{"id":46204,"date":"2023-09-11T15:23:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T21:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/?p=46204"},"modified":"2023-09-11T15:23:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T21:23:59","slug":"english-oaxaca-communities-denounce-collusion-between-agrarian-ombudsman-and-mining-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/?p=46204","title":{"rendered":"(English) Oaxaca: Communities Denounce Collusion between Agrarian Ombudsman and Mining Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disculpa, pero esta entrada est\u00e1 disponible s\u00f3lo en English<\/a>. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.<\/p>

Fuente: Avispa Midia<\/a><\/p>\n

By Renata Bessi<\/p>\n

over Photo: Mining tailings from the company Minera Cuzcatl\u00e1n in San Jos\u00e9 del Progreso. Photo: Santiago Navarro F<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

Indigenous Zapotec communities surrounding the gold and silver mining project of Minera Cuzcatl\u00e1n, a subsidiary of the Canadian corporation, Fortuna Silver Mines, in San Jos\u00e9 del Progreso, Oaxaca, have condemned intensifying harassment from the mining company. The communities of Magdalena Ocotl\u00e1n, Monte del Toro, San Mart\u00edn de los Cansecos, San Mat\u00edas Chilazoa, Los Ocotes and el Vergel denounced that they are being pressured to accept the expansion of the mining project, which has been in operation since 2011. The communities form part of the organization, Frente No a la Mineria<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Through a communique, the ejido authorities explained that the harassment is being carried out in coordination with the agrarian ombudsman in Miahuatl\u00e1n. According to the law, agrarian ombudsman must \u201cpromote the defense of rights and guarantee the well-being of Indigenous people\u2019s lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the strategies of the agrarian institution is to prevent the communities from naming authorities who are against the project. \u201cIt benefits them that agrarian communities do not have accredited authorities. Without accreditation there isnt any validity in our appointments,\u201d the agrarian commissioner of the ejido Monte del Toro explained to Avispa Midia, who for security reasons omits his name.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the agrarian ombudsman has purposely generated erroneous documentation in order to delay accreditation processes with the National Agrarian Registry. \u201cWhen we sent the documents to the Agrarian Registry, they sent them back to us because of the errors. In the case of San Mart\u00edn de los Cansecos, they delayed the accreditation process of their commissioner for two years,\u201d added the agrarian commissioner.<\/p>\n

In Monte del Toro, officials from the agrarian ombudsman are acting to divide the ejido, explained the authority. He admits that there is an agrarian dispute in the community dating back decades where one of the localities wants to separate from the ejido Monte del Toro, which is not accepted by the authorities of the agrarian community.<\/p>\n

However, the question has worsened within the context of mining expansion. \u201cThe people of this locality have received resources from Cuzcatl\u00e1n. The company wants to be able to enter the territory. The agrarian ombudsman insists on trying to convince the authorities to make the division,\u201d explained the commissioner.<\/p>\n

The agrarian ombudsman has taken other actions considered by the commissioner to be \u201cstrategies to divide the community.\u201d For example, the institution has filed documents of ejido members seeking to change the titles of their lands without permission from the agrarian community. \u201cThey are stepping over the ejido authorities, which is not correct. We have autonomy over our lands, guaranteed by agrarian law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

In a communique from the organization, the ejido Monte del Toro sustained that \u201cwe will not permit any division. Our grandfathers and grandmothers struggled for the ejido, for which we value the collective spirit of the land, and the care and protection of our territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company seeks a legal basis to enter the territories, they explained in a communique.<\/p>\n

As the exploitation is underground, \u201cwe do not know where exactly they are digging, if its beneath Magdalena Ocotl\u00e1n, Monte del Toro, or San Mart\u00edn de los Cansecos,\u201d explains the agrarian authority of Monte del Toro.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Avispa Midia asked the company where they were advancing with the exploration, but the question was ignored.<\/p>\n

According to data solicited by Avispa Midia from the Ministry of Economy, Minera Cuzcatl\u00e1n has 15 active mining concessions registered in Oaxaca as of 2023. Together, these concessions total approximately 36,000 hectares. One of the concessions, located in the Lote Reducci\u00f3n Unificaci\u00f3n Cuzcatl\u00e1n 4<\/em>, was updated during this government on May 16 of 2022. It is the company\u2019s largest concession making up more than 10,000 hectares including territories of Magdalena Ocotl\u00e1n, San Lucas Ocotl\u00e1n, and San Pedro Taviche.<\/p>\n

What \u201cthey want is to enter the communities to make air vents to be able to continue working beneath the earth. They want the agrarian communities to authorize their entry. Once the ejido authorizes it, they will buy the land and be able to work,\u201d explains the ejido commissioner.<\/p>\n

