The Maya-Kalika Journey: Predation and Hypocrisy

Opinion

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has warned that if US company Vulcan Materials is not ready to reach agreements, his administration will go to national and international courts to present evidence that illustrates the environmental disaster caused by its subsidiary Caliza Industries del Carmen. . Likewise, he emphasized that his administration would not allow environmental damage to continue despite pressure from the US government and lawmakers in the company’s favour.

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Calica operates a plant extracting gravel and other minerals on a 3,000-hectare plot of land in Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, which the president has repeatedly accused of causing severe and irreversible impacts on the natural resources of the Mexican Caribbean. Soil loss. On May 5, the federal government shut down Calica’s operations after the Federal Environmental Protection Prosecutor conducted an inspection visit during which he was “warned of potential damage and serious degradation of ecosystems”. In response, the company described the shutdown as arbitrary and said it “intends to vigorously pursue all available legal avenues to protect its rights and resume normal operations.”

On Monday 23, the President of the Republic Lopez Obrador met the CEO of Vulcan, J. Thomas HillThis is to suggest that the quarry becomes a tourist place that cares about the environment, which the company has not responded to so far. The meeting was also attended by the US ambassador to our country Ken Salazar, and the Mexican representative in Washington, Esteban Moctezuma.

The pressure exerted by the executive and legislative branches of the United States to defend Vulcan’s interests is new evidence of the hypocrisy of environmental discourse being provoked by rulers and businessmen in the United States itself, as well as other countries in the Global West, particularly Canada and Europe. Those same actors who use the issue of the environment as an excuse to dictate to the rest of the world how it should conduct its internal affairs and impose policies on it in managing strategic sectors such as energy, shamelessly abandon the environment when it comes to giving face to the untenable interests of its transnational extractive companies. .

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In addition to putting an end to this empty intervention, devoid of any real concern for the environment, these agents must understand that in Mexico, as in Latin America and throughout the developing world, the environmental struggle begins with the defense of the territory, where one can speak of protecting The environment without real self-determination over its natural resources.

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Editing: Emilio Gomez