Mining a murder
The message is clear: if you work to stop the environmental disaster and community destruction that frequently accompanies the arrival of a Canadian mining company in mineral-rich regions around the world, there’s a good chance that your reward will be a bullet in the head.
On November 27, Mexican eco-activist Mariano Abarca Roblero was shot to death after he stepped out of his house in the small town of Chicomuselo, Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border. Three people who work or used to work for the Calgary-based mining firm Blackfire Exploration have been arrested in the case.
Blackfire operates 10 barite, gold and antimony mines in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas, which is largely populated by Indigenous groups that have historically been among the poorest and most oppressed people in Mexico, and that’s saying a lot. The Zapatista rebellion that began in 1994 and still simmers in the state’s mountainous regions did not develop in a vacuum.
Canadian Press reported last week that Jorge Carlos Sepulveda Calvo, a weekend driver for Blackfire, has been identified as the shooter. Another Blackfire worker, Caralampio Lopez Vazquez, is accused of being the driver of the motorcycle that fled the scene with the shooter. According to CP, Lopez Vazquez worked as a driver and translator for one of Blackfire’s executives.
Abarca worked to stop the degradation caused by Blackfire’s barite mine in Chicomuselo. For his efforts, he faced a litany of threats, arrests, prison and violence.
Last summer, armed men abducted him as he left a primary school in Chicomuselo. He was held incommunicado for two days before it emerged that his kidnappers were local police officers operating in extrajudicial fashion. To cover their own criminality, they charged Abarca with disturbing the peace, blocking public roads, organized crime and criminal association, all in relation to a blockade against Blackfire’s mining activities that he helped organize the previous June. He was released and all the charges were later dropped after an international network of environmental activists publicized his plight and pressured the Mexican government to respect its own laws.
On December 3, hundreds of people from Chicomusela travelled by bus to Mexico City to stage a demonstration at the Canadian embassy to protest the murder. They called on the Conservative government of Steven Harper to end the state of impunity for Canadian mining companies operating around the world.
The timing was particularly sensitive for the Canadian government, as Governor General Michaëlle Jean coincidentally happened to be conducting a ceremony-laden tour of Mexico. Dogged by protesters on December 9 while touring the colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Jean issued a statement condemning the killing as “deplorable, inexcusable” and promised to follow the legal proceedings closely.
But the Conservative government has stayed true to form. Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Peter Kent, who was accompanying the governor-general on her state visit, said Canada is proud of the more than 2,000 Canadian companies currently operating in Mexico. “In many cases our companies are held up and recognized as virtual models of corporate social responsibility,” he said.
There’s a high threshold for fudging in politic-speak, but Kent’s statement is as close to farce as it comes. In Chicomusela, Abarca fiercely fought Blackfire’s barite mine because he and many others suspected the operation of contaminating the community’s water supply. Barite is used in Mexico’s oil industry as a weighting agent that is added to drilling fluids. Blackfire mines it by simply scooping up earth with large excavators.
Abarca knew he was in danger. Indeed, he more-or-less predicted his own murder and identified who he believed would be responsible. But he didn’t let that fear cow him into silence, and he persevered in his fight against Blackfire.
“We know that it is truly necessary to do something,” Abarca said shortly before his death. “If it is possible to give our life, we must. We must demonstrate we are willing to defend our mother earth with our actions and we will continue to do it. If anything happens to me, I blame the Canadian mining company Blackfire.”
Now Abarca has given his life for his community. In death, however, he has accomplished what he tried to do during his life, at least temporarily. On December 9, the Chiapas state government ordered the barite mine in Chicomusela to be closed, citing several alleged infractions, including building roads without authorization, polluting and causing toxic emissions.
Meanwhile, back home in Quebec, we enjoy the distinction – bestowed by the corporate propaganda agency known as the Fraser Institute – as the friendliest jurisdiction in the world for the mining industry. Friendlier, even, than Chiapas, Mexico, where Canadian companies can employ the police to arrest and harass their opponents, and, in this case at least, where the company’s employees can allegedly wait outside a man’s home and pump him full of bullets after he opens his door.