Oscar Ontiveros Martínez (@Proceso)
On May 12th, the mining leader in opposition to the Media Luna company, Oscar Ontiveros Martinez, was murdered by an armed group in the town of Real de Limon, municipality of Cocula.
Relatives of the victim denounced that “the murder of Oscar Ontiveros was for political-labor reasons and in repression for his activism in the Media Luna mining company, as he was a key worker in the work stoppage in November 2017.” They recalled that for the same reason he was one of the workers fired by the managers of the mining company after the strike movement that ended in early 2018.
They stated that the same paramilitary group allegedly hired by the mining company based in Cocula, was the one which murdered Quintin Salgado in January 2018, another activist opposed to the mining company who led a work stoppage to demand union independence and respect for the rights of tenant farmers . “This armed group has positioned itself in the Rio Balsas area, in favor of the Media Luna mining company because they receive monetary benefits to control the stoppages and any sign of community organization to denounce what is happening within the company,” they stated.
It should be remembered that, in January 2018, the brothers Victor and Marcelino Sahuanitla Peña, both workers of the Media Luna company, who were participating in the work stoppage, were also killed.
This week, Media Luna, a subsidiary of Torex Gold Resources led by Canadian Fred Staford, announced that it was about to resume activities after stopping due to the health emergency that is caused by the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) since April 2nd. It added that from May 18th operations will be resumed immediately and by June the mine will already be in “routine production.”
For more information in Spanish:
Ejecutan a opositor a la minera Media Luna en Cocula, Guerrero (Proceso, 16 de mayo de 2020)
Inseguridad y pandemia factores de riesgo para operar en Guerrero: minera Torex Gold (El Sur, 15 de mayo de 2020)
Astudillo “actuó para remover bloqueos ilegales” del sindicato minero en 2018: Media Luna(Proceso, 14 de mayo de 2020)
For more information from SIPAZ:
Guerrero: Desapareció líder comunitario de Cocula, Sindicato de EU pide a México su localización (October 2, 2019)
Guerrero: Conflict at Mine of Canadian Company Torex Gold Resources (February 17, 2018)
Guerrero: NGO releases Urgent Action to protect Evelia Bahena García, Diana Coralina Brito, and Félix Rodríguez Navarrete (September 10, 2015)
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