Suspected of sabotaging the Mayan Train, Xcaret and Sac Tun —formerly known as Calica— face sanctions from federal authorities for affecting the environment.
The activities of both companies, based in the municipality of Solidaridad, Quintana Roo, have caused “unprecedented destruction” in that area of the Rivera Maya, operate without authorization from federal authorities and seek a judicial resolution of the disputes.
The federal government has irrefutable evidence, both of the alterations to the ecological environment, attributable to tourism developers, and of the illegal extraction of materials in the vicinity of Puerto Venado, owned by Sac Tun.
Last weekend, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador carried out a supervision flight over sections 5 and 6 of the Mayan Train. There he discovered a ship in the maritime terminal. “I had been told that they were no longer extracting material. They were cheating on me.”
The negotiations between Vulcan Materials and the Mexican government, according to the latest report, were progressing smoothly. The president and CEO of the firm, Tom Hill, confirmed a week ago that they already had the endorsement of the customs permit that allowed them to continue their activities in Punta Venado.
At the end of 2021, the Mexican authorities had not responded to the endorsement request presented by the directors of the company’s Mexican subsidiary, based in Alabama. The last authorization was issued in 2018 and as of this year, they only had temporary permits, which had to be renewed every two months.
“If the Mexican government does not issue future customs permits or take any other measure that requires us to cease our operations in Mexico, our ability to supply customers will be compromised,” the firm’s 2021 annual report emphasized.
A month ago, the representatives of Vulcan Materials agreed to modify their plans for exploiting the limestone deposit to develop a large-scale ecotourism project on their property, as long as they could fulfill previously acquired commitments with their clients.
The construction of the tourist center —they conceded— would begin immediately, in the areas of the land where the reserves of stone materials were already exhausted. The foreign firm made its reserve of materials available to the Mexican authorities, to supply the Mayan Train and the Interoceanic Corridor.
Their facilities in Puerto Venado —they offered— could be used for the transfer of construction materials related to the train and the new airports in the Yucatan Peninsula.
The negotiations between the parties even contemplated the expansion of the maritime terminal, to receive passenger, cargo and naval ships from 2024.
In the Covián Palace are the drafts of the binding agreement, the fulfillment of which is subject to the closing of the international arbitration initiated by Vulcan Materials in December 2018, due to the closure of operations in the Playa del Carmen quarries and the embargo of material reserves. stone notwithstanding the validity of its concession over four lots and the ownership of the limestone reserves.
The first hearing of that mechanism —protected by the T-MEC— took place in July 2021 and the second would take place in the second half of this year.
The resolution of that controversy, as well as the signing of a binding agreement, were subject -according to the company’s spokesmen- to the fulfillment of one condition: that the Mexican authorities allow them to fulfill the commitments acquired with their clients, both in Mexico like abroad.
Side effects
BACKS. Now that public policy against addictions has relapsed into an incessant alarmist and unfocused propaganda, the recognition of the careers of María Elena Medina Mora and Manuel Ruiz de Chávez, granted by the Mexican Association of Pharmaceutical Research Industries, highlights the role of medical-scientific community to care for vulnerable populations. And to reassess the action of civil society organizations, such as the Gonzalo Río Arronte Foundation, in the fight against drugs.
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Journalist and columnist for El Economista, author of Doña Perpetua: Elba Esther Gordillo’s power and opulence. Elba Esther Gordillo against the SEP.