MEXICO&nbsp;CITY (Reuters) -&nbsp;Mexico's president said on Thursday that construction and operation of a&nbsp;tourist&nbsp;train&nbsp;project that could cost up to $20 billion is a matter of&nbsp;national&nbsp;security, offering new legal&nbsp;protections for the high-profile public work.
In a decree published in&nbsp;Mexico's official gazette, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador invoked government and&nbsp;national&nbsp;security&nbsp;prerogatives over "the construction, operation, maintenance ... execution and administration of the transport infrastructure" that makes up both the&nbsp;Mayan&nbsp;tourist&nbsp;train&nbsp;project as well as the transoceanic freight rail corridor.
The projects are among Lopez Obrador's most costly infrastructure priorities aimed at bringing more prosperity to&nbsp;Mexico's poorer south.
The decree pointed to constitutional provisions giving the state control over&nbsp;national&nbsp;development and planning, citing the need for&nbsp;security&nbsp;over the movement of goods and people.
It bestowed the same&nbsp;national&nbsp;security&nbsp;designation on three airports in southern&nbsp;Mexico&nbsp;in the cities of Palenque, Chetumal and Tulum, near the&nbsp;train's planned 1,500-km (930-mile) route and close to the country's border with Guatemala and Belize.
Spanning five Mexican states across the Yucatan Peninsula, the&nbsp;tourist&nbsp;train&nbsp;will link a series of beach destinations with ruin sites dating to the Maya civilization's classical peak.
The&nbsp;tourist&nbsp;project that Lopez Obrador has said could ultimately cost $20 billion has raised alarm bells from environmentalists, who say it could endanger wildlife and delicate ancient cave systems that dot the planned route.
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(Reporting by Carolina Pulice; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Tom Hogue)

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Mexico declares national security protection for Mayan tourist train