Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez
A representative of the Coordinadora de Pueblos Unidos del Valle de Ocotlan (CPUVO) has been invited to speak at ‘Shout Out Against Mining Injustice’ this June 1-2 in Vancouver. They oppose the controversial Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver’s gold and silver mine, located about 550 kilometres south-east of Mexico City, which has been in operation since September 2011. This past March, CPUVO community activist and opponent of this mine Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez was murdered.
The Vancouver Media Co-op now reports, “Jorge Sánchez, representative of the villages in resistance in the Ocotlan Valley, announced the indefinite takeover of the mine in San José del Progreso beginning Monday, May 7th at an early hour, this comes after three years of conflict with the Cuzcatlán mining company (Trans. note: Cuzcatlán is a subsidiariy of Vancouver based Fortuna Silver). Sánchez stated that since they have not had any resolution of the problem or the assassinations in San José del Progreso, they have decided to mobilize. …He noted that the following villages continue to participate in the resistance in the Ocotlan Valley: Maguey Largo, Ocotlán, El Cuajilote, Magdalena Ocotlán, El Vergel Ejutla, Tejas de Morelos, Buena Vista, Paso de Piedra, and El Ocote, among others.”
The Council of Canadians and Blue Planet Project have joined with many other groups calling for Fortuna Silver to leave Mexico, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=14346. In late-March, Reforma.com reported (in Spanish), “Claudia Campero, leader of the Blue Planet, said that Bernardo was a local leader who had spoken out against the mining operations of the Vancouver-based company Fortuna Silver Mines in San José del Progreso, Oaxaca, known locally by the name of the subsidiary Minera Cuzcatlán. ‘A man deeply involved in the protest against Fortuna Silver Canadian mining and its impacts on local water sources was killed,’ Campero said in a telephone interview. She said that Canadian organizations are also asking for clarification of the murder. ‘They’re looking to change the law in Canada that when human rights are violated environmental and labor out of our country the people directly affected have recourse through the Canadian legal system,’ she said.” That’s at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=14242.
‘Shout Out Against Mining Injustice’ has been dedicated to the memory of Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez and to all those who have been killed in the struggle against mining injustice. To register for the conference, please go to http://canadians.org/shoutout.
