Four layers to check before investing in a site in Mexico

An investment committee almost always gets two opinions. The legal one covers title to the land, permits and contracts. The environmental one covers the impact statement, land use and water. Firms that know the work sign both. The other two layers show up, if they show up at all, as one line in the executive summary: “no social conflicts identified.”

The four layers

Layer	The question	Where it gets answered
Legal	Will the land title, permits and contracts hold up under review?	Law firm, public registries, permitting authorities
Environmental	Does the impact statement match the site and the regulations?	Environmental consultants, Semarnat (environment ministry), Profepa (environmental enforcement)
Community	Who lives and works nearby, what do they expect from the project, and who speaks for whom?	Household surveys, interviews, community assemblies, site visits
Narrative	How is the project being described locally and in local media before anyone asks?	Local media, the municipality’s social media, conversations in the field

The community layer is often treated as settled once there is a permit, or once a government agency backs the project. On July 30, 2026, Hidalgo’s state government said a solar park in Tecozautla had stopped at the Indigenous consultation stage: most participants voted against it. We covered it in What Tecozautla and Las Dunas say about social license in Mexico.

The layers are not independent either. At Las Dunas, in Yucatán, the approved environmental impact statement left out two protected plant species that Profepa found on site in late July; on August 2 it shut the project down. Before that, a citizen group had spent weeks documenting the land clearing. A gap in the environmental layer turned into a community problem, and then a legal one.

The narrative gets there before the company

Before the company presents anything, the project already has a local version: what people say in the town square, in the neighborhood group chat or on the municipality’s news page. If that version says the project will take the water, or that nobody asked, the consultation and the relationship with the community start from there.

These two layers can’t be settled from an office. They require going to the municipality and talking to people who are not on the company’s contact list.

Questions for the committee

• Who did fieldwork in the municipality, when, and who did they talk to?
• What is being said about the project today in local media and on the municipality’s social media?
• Is there an Indigenous people or community in the area of influence that requires consultation?
• Does the financial model include time and budget to build agreements, or does it assume the permit brings them?

Riskop covers the community layer through its Intelligence service and the narrative layer through Narratives.