Emir Olivares and Alonso Urrutia
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, July 8, 2022, p. 7
The Mexican government does not rule out seeking agreements with the US company Vulcan Materials Company, despite the fact that the firm has been denounced before international bodies, after committing serious environmental damage
in Quintana Roo due to its extractive activities.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared that in the case of Vulcan, which here (its subsidiary in Mexico) is called Calica (Calizas Industriales del Carmen)
the spirit of his government is to seek agreements, because it is about considerable damage to the public treasury, damage to the budget, to the people’s money
pointed out yesterday at his usual press conference at the National Palace.
The president did not delve into these budget damages because there is dialogue to reach a solution. However, a few days ago the Mexican government filed a complaint against the mining company with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
López Obrador has insisted that the activities of this company have caused severe damage in one of the most beautiful areas of Playa del Carmen, due to the extraction of various minerals that are sent for the construction of highways in the United States. Both parties had agreed to stop the extractive activities, but the company – according to the president – did not comply, so that at the beginning of last May its operations were suspended.
At the end of May, the President received J. Thomas Hill, CEO of Vulcan Materials Company; however, no agreements were reached at that meeting.
I hope an agreement is reached, because we proposed it to them, but they thought it was like before and they did not comply, but we did not close the door
noted yesterday.
The head of the federal Executive referred to the issue after a question about Grupo Xcaret -whom he has pointed out as being on the side of the pseudo-environmentalists
who oppose section five of the Mayan Train (Cancún-Tulum)– and his alleged relationship with Roberto Madrazo, former leader of the PRI, former governor of Tabasco and one of López Obrador’s historical political opponents.
“It is a company with a lot of influence in the United States, it surprises me, because there is a bad habit there that companies pay politicians, that is, senators, yes, and they have a lot of influence, they are capable of… A company gather 10 senators and sign a statement against a government”.
He avoided talking about Grupo Xcaret, because it is in dialogue with that consortium, although he highlighted that through a document it distanced itself from being behind the opponents of the construction of section five of the Mayan Train and the injunctions to stop the work.
Resources are being lost because the work has been stopped for three months, we are going to report how much is being lost, because we must also all assume our responsibility here
.
