US company accuses Mexico of expropriating its property on the Caribbean coast
An American quarry company says the Mexican government has carried out a de-facto expropriation of its properties on Mexico's Caribbean coast
MEXICO CITY — An American quarry company said Tuesday the Mexican government carried out a de-facto expropriation of its properties on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Mexico's Interior Department issued a decree late Monday declaring the firm’s seaport and quarries to be a natural protected area, in effect prohibiting the company’s activities on its own land.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had previously threatened to expropriate the property and later offered to buy it for about $385 million, saying at the time he wanted to turn it into a tourist attraction.
Alabama-based Vulcan Materials said in a statement Tuesday that the move violates the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. It said the measure formed part of “a series of threats and actions by the current administration against our operations.
“The expropriation of land and the seaport belonging to our company is another escalation and another violation of Mexico's obligations under trade agreements,” the statement said. “This illegal measure will have a long-term paralyzing effect on trade and investment relations between Mexico and the United States."
The decree published in the official gazette shows a strangely patterned nature reserve that follows exactly some of the company's property lines.
While the decree states the purpose of the park is to protect local animal and plant species, in fact the seaport and stone quarries are very disturbed areas, do not much resemble a nature reserve and would add little to that effort.
Moreover, the decree comes after López Obrador's administration cut down tens of thousands
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