US Lawmakers Press Mexico to Resolve Vulcan Materials’ Calica Dispute

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The long-running conflict between Mexico and Alabama-based Vulcan Materials Company has reached the United States Congress, where Democratic and Republican lawmakers have joined forces to demand that the Mexican government resolve the litigation over the closure of the company’s Calica operations.

According to a letter obtained by Sol Quintana Roo, Democratic Congresswoman Terri Sewell led a bipartisan message to Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Roberto Lazzeri Montaño, expressing concern over the treatment of Vulcan Materials — headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama — and the harm done to American workers.

The US political offensive includes lawmakers from both parties, among them August Pfluger, Salud Carbajal and Gary Palmer, who accused the Mexican government of continuing to act against the company and demanded that its property rights be respected.

Sewell said that for nearly a decade, Mexican officials have used what she described as illegal tactics to intimidate Vulcan and its workers, including the military occupation of a company property in Mexico.

A Dispute Dating Back to 2022

The letter lands amid a dispute that traces back to May 2022, when the Mexican government shut down the company’s operations south of Playa del Carmen. According to the background circulated by the congresswoman, Mexican authorities occupied the property again in March 2023.

The conflict escalated on September 23, 2024, when then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a decree designating the site a Natural Protected Area — a measure that, according to the US statement, prevented Vulcan from putting the property to productive use.

The US lawmakers now also warn about criminal proceedings that, the document says, could lead to a new intervention on the property and the eventual confiscation of assets.

Washington’s pressure goes beyond the letter. Sewell took part this year in the House of Representatives’ approval of the Defending American Property Abroad Act (DAPA), legislation advanced in the context of the Vulcan conflict.

Dozens of US federal representatives backed the letter, in a display of bipartisan pressure on Mexico to break the deadlock.

The Vulcan case once again places Quintana Roo at the center of a dispute that has moved well beyond the corporate arena, becoming a matter of diplomatic and legislative pressure between Mexico and the United States.