Is China Backing the Tren Maya Project Financially?  

Earlier this year, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that the ambitious Tren Maya project isn’t just staying in Mexico. It’s expanding, right through Belize and into Guatemala. That’s a major shift in how the three countries could connect. Now, this isn’t just about trains and tracks. The Belize leg of the project is designed to help protect the El Petén jungle and could create up to one hundred thousand jobs, both directly and indirectly. That’s huge. But while Mexico is leading the charge, Belize hasn’t been getting many updates on how things are progressing. And recently, things got even more interesting. The Trump Administration speculated that the project might be backed by the Chinese government. That raised a few eyebrows. So, we went straight to the source. We asked Minister of Foreign Affairs, Francis Fonseca, if there’s any truth to that claim. 

 

Reporter

“Has the Belize government  not been apprised of suspicions of the Trump administration that the Chinese may be funding the Tren Maya?”

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs

“Not to my knowledge. No, I know nothing about that.”

 

Reporter

“But we as a government would want to know what or who is funding that project. If it is that it’s gonna be extended into Belize.”

 

Francis Fonseca

“Yeah. But yeah, of course.”

 

Reporter

“It only says investors so far.”

 

Francis Fonseca

“Yeah, but I don’t know, I don’t know anything about that. The tren Maya project I know very little about. It’s something I think obviously the government has talked about, prime Minister has talked about. So you know, it’s a Mexican government project as far as we are aware. So there may. A private sector involvement of course. But yeah, certainly, that’s information that can be obtained.”