Passengers alight in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, from the new Tehuantepec Interoceanic Train. Mauricio Palos
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Photographs by Mauricio Palos / Reporting by Andrzej Ryback
This article is adapted from AQ’s special report on China and Latin America
COATZACOALCOS, MEXICO—For over a century, Mexican planners have strived to connect the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea via railways crossing the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the country’s south. The idea, first undertaken by President Porfirio Díaz in 1907, is finally coming together with renewed proportions and reach.
Today’s Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor aims to compete with the Panama Canal, industrialize towns and cities along its path, and turn southern Mexico into a world-class logistics and manufacturing hub. It centers around three new rail lines; involves two major port upgrades, industrial initiatives, new gas lines, and highways; and offers sweeping incentives to attract private companies to four states: Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco.
Since its start in 2019, the project, known by its Spanish acronym CIIT, has received massive public investment—around $4 billion—from the administrations of President Claudia Sheinbaum and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It has also attracted $1 billion in projected private funding. Alongside the railways, the government plans to create “development poles,” industrial parks designed to attract private investment in specific sectors including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, automotives and clean energy, among others. Companies including Mota-Engil México, Grupo Carso and ProIstmo have already been granted licenses to develop them.
Because the CIIT connects two major ports and its backbone, Line Z, will move maritime cargo between them, the project is administered by the Mexican navy, which provides security for railway operations and industrial park construction. Policymakers have promised abundant energy and water resources for investors, but Indigenous communities and environmental advocates are concerned over displacement and water use.
In April, the corridor made its first major delivery. Its 308-kilometer Line Z transported 900 U.S.-bound Hyundai vehicles from Salina Cruz in Oaxaca to Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. The operation took about a week and bested the Panama Canal on time and cost.
All photos taken in January 2025.
Trains idle at what is set to become the country’s largest railway complex in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, a city of under 40,000 people, according to Mexico’s 2020 census. When construction is completed, by the end of 2025, the complex will comprise a range of facilities, including dispatch and education centers that will train personnel from across the region.
Vice Admiral Juan Carlos Vera Minjares, the former director of the CIIT, speaks in his Mexico City office.
Left: Lisa Hernández Jiménez, a ProIstmo engineer, walks a job site where the company aims to attract private investment. “The Interoceanic Corridor is a great opportunity for the region. Thousands of jobs will be created in the industrial parks along the route, so people won’t have to emigrate to the U.S. anymore,” she said. “Until now, young engineers from the Isthmus had to go to Mexico City or Puebla because there were never enough jobs for them here. This project could change that.”
Right: Employees of ProIstmo examine one of the company’s models in Texistepec, Veracruz. ProIstmo is a private company tasked with advancing five of the 12 “development poles” that aim to attract manufacturing and other investment along the CIIT.
Trains are loaded onto a ship in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. The 180-meter ferry is operated by CG Railway (CGR) and was built to transport entire railway cars across the Gulf of Mexico and toward Mobile, Alabama.
Residents of the small town of José María Morelos, Oaxaca, stand on a new bridge built as part of the CIIT. The town is not along any rail route, but the bridge is part of the broader effort to improve infrastructure in the region that the CIIT traverses. “Before the construction of the Interoceanic Corridor, we were isolated during the rainy season,” said Fernando Ponce Torres, a town council member in José María Morelos. “Our suspension bridge was swept away by floods last year. The CIIT funded a new concrete bridge, and thanks to that, our village is accessible by car even during the rainy season.”
A ship is loaded with raw sugar in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz. The CIIT’s main rail line, Line Z, will cross the Isthmus and connect Coatzacoalcos with Salina Cruz, in Oaxaca.
Left: The government is building developments of new housing like this one in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, to relocate people displaced by rail construction. Although the government has built over 4,000 of these houses, some residents allege irregularities in the process, including 600 families in Tabasco who were relocated to houses without access to basic services.
Right: Javier Chávez and Elsa Matus live beside the tracks of Line Z in Mojoñé, Oaxaca. “Our house is about 15 meters from the tracks, and so far, we’ve been allowed to stay there,” they said. “The trains don’t run often, maybe once or twice a day, so we can’t complain about the noise. People who were relocated often got better houses than the wooden sheds they lived in. Even then, it’s hard when your home is demolished.”
María del Carmen González Villanueva rides Line Z from Salina Cruz to Coatzacoalcos. The other two lines of the CIIT—Line FA and Line K—will connect Coatzacoalcos with Palenque and Oaxaca with Guatemala, respectively. “I live in Tijuana and want to visit my family in Ixtepec. I haven’t traveled in a train since I was a kid, so I was a little nervous,” she said. “But this is amazing, a real luxury! There are always traffic jams and accidents on the roads—you never know when you’ll get there.”
Palos is a photographer and farmer based in Northeast Mexico and the author of My Perro Rano: Chronicles of Central America.
Ryback is a journalist focused on Latin America and Africa who was previously a correspondent in Russia and Poland for Der Spiegel.
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