[2] While there, Grant had developed a sympathy for the Mexican people and later supported their rebellion against Emperor Maximilian, the foreign prince installed by French troops while the United States was fighting its Civil War.
[6] That October, with Grant's political chances foreclosed, Romero visited him in the United States and offered him the presidency of a potential railroad, which he hoped to build south from Mexico City to the Guatemala border.
Romero and Grant held a banquet at Delmonico's in New York City to pitch the idea to wealthy American investors.
[10] After lobbying the government there for two months, they received permission to construct the railroad, and Grant returned to the United States.
Harper's Magazine published an article about it describing the company and its aims: Its purpose is to operate in Mexico railways and telegraph lines, also to build elevators, and to construct or purchase and navigate steam and sailing vessels as may be proper in connection with the company's business in Mexico.
[12]The investors' ambition exceeded even that description, as Grant obtained a concession from the Guatemalan government to continue the railroad a further 250 miles into that country.
[13] At the same time, Grant joined American President Chester A. Arthur in lobbying Congress to approve a free-trade agreement with Mexico, which they declined to do.
[14] The southern segment followed in 1885 with the failure of Grant's other business interests in New York, and the Mexican government declared the charter forfeit.
Mexico privatized the railroads again in 1995, but nearly all passenger rail service, including the Puebla-Oaxaca stretch of line, has been suspended since 1997.