United States business says Mexican authorities unlawfully took property

MEXICO CITY — A U.S. business said Monday that Mexican authorities and soldiers have actually unlawfully gone into and took a freight port it runs on land it owns on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

Alabama-based Vulcan Materials said the authorities required their method into the Caribbean coast dock at Punta Venado, near Playa del Carmen, recently.

“It should be clear that the rule of law is no longer assured for foreign companies in Mexico,” the business said in a declaration. “This invasion, unsupported by legal warrants, violates Vulcan’s commercial and property rights.”

Police and marines initially inhabited the property last Tuesday night, and they were still there since Monday, according to the business.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has actually remained in a disagreement with Vulcan for a number of years. López Obrador requires the dock to get cement, crushed stone and other products into the location to complete his family pet job, a traveler train referred to as the Train Maya. The president closed down Vulcan’s stone quarries last May, arguing the business had actually drawn out or exported stone without approval.

Video from the occurrence revealed a long line of authorities and military patrol trucks open a locked gate and get in the property. Vulcan said they did not provide any legal documentation to validate their actions.

The business said the policeman then supervised the dumping of cement at the port center. The cement was obviously predestined for the Maya Train job, which the president has actually promised to open by December, in spite of the truth it is well behind schedule.

Will the cement business in concern, Mexico’s Cemex, had when had an arrangement with Vulcan to utilize the port, that contract had actually ended. Both sides had actually applied for court injunctions.

Neither López Obrador’s workplace nor Cemex right away reacted to ask for discuss the circumstance.

Because there aren’t any regional products of crushed stone required to support the train’s tracks, López Obrador has actually been required to import the stone, referred to as ballast, from Cuba.

Even so, ships bring the Cuban ballast need to land at the port of Sisal, on the other side of the Yucatan peninsula, and be trucked about 180 miles (300 kms) to some train building and construction websites.

The just personal Caribbean coast freight dock that might manage the Cuban deliveries — and other deliveries of cement and steel — is owned and run by Vulcan. López Obrador has actually used to purchase the property, however talks have actually obviously not worked out.

“That (port) would be ideal, it is deep enough, but relations are not good” with the business, López Obrador said in November.

In May, the Environment Department closed Vulcan’s limestone quarry and prohibited the business from exporting stone that has actually long been utilized in U.S. and Mexican building jobs.

López Obrador desires the water-filled quarry to be utilized as an amusement park to equal the close-by XCaret park. He likewise desires Vulcan to build a cruise liner dock at the freight terminal. He has actually pressed the Alabama-based aggregates business to offer the property to the federal government, or open a water park itself.

The water park concept has problems. The water-filled areas of the quarry, while they may look welcoming, are occupied by crocodiles.

The 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) Maya Train line is indicated to run in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, linking beach resorts and historical sites.

López Obrador promotes the train as a method to bring a few of Cancun’s enormous tourist earnings to inland neighborhoods that haven’t shared in the wealth. But there are no reliable expediency research studies yet revealing travelers will wish to utilize the train.

Moreover, without any previous ecological research studies, the president chose to reduce a swath of low jungle in between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum.