Representative August Pfluger of Texas’ 11th District and 35 Republican lawmakers fabricated a false suspicion of Chinese economic intervention in Mexico to bolster their campaign in support of Vulcan Materials, which is facing legal proceedings in Mexico for environmental destruction and other irregularities.
“We are troubled by reports that the adjacent (to a mine belonging to the aforementioned company) Tren Maya project may be funded by the Chinese Communist Party,” they stated in a letter to President Donald Trump dated March 7. “We request that your administration urgently investigate to clarify the true developers of this project to ensure the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative does not establish a presence in this strategically vital location. Should evidence emerge of activities that threaten U.S. national security, we urge your administration to implement the necessary actions to protect our national interests.”
HERE COME THE CHINESE!
In the Trump era, it is not unusual for politicians to exaggerate the weight of Chinese investments and the influence this would give Beijing. The president himself does so to support his ambition to take over the Panama Canal, since two of its five ports were awarded concessions to CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong company, in open bidding processes held in 1997 by the administration then in charge not of Panama, but of the United States, which still controlled the canal system’s operations and maneuvered to establish a long-term operational structure before handing it over to the Panamanian government in 1999.
Mr. Trump, however, introduced the new and unsubstantiated argument that this puts the strategic waterway under Chinese control, causing direct harm to American vessels and trade. “China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China,” he said. “We gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back.”
Verifications carried out by various prestigious Western news outlets, such as CNN and the BBC, have confirmed that “it is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, an agency of the Panamanian government, not Chinese soldiers,” and that “there is no public evidence to suggest that the Chinese government exercises control over the Canal, or its military.”
In any case, the pressure succeeded in getting CK Hutchison to sell its interests in the Panama Canal to one of Trumpism’s greatest allies, the investment fund BlackRock, in a massive USD 23 billion deal.
NON-EXISTENT CHINESE FINANCING
Perhaps encouraged by the presidential strategy and its success, Pfluger and his Republican colleagues went a step further, inventing a direct financial involvement of the Chinese Communist Party that never occurred, that no one had previously pointed out, and for which they offered no evidence. They also warned of a supposed extension of the Belt and Road Initiative to a country where it has no presence, with which there is no agreement, and which has not even been mentioned in that project, such as Mexico.
“There is no Chinese financing,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded at her March 10 press conference. “There was a company that had funding at some point, which had to do (with China)… but that has nothing to do with the financing of the Maya Train,” she asserted.
“El Sabueso,” the fact-checking arm of the Mexican news website Animal Político, found that “two companies of Chinese origin and with capital from that country’s government participated in the construction of the Maya Train, although there is no evidence in official documents that that country financed the project, as US legislators warned, since the contracts and work were paid for with resources from the Mexican government, through the National Fund for Tourism Promotion.”
These fact-checkers concluded that it is “false that the Chinese government finances the Maya Train.”
“IF YOU’RE GOING TO DESTROY, DON’T COME”
In the past, Vulcan Materials has already gotten legislators to intervene on its behalf, sometimes in very undiplomatic tones. Such was the case in September 2024 when 17 of them addressed the Mexican ambassador in Washington denouncing what they called “illegal actions to expropriate Vulcan Materials’ land and port.” They recalled that “for years, through letters, meetings, and direct conversations, we have communicated to you and your colleagues that the current mistreatment of Vulcan Materials will not continue.” They asserted, based on the problems with this company alone, that “Mexico cannot be trusted” and warned that “this conduct will erode the relationship between the United States and Mexico regarding trade and commercial policy.”
Vulcan Materials is the largest U.S. producer of construction aggregates such as crushed stone, sand, gravel, asphalt, and ready-mix concrete. It operates in Mexico through its subsidiary, Calizas Industriales del Carmen (Calica).
In 2022, Mexico’s Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection accused Calica (which had previously received sanctions for the same reason in 2017 and 2018) of causing severe environmental damage with the exploitation of rock material in the municipality of Solidaridad (Playa del Carmen), in the state of Quintana Roo (southeastern Mexico), as well as of repeatedly violating permits and operating with irregularities.
“The exploitation of rock material beneath the water table has caused serious environmental damage, including the permanent and irrecoverable loss of the subsoil,” the agency argued.
The company rejected various government requests, including MXN $360 million purchase offer for 2,400 hectares (Vulcan Materials is seeking $1.9 billion), and the conflict escalated until, in October 2023, then-President López Obrador declared that “if you’re going to destroy, don’t come,” declared 53,227 hectares a protected natural area (of which only 4% is owned by Vulcan Materials), and ordered law enforcement to take control of the Calica port and quarry.
Vulcan Materials has filed a lawsuit with the arbitration panel of the United States-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement.
Although the company is based in Alabama, it is Texan August Pfluger, a fervent supporter of Donald Trump and a proponent of his policies and practices, who is leading the efforts of legislators on its behalf.
In the case of Vulcan Materials, at least, he uses lies and false, unfounded accusations to advance the interests of the company.
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Mexican Press Agency is part of ALMA, which is dedicated to news and information about Mexico and Mexicans in the United States and is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Focus, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Redwood City, California.
