Mexico

In late November 2009, community activist Mariano Abarca Roblero was gunned down outside his home in the State of Chiapas in the south of Mexico. Mariano was a leader of the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA), which had brought public attention to the region’s struggle against Canadian company Blackfire Exploration which has a barite mining project in Chiapas. Before his death, Mariano stated that, “If anything happens to me, I blame the Canadian mining company Blackfire.” Three men linked to Blackfire were quickly arrested in relation to his murder.

Joint news release with Common Frontiers and United Steelworkers: A Canadian delegation that visited Chiapas, Mexico following the murder of social activist Mariano Abarca and the involvement of several employees of the Calgary-based mining company Blackfire Exploration has concluded that Blackfire should leave Chiapas, and the Canadian Parliament needs to act now to prevent further international mining conflicts from turning deadly.

Joint news release with Common Frontiers, Council of Canadians, United Steelworkers, Comité pour les droits humains en Amérique latine, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, Sierra Club Canada, L’Entraide missionnaire, and the Social Justice Committee: A coalition of Canadian non-governmental groups today filed a memo with the RCMP asking it to investigate Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration Ltd. and its Mexican subsidiary under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act.

Joint news release with Common Frontiers, United Steelworkers, Council of Canadians, and Sierra Club Canada: A coalition of Canadian organizations is condemning the threatened use of NAFTA by Blackfire Exploration to extract 800 million dollars from the impoverished Mexican state of Chiapas. The Calgary-based mining company is embroiled in accusations of corruption of Mexican public officials and the murder of a prominent environmental activist in the Mexican State of Chiapas.

Joint news release with Common Frontiers-Canada, the Council of Canadians, and the United Steelworkers: Documents recently filed by the Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA, from the Spanish) with the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office have exposed Blackfire’s involvement in the corruption of local officials for the purpose of intimidating opponents to the company's open pit barite mine. “We have obtained documents – which Blackfire admits are genuine – that clearly show payments of US$1,000 a month going directly into the Mayor of Chicomuselo’s bank account on the understanding that municipal authorities would keep community members opposed to the mine under control,” explained Rick Arnold, coordinator for Common Frontiers-Canada.

Joint news release with the Council of Canadians: The night of November 27th, Mariano Abarca Roblero, an activist against mining in Chicomuselo, Chiapas, was murdered. Mr. Abarca was an important member of the community who had suffered threats, prison and violence due to his opposition to the mining activities of Calgary-based Blackfire Exploration.

The night of November 27th, Mariano Abarca Roblero, an activist against mining in Chicomuselo, Chiapas, was murdered. Mr. Abarca was an important member of the community who had suffered threats, prison and violence due to his opposition to the environmentally harmful mining activities of Blackfire Exploration. Please use the draft letter below to send your own letter calling on the government of Chiapas to investigate this murder, protect all other activists, and suspend Blackfire Exploration’s mining permits.

Joint news release with the FAO-Frente Amplio Opositor: (Ottawa/Montreal/Cerro de San Pedro) – Yesterday, PROFEPA, the Mexican environmental enforcement agency, shut down New Gold Inc.’s (TSX:NGD) Cerro de San Pedro open-pit gold mine on the outskirts of the city of San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The agency was enforcing decisions rendered by the Ninth Circuit Administrative Court and the Federal Tribunal of Fiscal and Administrative Justice.

Joint news release with the FAO-Frente Amplio Opositor: (Montreal) In a press conference held in Mexico City on November 10th, Mauricio Limón, Undersecretary for Environmental Protection at the Mexican ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), declared that the ministry would enforce a recent superior court ruling and withdraw New Gold’s (TSX:NGD) environmental impact permit between now and Friday, November 13th. The company, he declared, would at that point have to cease operations at its Cerro de San Pedro project. The Undersecretary’s statements were reported in the November 11th edition of La Jornada, one of Mexico’s leading national newspapers.