AP: The director of the mining company robbed of $8.5 million in gold in Mexico made the rare revelation in a television interview that his company has a "good relationship" with area drug traffickers.
Rob McEwen of Canada-based McEwen Mining Inc. said in an interview Thursday with Canada's Business News Network that company employees ask the drug cartels for permission before they explore. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
Showing posts with label mining communities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mining communities. Show all posts
Aug 13, 2014
Mexico Says Mine Slow to Report Huge Acid Spill
NYTimes: A civil defense official says a private mine in northern Mexico did not immediately report a massive acid spill, allowing it to flow into a river that supplies water to tens of thousands of people.
Carlos Arias, director of civil defense for the northern state of Sonora, said the spill at a copper mine near the U.S. border was caused by defects in newly constructed leaching or holding ponds. Read more.
Carlos Arias, director of civil defense for the northern state of Sonora, said the spill at a copper mine near the U.S. border was caused by defects in newly constructed leaching or holding ponds. Read more.
Aug 20, 2012
No silver medal: Mexican farmers battle Canadian mine for control of their land
Waging Nonviolence: By Paul Bocking.
Civil disobedience has halted production at Mexico’s “top grade producer of silver.” Farmers of the La Sierrita village, a close knit community of about 50 families, located 40 minutes north of the city of Gomez Palacio, Durango, have shut down the La Platosa mine owned by Canadian firm Excellon Resources for over a month.
This comes in response to the company’s refusal to negotiate with the community over its requests for the preferential hiring of local people on whose land the company operates, as well as pay the rental rates for its use. Labor conditions within the underground mine where many local residents work is also an issue. Dozens of community members have maintained a nonviolent blockade of the one road into the mine, allowing only essential maintenance workers to pass, resulting in extraction grinding to a halt.
In recent years mining operations have drawn local protests from Peru to Tanzania and Papua New Guinea. Mexico is the site of several high profile struggles, nearly all involving Canadian companies. Communities are opposing the loss of their land and its contamination with toxins, including arsenic and cyanide, which are used in abundance in the extraction of gold. Read more.
Civil disobedience has halted production at Mexico’s “top grade producer of silver.” Farmers of the La Sierrita village, a close knit community of about 50 families, located 40 minutes north of the city of Gomez Palacio, Durango, have shut down the La Platosa mine owned by Canadian firm Excellon Resources for over a month.
This comes in response to the company’s refusal to negotiate with the community over its requests for the preferential hiring of local people on whose land the company operates, as well as pay the rental rates for its use. Labor conditions within the underground mine where many local residents work is also an issue. Dozens of community members have maintained a nonviolent blockade of the one road into the mine, allowing only essential maintenance workers to pass, resulting in extraction grinding to a halt.
In recent years mining operations have drawn local protests from Peru to Tanzania and Papua New Guinea. Mexico is the site of several high profile struggles, nearly all involving Canadian companies. Communities are opposing the loss of their land and its contamination with toxins, including arsenic and cyanide, which are used in abundance in the extraction of gold. Read more.
Jul 23, 2012
Mexican town takes on world's richest man
Fox News Latino: A peasant town in central Mexico has declared war on the world's richest man, Carlos Slim, to prevent him from operating a gold and silver mine that threatens the environment.
The precious metals are in La Espejera mountain in Tetela de Ocampo, a town in the mountains of Puebla state, where the Mexican billionaire's Minera Frisco obtained a 50-year mining license.
"We are waging war, but if Slim wants to listen to us, we will look for his good side to convince him not to affect or kill my community," the president of the grassroots organization Tetela Hacia el Futuro, German Romero, told Efe. Read more.
The precious metals are in La Espejera mountain in Tetela de Ocampo, a town in the mountains of Puebla state, where the Mexican billionaire's Minera Frisco obtained a 50-year mining license.
"We are waging war, but if Slim wants to listen to us, we will look for his good side to convince him not to affect or kill my community," the president of the grassroots organization Tetela Hacia el Futuro, German Romero, told Efe. Read more.
