Article by PBI-Canada
Photo: During a PBI-organized advocacy tour in Canada in November 2018, Neftalí Reyes Méndez (Educa Oaxaca) and Salvador Martínez Arellanes (an Indigenous leader from Santa Carina Minas) highlighted their concerns about Fortuna Silver.
In October 2018, a “People’s Trial against the State and Mining Companies in Oaxaca” was held in Oaxaca City, Mexico.
The People’s Trial called for an end to the existing 41 mining projects in Oaxaca (including the Fortuna Silver mine near San José del Progreso) and the cancellation of the 322 concessions granted in Oaxaca by the Mexican government to mining companies.
In November 2018, PBI-Canada hosted an advocacy tour featuring Neftalí Reyes Méndez (from Educa Oaxaca) and Salvador Martínez Arellanes (an Indigenous leader from Santa Carina Minas) who raised their concerns about Fortuna’s operations.
Since that advocacy tour:
San Jose del Progreso
In July 2020, the Oaxacan Collective in Defence of the Territories posted a statement that reports that the Cuzcatlán Mining Company, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., had submitted an environmental impact assessment (MIA) for approval by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT).
That environmental impact assessment/MIA seeks a 10-year extension for the San José Mine situated near the Zapotec village of San José del Progreso. This mine was first developed in 2009, shifted into production in September 2011, and now the company needs this permit to continue its operations beyond 2021.
The No-to-Mining Front (Frente No a la Minería) opposes the renewal and expansion of the Fortuna/Cuzcatlán permit.
Magdalena Ocotlán
In August 2020, Avispa reported: “This Oaxacan municipality, like its neighbor San José del Progreso, registered its first [COVID-19] infection shortly after the Cuzcatlán Mining Company – a subsidiary of Canada’s Fortuna Silver Mines – resumed operations [at its San Jose del Progreso mine] on May 27.”
Furthermore: “On July 10, [the municipality] noticed that the water from one of the dams they built to capture rainwater was contaminated. …It seems that this strange substance was washed away by the rainwater runoff from the mining company’s tailings dam, which means that the crops may also be contaminated.”
That article also notes: “It was not the first time their waters were affected by the activities of the Cuzcatlán Mining Company, which operates less than 300 meters from the town’s water dams and cornfields.”
Santa Catarina Minas
Santa Catarina Minas is located about 19 kilometers north of San Jose del Progreso.
In September 2016, Des Informemonos reported that the city council of Santa Catarina Minas had accused Fortuna Silver of carrying out mining explorations in the area without permission and called for that work to stop.
In February 2020, El Muro reported: “Salvador Martínez, a villager in the community of Santa Catarina Minas, detailed that the [No To Mining Front] required the Ministry of the Environment, in May 2019, not to approve MIA-Particular [for the San Jose del Progreso mine] ‘because it violates our self-determination and autonomy as indigenous communities and peoples, by not being able to decide freely on our territories’.”
PBI-USA continues to map and amplify community concerns being raised about Fortuna’s operations in Oaxaca.
Photo: In February 2020, Salvador Martínez Arellanes and Neftalí Reyes Méndez (who participated in the PBI advocacy tour in Canada in 2018) spoke against Fortuna Silver receiving a new 10-year permit for its San Jose del Progreso mine.
