Mexican president gives navy part of southern rail-port

MEXICO CITY (AP) — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador again expanded the military's role in Mexico's economy Friday, announcing he will give the navy part ownership of the multi-modal rail and port link across the country’s southern isthmus.

In December, López Obrador said the army will be given operating control and any profits from another of his pet projects, the Maya Train across the Yucatan peninsula. The army would use any profits to finance military pensions.

The president’s actions could make the military a major economic player, a role it has never occupied in the past. Army engineers are already in charge of building many of Mexico’s infrastructure projects, and López Obrador also has increased the military’s role in law enforcement.

While Mexican generals played leading roles in the 1910-17 revolution and post-revolutionary governments in the 1920s and 1930s, since the 1940s the army has been unusual in Latin America in that it has rigorously stayed out of politics and the general economy.

In return, a long succession of Mexican presidents made the army off-limits to outside scrutiny. By tradition, there has never been a civilian defense secretary, and the president does not directly name the person for that post, choosing from a list of acceptable generals submitted by the army.

On Friday, López Obrador said the navy will be given ownership of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec rail and seaport corridor across the narrow waist of Mexico's south, along with the governments of the four states that the project runs through or benefits. The rail link will connect seaports on the Pacific coast and the Gulf of Mexico, acting as an alternative to the Panama Canal.

“It is going to be turned over to the Navy Department and the four states with a plan...