President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated that if the company Vulcan Materials refuses to sell Calica, the limestone extraction project whose operations have been suspended due to its impact on the forest environment will be expropriated to become a protected natural area.
“I will not leave without solving it, and the best way to solve it is for everyone to be declared a protected natural area and for them to be compensated according to the law. FEES counterpart,” he stated this Friday during his press conference in the morning at the National Palace.
“If there’s no response from them, if they don’t want to help, that’s the decision; we won’t wait,” he added.
The president acknowledged that the company has the right to challenge the decision but argued that his government has “the right to take care of our territory.”
Likewise, he remembered that he had previously proposed to Vulcan Materials to buy the land to make this complex. ecotourism. For this, an evaluation is made, and the number of 6 billion pesos is precise.
“How can we pay more if no evaluation is done?” he stressed.
He added that paying an amount different from the official assessment is an act of corruption, so if the expropriation is done, the 6 billion pesos will be deposited in court to start the legal process.
However, he revealed that the company accused them of being “threatened” because of the proposal.
“They didn’t answer for about three months; we insisted again, and now they informed us that they were threatened,” he said.
The Mexican government shut down the mining company last year, accusing it of causing an ecological disaster in Quintana Roo, and is behind the protests against Maya trends, the symbolic act of the president for the area.
López Obrador revealed on July 13 that he sent a proposal through Esteban Moctezuma, ambassador to Mexico to the USA, which constitutes an assessment.
If the company agrees to sell, the 2 thousand hectares will become a protected natural area, and ecotourism development will only be done in areas that have already been affected, while the loading dock will become a cruise ship dock.
Vulcan Materials, which sells crushed stone as well as asphalt and ready-mix concrete, has the concession until 2037.
The company, which is based in Alabama, has not mined or shipped construction materials since the Mexican government shut down operations in May over fears of the damaging effects of underwater limestone mining on the local environment and water table.
