Tensions over limestone quarry affecting Mexico-US relations

Tensions between Alabama-based miner Vulcan Materials and Mexico's government over the company's limestone quarry and deepwater port in Quintana Roo state escalated after four US senators sent a letter to the foreign ministry warning that they would consider using “all available resources” if operations remained halted.

Operations have been stopped since May 2022, when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered the immediate closure of Vulcan's quarries, claiming that its subsidiary SAC TUN (formerly Calica) illegally extracted and exported limestone, which Vulcan denied and said it has the permits to operate.

“If the land and port of Vulcan are confiscated, we will be forced to consider all available resources to ensure that no entity or individual benefits from the theft of this property,” the letter, seen by BNamericas, said.

“These unnecessary, unjustified and unprecedented actions have undoubtedly harmed infrastructure development in Mexico and the United States and have undermined the longstanding bilateral relationship,” the senators added. “Indeed, they have eroded the confidence this delegation has in President López Obrador's leadership to enforce our existing free trade agreements and adhere to the rule of law.”

The senators urged the López Obrador administration to revoke the measures taken against Vulcan and work toward a win-win solution, saying that the company “has faced persistent threats and harassment from the government.”

On March 14 last year, police and navy troops occupied Vulcan's dock facilities in Punta Venado, near Playa del Carmen. About one week later, the company reported that police and the navy forcibly entered its pier.

Additionally, López Obrador threatened to convert the property into a protected natural area.