Emir Olivares and Nestor Jimenez
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, May 24, 2022, p. 6
J. Thomas Hill, executive director of the American company Vulcan Materials Company, accused by the Mexican government of causing serious damage
to the environment and the irrecoverable loss of the subsoil in Quintana Roo, met yesterday in private with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the National Palace.
This was the first meeting between the president and the top executive of the company –owner of Calizas Industriales del Carmen (Calica)– after harsh differences between the federal government and the mining company.
The President accused the company of not complying with the agreements with his administration and continuing to extract minerals in an area near Playa del Carmen, for which he announced sanctions that were met with the suspension of its operations; action that the US firm described as illegal
.
The conclave was attended by the ambassadors of the United States in Mexico, Ken Salazar, and that of our country in Washington, Esteban Moctezuma -whom the President commissioned to negotiate with the company-, as well as the Secretaries of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, and of the Environment Environment, Maria Luisa Albores.
The director of the company arrived at the National Palace – through the door that leads to Corregidora Street – shortly before 11:30 in the morning and left with a stern expression after 1:15 in the afternoon. He was accompanied by Ambassador Salazar, who is already a regular visitor to the historic site. Both got into a van with diplomatic license plates and left without making a statement.
Until the closing of this edition neither the federal administration nor the mining company had released an official version.
