The Observation Mission views the Fortuna Silver tailings dam near San Jose del Progreso, November 2012.
The Blue Planet Project participated in a ‘Misión Civil de Observación’ in San Jose del Progreso, Mexico last week. The group of about 25 observers looked into the Canadian-owned Fortuna Silver mine (operating through its Mexican subsidiary Compañía Minera Cuzcatlan) near this community (ejido) of Indigenous Zapotec farmers near the city of Oaxaca.
Pieced together from various articles and reports, the following is a chronology of the situation in San Jose del Progreso:
2006
- November – The federal government of Mexico grants Fortuna Silver/ Compañía Minera Cuzcatlan a concession of about 360 square kilometres of land to mine.
2009
- March 14 – Local residents begin a blockade of the road going into the mine concession, which lasted for more than a month. They demand that the federal government cancel the concession granted to the company.
- May – Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz (PRI) orders state police to end the blockade of the mine by force. Around 700 police are sent to end the blockade, 23 people are arrested.
2010
- June – A local priest, Martín Octavio García Ortiz, who opposes the mine, is kidnapped and beaten. He is forced to leave the town.
- July 1 – Gabino Cue is elected Oaxaca governor.
December – Alberto Mauro Sánchez Muñoz (PRI) wins the municipal election in San Jose del Progreso.
2011
- May – Representatives of ten towns around the mine ask the state of Oaxaca to cancel the concessions to Fortuna Silver.
- September – The mine opens.
2012
- January 18 – Bernardo Méndez is shot and killed in San Jose del Progreso when he along with others confront a municipal crew working on a water pipeline. They suspected the pipeline would divert scarce water in the hills away from the community for use at the mine. Abigail Vásquez is also shot and seriously wounded in this incident.
- March – A spray-painted warning appears on a wall where some of the miners gather to party after hours. It says (in Spanish), ‘Bernardo your end has come’.
- March 15 – Bernardo Vásquez is shot and killed as he drives on the highway just outside San Jose del Progreso. His brother Andres and friend Rosalinda Canseco are also seriously wounded in the attack.
- May – A short blockade of the mine begins.
- July 16 – Guadalupe Vásquez Ruiz and Bertín Vásquez Ruiz, both opponents of the mine, are shot outside the church in San Jose del Progreso.
- September – In its first year of production the mine produces $15 million worth of silver.
- November – The Blue Planet Project participates in a ‘Misión Civil de Observación’ looking into the impacts of the Fortuna Silver mine, notably its impacts on the human right to water.
