The following letter, sent by close to 100 Mexican, Canadian and U.S. organizations, was sent to Vancouver-based Equinox Gold in March calling for respectful negotiations of the land-use and social cooperation agreements and expressing concern over escalating tensions and threats of violence in the area around its Los Filos mine in Mexico. The company responded but did not address the concerns related to violence.
To Mr. Greg Smith
CEO & President, Equinox Gold
Re: Threats against Carrizalillo ejido and call for respectful negotiations
The below signed organizations write with profound concern over escalating tensions, threats of violence and legal persecution of members of the ejido of Carrizalillo and their families who live roughly half a kilometre from the massive heap leach pad at Equinox Gold’s Los Filos mine in Guerrero, Mexico and whose agricultural lands are almost completely occupied by the mine.
In addition to loss of agricultural lands, the community has reported losing over a dozen water sources, the contamination of others, and a corresponding rise in health harms since the mine was installed in 2007. The land use and social-cooperation agreements with the community are not only a legal requirement for the mine to operate, but also important tools that the community has to offset the impacts of such losses and harms. These agreements are set to expire on March 31.
For well over a year, your company has repeatedly issued an ultimatum, stating that if it does not achieve the terms it seeks in the renegotiated agreements with Carrizalillo and two other communities “it may suspend operations indefinitely or until such time as new agreements are in place.” It is clear that Equinox is seeking long-term agreements at a drastically reduced rate compared to current agreements, presumably to make up for losses at Los Filos and to justify further investment. It is not clear, however, that the agreements with communities are to blame for the company’s reported losses at Los Filos in recent years. Company filings for 2023 explain these losses as a result of technical and economic issues, including as a result of the company’s decision to delay investment for a new processing plant necessary to obtain better yields in order to focus on construction at the now operating Greenstone mine in Ontario.
This ultimatum, however, followed by a media campaign that the company has mounted against the ejido and in particular against its leadership, is giving rise to increasing tensions that we fear could lead to acts of physical and psychological violence in Carrizalillo. The recent breakdown of negotiations and the company’s refusal so far to respond to the community’s requests to reset conditions for continued talks further contributes to the escalation of threats and criminalization against the community.
The company’s ultimatum has been picked up regularly in local media, including to single out specific community representatives as responsible for the threatened mine closure, putting them and their families at risk of violence.
The “La Filosita” radio station that operates within the Los Filos mine has been disseminating spots accusing Carrizalillo’s representatives of obstructing efforts to reach a new agreement, to the detriment of workers and children in the community.
Two top company officials of Equinox Gold, Mr. André Souza de Amorim, Equinox Gold General Manager for Los Filos, and Mr. Armando Fausto Ortega, Senior Vice President for Equinox Gold in Mexico, recently made a surprise visit to Carrizalillo on Saturday March 1st reiterating the threat that if Carrizalillo refused to sign a final agreement with the company that day that the mine would close.
Over a dozen community leaders, family members and an advisor to the community have received death threats since the end of February.
The ejido has held Equinox Gold and its social responsibility manager for Los Filos, Mr. Hugo Vergara, responsible for spearheading the smear campaign against the ejido who has repeatedly expressed his contempt for the ejido’s representatives.
The death threats and stigmatization against community members from Carrizalillo are already acts of psychological violence, which could lead to grave acts of physical violence. Furthermore, such stigmatization could set the stage for a possible inter-community confrontation, which is particularly dangerous in the context of extreme systemic violence prevalent in central Guerrero. The ejido of Carrizalillo has already faced the forced displacement of half of its community in 2015 and more than 60 murders in the last 15 years.
As they have publicly expressed, Carrizalillo is not opposed to negotiations, but rather seeks a reset in talks with your company that would be with respect, independent of two other communities, which live at a considerably further distance from the mine and who have not faced comparable impacts from its operations, and that would also be independent of Guerrero state officials who they have denounced for putting undue pressure on them at the negotiation table to force agreements.
The company always has discretion about whether to operate or close the mine, but it should immediately drop its ultimatum toward the community and do everything within its power to bring a halt to any involvement of its personnel in threats or other behaviour that might contribute to provocations and threats of violence. Further, we urge the company respond constructively and respectfully to Carrizalillo’s requests to restart negotiations over the land use and social-cooperation agreements. If the company decides instead to suspend or close the mine, it must also engage in talks with the community to determine the appropriate closure plans with regard for the community’s needs.