From San Jos\u00e9<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The ex-ejido lands commissioner of San Martin de los Cansecos, who also decided to omit his identity for security reasons, explains that the agrarian ombudsman operates on many occasions from San Jos\u00e9 del Progreso, the location of the mining project, when they should be at the ejido offices. \u201cWe know that all the current municipal infrastructure and projects in San Jos\u00e9 are related to the mining company,\u201d he sustains.<\/p>\n

Since 2009, San Jos\u00e9 del Progreso has not had agrarian representation, like the ejido lands commission, as a result of conflicts generated with the arrival of the mining company. \u201cThe agrarian ombudsman, far from resolving the agrarian conflict in San Jos\u00e9, promotes visits of other commissioners to the community where the mining project is located,\u201d he told Avispa Midia, the ex-ejido lands commissioner.<\/p>\n

You may also be interested in the video: The Coming Devastation: Mining in Oaxaca<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The head of the Miahuatl\u00e1n agrarian ombudsman, Amauri Fern\u00e1ndez Alvarado, in an interview with Avispa Midia, said that it was up to them to provide services of agrarian counsel, \u201cto all agrarian communities in the district of Ejutla and part of the district of Ocotl\u00e1n, communities around the mine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regarding the denunciations from ejido authorities against the agrarian ombudsman, Alvarado denied all of them. \u201cI do not have anything to do with mining. I don\u2019t work in mining. We do not have contact, none whatsoever, with the people from the mining company. \u2026I am not blocking any community\u2026nor we do we go to the agrarian community saying that they accept or not contracts or jobs with the mining company. My work is to provide counsel that must be correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEMARNAT\u2019s Deceptions<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In December of 2021, the Canadian mining company, Fortuna Silver Mines, from their offices in Canada, announced in a communique that the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) had \u201cauthorized a 12-year extension to the environmental impact authorization\u201d of the mine in San Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources had denied the extension request in July of 2021. The environmental impact assessment presented by the company sought the legalization of the expansion of the mining operations, something which had already been carried out without permission from the environmental secretariat.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortuna appealed\u2026SEMARNAT reevaluated the request and granted the extension\u2026,\u201d the company announced in its press release.<\/p>\n

However, Fortuna Silver Mines, from Canada, sustained by means of another communique, published on February 4, 2022, that it had received a notice from SEMARNAT in which the environmental secretariat said that it had committed a typo in the expansion of the mining term in San Jos\u00e9. That is to say, the extension would be 2 years and not 12 as stated in the resolution document.<\/p>\n

At that time, Avispa Midia obtained the SEMARNAT document (SGPA\/DGIRA\/DG-06101-21), signed by the General Director of Risk and Impact of the Secretariat (DGIRA), directed to the legal representative of Cuzcatl\u00e1n, Roc\u00edo Mart\u00ednez Lozano, dated December 14, 2021. This document proves that the agency authorized the extension of the mining company\u2019s work for 12 more years.<\/p>\n

Minera Cuzcatl\u00e1n \u201cconsiders that the notice was erroneously issued by the local office (of Oaxaca) of SEMARNAT,\u201d said the company in its communique.<\/p>\n

Minera Cuzcatl\u00e1n \u201cis working with the authorities to resolve this matter. Likewise, Minera Cuzcatl\u00e1n has begun a judicial process in federal court to challenge and revoke the typo,\u201d the communique states.<\/p>\n

Avispa Midia solicited an interview with SEMARNAT to clarify the issue. The Secretariat ignored the request.<\/p>\n

During all this time, the information had remained contradictory. \u201cWe were latent. While the company publicly informed that it was 12 more years, SEMARNAT kept telling us that the mining company was leaving, that it would only have two more years in operation,\u201d said the ejido commissioner of Monte del Toro.<\/p>\n

The doubt was resolved approximately three months ago. \u201cWe went to the offices of SEMARNAT in Mexico City and they told us that it was 12 years. They told us that yes it had been a typo in the permit, but nonetheless the permit was already granted, they had already given it to them,\u201d said the commissioner. \u201cWhat we want the company and government to know is that we will continue struggling until the end to defend our lands,\u201d added the ejido authority.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disculpa, pero esta entrada est\u00e1 disponible s\u00f3lo en English. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language.Fuente: Avispa Midia By Renata Bessi over Photo: Mining tailings from the company Minera Cuzcatl\u00e1n in San Jos\u00e9 del Progreso. Photo: Santiago […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":46205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,826,958,954,935],"tags":[79,58,53,567,147,918,23,545,87,148,27,483],"class_list":["post-46204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autor","category-medios-libres-2","category-megaproyectos","category-mexico","category-temas","tag-autonomia","tag-derechos-humanos","tag-justicia","tag-megaproyectos","tag-militarizacion","tag-oaxaca","tag-paramilitares","tag-pueblos-indigenas","tag-represion","tag-resistencia","tag-solidaridad","tag-tierra-y-territorio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46206,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46204\/revisions\/46206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiozapatista.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}