Signs against mining exploitation (Photo@Frayba)

In a bulletin published on April 26th, the Samuel Ruiz Committee for the Promotion and Defense of Life expressed concern “at the strategy implemented by mining employees to confront campesinos of the ejido Ricardo Flores Magon, municipality of Chicomuselo, who oppose the mining activity,” which, not coincidentally, “is the road that leads to Ejido Grecia of the same municipality, and is the place where until 2009 the Canadian Black Fire kept extracting the mineral known as Barita that to this date is suspended.”

The Committee said that about 70 people were offered gifts for Children’s Day, 50,000 pesos and the construction of social works such as drinking water, a clinic, and a Cobach College among other things, in exchange for “a contract of agreements which must be approved by a public notary whereby they allow the passage”, and in addition they were “asked to appoint a commission of people in charge of protecting it in its passage through the communities against any unforeseen [events].

The Samuel Ruiz Committee for the Promotion and Defense of Life also recalled that “the opposition of the communities of the municipality of Chicomuselo to mining projects began in 2008 in the face of environmental damage caused by the Canadian mining company Black Fire, and they have currently organized as a civil society to carry out surveillance operations to stop the entry of mining companies, such that to accept the proposal would be promoting a confrontation between campesinos that could result in a greater problem.

For more information in Spanish:

Mineros promueven división comunitaria en Chicomuselo (Boletín informativo, 26 de abril de 2017)

For more information from SIPAZ :

Chiapas: Comunidades de Chicomuselo denuncian incursiones de empresas mineras (25 de mayo de 2016)

Chiapas: Denuncian reinicio ilegal de actividades mineras en Chicomuselo (29 de enero de 2014)