues with space between them. “This allowed water to flow from north to south, and for the vegetation to grow,” Zambrano said.

“This is no longer the case,” he said. “Sheinbaum in theory is an expert in this. To me, that is worse, because she knows exactly what she is destroying."

Besides fears of damaged ecology and overdevelopment, the Cielito Lindo project has also raised concerns of inside dealing.

Appointed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2019, Supreme Court Justice Yasmín Esquivel is married to José María Rioboó, owner of construction company Grupo Rioboó. Documents show the company performed surveys and tests for the Xochimilco bridge project in 2010 and 2011, while Esquivel was serving as President of the Court of Administrative Justice of Mexico City.

José María Riobóo likewise served as an infrastructure advisor to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador when AMLO headed Mexico City between 2000 and 2005. At the time, Riobóo’s company was also in charge of initial construction on the second level of the Periferico road network.   

When Sheinbaum took over as head of Mexico City, Grupo Riobóo subsequently received four public-works contracts totaling around $3.1 million, public records show. By then, Esquivel was serving as a Supreme Court Justice. In a 2019 interview on the Mexican news program “La nota dura,” the judge was adamant that “there is no influence on the part of Riobóo in any of the aspects of my professional life.”

It is unclear how long Grupo Rioboó was involved in Cielito Lindo. Still, to Zambrano, Mexican megaprojects like these are never free from corruption.

"It is not only environmental destruction but politically sanctioned economic greed,” Zambrano said. “In the end, [it] will cause 20 million Mexicans to be much more vulnerable to climate change.”

There is no set timeline for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to respond to Xochimilco Vivo's request. In the meantime, Cielito Lindo — not even yet fully complete — has already closed multiple times over issues including flooding.

Also closing are many former chinampas in the area, abandoned in the quest to urbanize southern Mexico City. As each chinampa disappears, so do centuries of local customs and agricultural knowledge.

One remaining chinampero is Álvaro Desiderio Gutierrez, whose family has been farming on chinampas for generations.

These days, Desiderio mainly grows ornamental plants like geraniums, chrysanthemums and marigolds. With each new generation, the old lifeways fade a little bit, he said as he piloted his small tour boat through the Xochimilco canals to earn extra income.

Desiderio worries not just about the Cielito Lindo bridge, but the development he says will inevitably follow its completion.

"We use the water to grow our plants and crops,” he said. “Many people around here are dedicated to fishing. If they continue the bridge, this whole area will be filled with houses and there won't be any more water. There won't be chinampas, there will be developed neighborhoods, the costs will go up and the produce farms [will] disappear.”

"The urban stain is invading the whole chinampa area, which was once the lungs of the city," he continued. "Xochimilco stopped growing its flower and produce farms. Now, the only thing it grows are concrete homes."

Desiderio said Xochimilco’s growing urbanization has brought an increase in crime. As he sees it, it’s all connected: the crime, the development, the closing farms, the urbanization.

"If it's not possible anymore to farm because of government development projects, then [people] don't have a job,” Desiderio said. “What is someone going to do if they can't feed their family? It's a cycle."

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