Mexico City.– U.S. mining company Vulcan Materials said Tuesday it plans to defend itself through “all available legal avenues” against the government’s expropriation of a port and quarry in southern Mexico, which it called a “new violation” of regional trade agreements, Reuters reported.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declared a large tract of land stretching between the Caribbean tourist destinations of Playa del Carmen and Tulum in Quintana Roo state a natural area, according to a decree published Monday night.
“This action deprives us of the use of our land and we intend to defend ourselves using all legal avenues available,” Vulcan Materials said in a statement sent to Reuters. The government ordered the mine to be suspended in 2022, alleging environmental damage that the company denies, and in 2023 local security forces occupied the nearby port from where the company exports its production to the United States.
In July, López Obrador said his goal before leaving office on October 1 was to make the closure of the U.S. company’s facilities “definitive” in legal terms.
The mine is on the Yucatan Peninsula, as is one of the most important infrastructure projects of the President’s administration, the Mayan Train, a tourist railway of about 1,500 kilometers, questioned by civil organizations for alleged ecological damage. In May, AMLO denied that the closure of the Vulcan facilities was an expropriation, in response to comments before a US Senate commission by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said that Mexico’s position was not a good way to attract investment. “The expropriation of our company’s land and port is yet another escalation and a new violation of Mexico’s commitments under North American trade agreements, including the USMCA, and other applicable investment treaties,” Vulcan said in the statement.
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