An American quarry company rejected the Mexican president’s request on Monday. Campaign of criticism and closures, in addition to his offer to purchase his properties on the Caribbean coast.
In July, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador offered to purchase the American company Real estate on the Caribbean coast for around 385 million dollars in the middle of a years-long and bitter dispute.
Alabama-based Vulcan Materials said in a press release Monday that the offer “significantly undervalues our assets.”
In documents filed with a global arbitration tribunal within the case, Vulcan Materials estimated the worth of the nearly 2,400-hectare property south of the resort town of Playa del Carmen at $1.9 billion.
The Mexican president had previously threatened to expropriate the extensive site, arguing that the mines used to extract crushed limestone had damaged the region’s fragile system of underground rivers and caves.
But Vulcan Materials denied the allegation. “Our activities have not impacted underground caves, cenotes or archaeological sites. In fact, we have mapped, protected and preserved these valuable resources,” the corporate said in a press release.
Instead, the corporate claimed that another quarries in the world were operating illegally. “Unlike other quarries that were operating illegally to supply the Mayan Train, our operation was properly authorized,” the corporate said.
The Mayan Train is a pet project of López Obrador, to construct a tourist train across the Yucatan Peninsula. Activists, cave divers and archaeologists say The project has damaged the cavesthat hold a few of the oldest human stays in North America.
The president’s office didn’t immediately reply to Vulcan’s allegations.
López Obrador has said prior to now that essentially the most attractive a part of the property is the corporate’s cargo dock – the one deep-water port on the coast’s mainland – which he desires to convert right into a cruise ship dock. He desires to turn the remainder of the property right into a nature reserve, he says.
“The Mexican government is using these political threats and false accusations to justify converting our property into a ‘naturally protected area’ that – ironically – could be used not for environmental protection but for commercial tourism purposes and naval operations, including cruise ship activities,” the corporate said.
López Obrador said he also wants to make use of the flooded pits the corporate dug from tons of of hectares of limestone soil as a “swimming pool” or as an “ecotourism” area to be run as a concession by a personal operator.
The huge pits are inhabited by crocodiles, that are a protected species in Mexico.
The company’s Punta Venado dock is the just one in the world able to handling cement, gravel and other cargo for the Mayan Train. The 1,500-kilometer Mayan Train route is designed to run in a rough loop across the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites.
López Obrador is touting the train as a approach to bring a few of Cancun’s tourism revenue to inland communities which have not yet shared in that wealth. But there are not any credible feasibility studies showing that tourists wish to use the train.
