On Sunday, U.S. Senator Katie Britt called the seizure of a Vulcan Materials port facility by Mexican armed forces “unlawful and unacceptable” in a statement. This was in response to the militarized seizure of Vulcan Materials Company’s port facility at Punta Venado in Quintana Roo, Mexico, by forces of the Mexican government.
“This forcible seizure of private property is unlawful and unacceptable,” Sen. Britt said in a press release. “It is shameful that this Mexican presidential administration would rather confiscate American assets than the fentanyl killing hundreds of Americans per day. Mexico should be more focused on going after the cartels than law-abiding businesses and hardworking people. President Biden must raise this directly with President López Obrador and assure the American people that this will not be tolerated. The ramifications of this illicit seizure extend into the United States, significantly hamstringing important American infrastructure, energy, and other construction projects that currently rely on Vulcan’s operations in Mexico for materials. My office and I will continue to monitor this situation and ensure this is not swept under the rug.”
Early on the morning of March 14, heavily armed Mexican military and police forces breached the facility and confiscated it. A Mexican federal district court on March 16 ordered governmental forces to vacate the premises within 24 hours. However, the property remains under military occupation as of late Sunday night.
Senator Britt in February traveled to Mexico City and discussed the increasing illegal aggression by the Mexican government towards Vulcan with Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard. Senator Britt has also addressed the matter with senior U.S. Embassy personnel in Mexico City.
Vulcan Materials Company is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company owns a string of quarries providing building materials. Most of Vulcan’s facilities are in the U.S. except for two large quarries and marine terminals on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Vulcan is the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates—primarily crushed stone, sand, and gravel—and a major producer of aggregates-based construction materials, including asphalt and ready-mixed concrete. The company reported revenues of $7.3 billion last year.
The seizure was due to a dispute over the use of the port facility by Mexican aggregate maker CEMEX.
Vulcan Chairman and CEO J. Thomas Hill wrote to the Mexican ambassador Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, “On Tuesday, March 14, at approximately 5:30 am local time, heavily armed Naval forces, state police, and special investigative forces answering to the state prosecutor, along with CEMEX personnel, arrived at the gates of Vulcan/Calica property at Punta Venado in Quintana Roo. They informed the unarmed Vulcan security guards that they had an order to bring a CEMEX vessel into the port to unload cement. CEMEX, the military, and the police forced entry into our private property. They did not possess or present at that time any court order, warrant, or other official justifications for the action. As of today, March 16, we have not been presented a single legal document, court order, or warrant justifying or ordering this act. Government forces and CEMEX personnel continue to illegally occupy Vulcan’s private property, as CEMEX unloads its ship supported by armed military and police forces. I am writing to request that your government immediately order its forces and officials to leave our private property. The government’s participation in this gross violation of our property rights is yet another example of the government’s arbitrary and illegal treatment of Vulcan and its investments in Mexico. This occupation must cease immediately.”
Britt is the ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. She is in her first term representing Alabama in the U.S. Senate.
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