Calica land will be declared a protected natural area in September

Mexico City. It will be at the beginning of September when the 2,400 hectares claimed from the giant Vulcan Materials Company on the coast of Quintana Roo will be declared a protected natural area, assured President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

He stressed that he will not finish his term without taking that step to protect these lands in Playa del Carmen, where this American company exploits the Calica Parta open-pit mine to extract limestone and other materials.

“The legal process has already begun so that before the government concludes (this area) will be declared a protected natural area. Consultations were being carried out, everything that the law says, I hope by the beginning of September,” said the head of the Executive.

The López Obrador government has been in dispute with the US company, alleging “ecocide” for the extraction of materials used to build roads in the northern neighbor.

The federal government ordered the closure of the mine several months ago and has proposed to buy the land based on an appraisal. The company rejected the purchase-sale proposal and filed an international lawsuit demanding compensation for the damage.

Last July, López Obrador considered that the owners of Vulcan “are determined to continue exploiting, to want to extract the stone, the gravel, to take it to the United States” and that for this reason, advised by their lawyers, they have sought that American legislators pressure the Mexican government to prevent what they call “an illegal expropriation.”