Mexico City, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador held a private meeting Monday with Thomas Hill, the CEO of Vulcan Materials, the American company that owns Playa del Carmen based Sac-Tun.
The pair met behind closed doors for more than two hours with other federal officials Monday afternoon in a private meeting. The meeting took place after the Playa del Carmen limestone extraction pit was shut down by Profepa May 6.
So far, no one has commented publicly on the meeting. Other officials seen arriving at the National Palace Monday for the meeting included the United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, the Mexican ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, the Secretary of the Interior and of the Environment, Adán Augusto López Hernández and María Luisa Albores, respectively, as well as representatives of Vulcan Materials.
The meeting took place after the American-based company referred to the closure of the Sac-Tun facilities as illegal. The Mexican government has an ongoing legal battle over the extraction of limestone from the Playa del Carmen pit.
The battle escalated after an agreement was announced by the government of Mexico in which extraction at Sac-Tun would stop and the Playa del Carmen land be turned into a tourist park. However, after a regional flyover by AMLO a week later, he learned the company continued to extract limestone.
Days later, the site was closed and has remained shut.