May 4, 2012
Mexico Mining Union Wins Battle To Choose Its Leader
Fox Business: The longtime leader of a key Mexican mining union is planning his return to Mexico following years of self-exile in Canada, after winning a series of court cases against the government, including a recent Supreme Court case and a criminal complaint, lawyers for the labor group said Thursday.
The leader of the National Union of Miners and Metal Workers, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, "has one foot in Mexico and one hand on his luggage," said Marco del Toro, a lawyer working for the union. Del Toro said Gomez has suffered a six-year persecution by the government for his defense of mining workers against politically powerful mining companies.
The miners' union run by Gomez is best known for its strike against copper mine and railways operator Grupo Mexico SAB (GMEXICO.MX) that shut down the nation's biggest copper mine at Cananea near the U.S. border for three years. read more
The leader of the National Union of Miners and Metal Workers, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, "has one foot in Mexico and one hand on his luggage," said Marco del Toro, a lawyer working for the union. Del Toro said Gomez has suffered a six-year persecution by the government for his defense of mining workers against politically powerful mining companies.
The miners' union run by Gomez is best known for its strike against copper mine and railways operator Grupo Mexico SAB (GMEXICO.MX) that shut down the nation's biggest copper mine at Cananea near the U.S. border for three years. read more
Mar 16, 2012
Human Rights/Rule of Law: Oaxaca activist killed in ambush
La Jornada: The Attorney General of Oaxaca confirmed the death of Bernardo Vázquez Sánchez in Santa Lucía Ocotlán, through which he was traveling with relatives, who were injured.
Oaxaca: The main opponent of the operation of a silver mine in the indigenous community of San José del Progreso and the leader of the United Peoples Coordinator in the Ocotlán Valley, Bernardo Vázquez Sánchez, was killed in an ambush in Santa Lucía Ocotlán, confirmed the Attorney General of Oaxaca (PGJO).
The agency reported the attack was perpetrated on a stretch of road leading to Santa Lucía Ocatlán.
It is presumed that the unknown assailants fired their high-caliber weapons at the compact car the victim was riding in with his relatives, who were also injured, from a distance.
Just this past January 19, Vázquez Sánchez harshly accused the government of Gabino Cué of being incapable of resolving the conflict that prevails in San José del Progreso and attending to the interests of the Cuzcatlán mining company. During a press conference he gave at the time, he said the mayor of San José del Progreso, Mauro Alberto Sánchez, was the one who ordered a shooting a few days earlier during the municipal police’s crackdown on protesters of the laying down of a pipeline to bring water to the factory, leaving two people injured.
Several human rights organizations issued a statement condemning the attack and demanding that the state authorities punish those responsible. They also urged a halt to the operation of the plant, which has caused the widespread violence and left five people dead. Spanish translation
Translation: Michael Kane, Center for International Policy intern
Oaxaca: The main opponent of the operation of a silver mine in the indigenous community of San José del Progreso and the leader of the United Peoples Coordinator in the Ocotlán Valley, Bernardo Vázquez Sánchez, was killed in an ambush in Santa Lucía Ocotlán, confirmed the Attorney General of Oaxaca (PGJO).
The agency reported the attack was perpetrated on a stretch of road leading to Santa Lucía Ocatlán.
It is presumed that the unknown assailants fired their high-caliber weapons at the compact car the victim was riding in with his relatives, who were also injured, from a distance.
Just this past January 19, Vázquez Sánchez harshly accused the government of Gabino Cué of being incapable of resolving the conflict that prevails in San José del Progreso and attending to the interests of the Cuzcatlán mining company. During a press conference he gave at the time, he said the mayor of San José del Progreso, Mauro Alberto Sánchez, was the one who ordered a shooting a few days earlier during the municipal police’s crackdown on protesters of the laying down of a pipeline to bring water to the factory, leaving two people injured.
Several human rights organizations issued a statement condemning the attack and demanding that the state authorities punish those responsible. They also urged a halt to the operation of the plant, which has caused the widespread violence and left five people dead. Spanish translation
Translation: Michael Kane, Center for International Policy intern
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)