People gathered in front of the Canadian embassy in Mexico City this afternoon to express outrage at the number of community activists who have been killed while opposing Canadian mines in Mexico. Blue Planet Project organizer Claudia Campero Arena was there to participate in this protest.
Most recently, on October 22, Ismael Solorio Urrutia and Manuela Martha Solís Contreras, who had been campaigning to protect scarce water resources from the Cascabel mine owned by the Vancouver-based MAG Silver, were shot to death. Both Ismael and Manuela were members of the farmers association El Barzon.
Campero writes, “The day of the dead (día de los muertos), an important celebration in Mexico, is coming up (November 2). Altars with orange flowers, colorful paper and food are found here and there. However, the altar that was placed today in front of the Canadian Embassy was not a demonstration of folklore and culture, it was full of rage and sadness for yet another two murders have happened related with Canadian mining.”
We are demanding that: 1) the State of Chihuahua, the Mexican federal government, and the Canadian government take immediate action to protect members of El Barzon and other opponents of the MAG Silver mine, 2) Canadian and Mexican authorities investigate the murders and bring those responsible to justice, 3) MAG Silver stop its operations given it does not have the consent of the community, a violation of its legal obligations.
You can follow Claudia’s Twitter messages (in Spanish) on today’s protest at @claucampero. Water campaigner Meera Karunananthan’s ‘ACTION ALERT: Council of Canadians demands an end to impunity for mining corporations in Mexico’ can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=17653.