CC
Ross Beaty
Chair of the Board of Directors, Equinox Gold
Mr. Cameron McKay
Ambassador for Canada to Mexico
Sylvie Bedard
Director General – Central America and the Caribbean
SIGNED BY
MEXICO
Mexican Network of People Affected by Mining (REMA)
Centro de derechos humanos de los pueblos del sur de Veracruz Bety Cariño
Coolectivo de Académicos Sudcalifornianos
La Sandia Digital
Ideas Comunitarias
El fogón de las palabras
Rizoma Entretejiendo la Defensa de los Bienes Comunes
Centro de Investigación y Capacitación Rural (CEDICAR)
Mujer y Medio Ambiente
Teleradiocosta
Fundación Bajío Sahuaro
Cooperación Comunitaria A.C.
Al Sur: Latin American Studies Project
Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, Limeddh
Bienestar Comunitario Cicacalco
Frente Popular en Defensa del Soconusco
Secretariado Social Mexicano
GeoComunes
Geo-grafías Comunitarias
Cineclub La Luciérnaga
Mujeres y maíz
Pastoral Social, Iglesia Anglicana de México
Colectiva ¡Cambiémosla Ya!
Bios Iguana A.C
Colectivo Tecuan
Instituto Guerrerense de DH AC
CartoCrítica
Mujer Libre Mx La Fuerza de Ixchel AC
Centro de Estudios de la Región Cuicateca-Oaxaca
Centro de Estudios para el Cambio en el Campo Mexicano
Maxtum Kalaw Chuchutsipi
Movimiento morelense contra la minería tóxica por metales
Movimiento cívico Obradorista
Alianza Mexicana contra el Fracking
Centro Cuicateco de los Derechos Humanos
Otros Mundos Chiapas
Impulso Sustentable Lek
Modi Te Yu Nguani
Comité en defensa del territorio de Guadalcazar
Casa Armaluz, Organización de Educación Acción Comunitaria del Pueblo Originario de San Pedro Cuajimalpa CDMX.
Colectivo Sí a la Vida
Corriente del Pueblo Sol Rojo
Comité ixtepecano en defensa de la vida y el territorio
Comité de Hijos Ausentes de Temaca en Guadalajara
Asociacion Ecologica Santo Tomás, A.C.
Geografía Septentrional
Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros de Zacatecas
Salvemos Temaca
Comunidades Unidas zimapan, a c.
Colectivo del periódico El Zenzontle Ricc
Querétaro con Palestina
Instituto Mexicano para el Desarrollo Comunitario
Colectiva Malditos Plásticos
Red de Mujeres Zoques Construyendo Esperanza
Unitierra Jonotla
API-NAHU
Mujeres para el Diálogo
Centro de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias para el Desarrollo Rural Integral
Asociación por la Protección de la Tierra y Bienestar de Epazoyucan A.C.
Grupo Promotor Controlaría Autónoma del Agua de Guanajuato
Morras Por El Territorio
Fundación Don Sergio Mendez Arceo
SICSAL
Comité de Solidaridad y Derechos Humanos Monseñor Romero
Centro de Derechos Humanos Paso del Norte
ITESO
CANADA
Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA)
Americas Policy Group (APG)
MiningWatch Canada
Common Frontiers
Mining Justice Alliance- Vancouver
CoDevelopment Canada
The Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (CDHAL)
Rights Action
Friends of the Earth Canada
Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network
Observatory on Violence, Criminalization and Democracy, University of Ottawa
Trade Justice Group of Council of Canadians
Mining Injustice Solidarity Network
INTERNATIONAL
Yes to Life, No to Mining, Global Solidarity Network
Institute for Policy Studies – Mining & Trade Project, U.S.
Earth Thrive, U.K./Balkans
Earthworks, U.S.
WITNESS, U.S.
Project Sepik, Papua New Guinea
Save Our Sperrins, Northern Ireland
The Gaia Foundation, U.K.
CATAPA, Belgium
Aid/Watch, Australia
Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Philippines
Grupo de mujeres guerreras de Morazán, El Salvador
UNIR en Haití
Universidad Itinerante de la Resistencia en Haití
Salva la Selva, Spain
Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice, U.S.
TerraJusta, Bolivia
Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America, U.S.
Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente, Perú
See also: The hazardous machinations of Canada’s mining elite
Photo: Jen Moore
