Thousands of Villahermosa residents are protesting plans to build the National Olmec Museum in the beloved Tomás Garrido Park. They argue that the development threatens the biodiversity of what locals call the city’s “green lung.”
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) announced in December 2024 its intention to develop a 14,700-square-meter museum on the grounds of the park’s zoo. The facility would house 33 Olmec monuments currently displayed outdoors, including altars, stelae, colossal heads, and monoliths dating from 1300 to 200 BCE.
According to INAH Director General Diego Prieto, the museum project follows a UNESCO recommendation to relocate the pre-Columbian artifacts to protect them from deterioration caused by rain and high temperatures. The plan includes creating replicas to remain in the park while moving the originals indoors.
The seven-hectare Tomás Garrido Park, inaugurated in 1958, features diverse flora including cedar, royal palm, ceiba, and flamboyant trees, along with flowering plants such as orchids. Protesters fear the construction would destroy hundreds of endemic tree species and cause an “irreparable loss of biodiversity.”
A petition on Change.org demanding cancellation of the museum has gathered nearly 60,000 signatures. Hundreds of protesters have also marched through Villahermosa in opposition to the project.
While INAH officials emphasize that the museum would be the first national museum constructed outside Mexico City and assert the project complies with environmental regulations, opponents suggest there are alternative locations, such as abandoned buildings, that could house the museum without harming the park.
In response to mounting opposition, Tabasco Governor Javier May Rodríguez has announced that a public consultation will be held to determine the future of the project.
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