Article by PBI-Canada

Update – Avispa Midia reports: “Following the blockade of federal highway 175, which links the Central Valleys of Oaxaca with the tourist areas of the coast, on the morning of this Monday (14), 16 communities that are part of an anti-mining front in the state won an audience with the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semanart).”

On December 14, the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project posted on its Facebook page: “Today we are monitoring the situation in Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, where the No to Mining for a Future of All Front is mobilizing to demand immediate audience with Maria Luisa Albores Gonzalez, Director of the Media Secretariat Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), to solve the problems of the San Jose mining project of the Cuzcatlán mining company (Fortuna Silver Mines).”

Educa Oaxaca further explains that the No to Mining for a Future for all Front has established a blockade on Highway 175 to demand a meeting with SEMARNAT.

Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. is currently seeking a 10-year extension for its San José Mine situated near the Zapotec village of San José del Progreso in the state of Oaxaca in south-western Mexico.

The Front says: “the exploitation of gold and silver for 10 more years would generate irreversible contamination in territories of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca” and has called on SEMARNAT deny a new environmental permit for the mine.

On December 7, Educa Oaxaca noted: “SEMARNAT [has] organized an express public consultation of the San José II project, [published] on November 13, giving as the maximum date to receive comments on November 23, i.e., only 10 days.”

The Oaxacan Collective in Defence of the Territories comments: “These deadlines are limited, especially when we are in a period of health contingency, so such action violates our rights to public information and citizen participation.”

This mine was first developed in 2009, began production in September 2011, and now needs this permit to continue its operations beyond 2021.

PBI-Mexico has accompanied Educa Oaxaca since May 2013.