Indigenous Yaqui community resist RBC-financed Guyamas-El Oro gas pipeline in Sonora, Mexico

Published by Brent Patterson on

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Video still: “The conflict continues: Yaqui members started to dismantle the pipeline”

Meganoticias reports: “After 8 years of struggle to prevent the passage of the gas pipeline through Loma de Bácum [in the state of Sonora], the resistance by the traditional guard continues…”

“The Guyamas-El Oro gas pipeline would pass through Yaqui territory and would have a length of 330 km, of which 18 would cross Loma de Bácum. The construction of the pipeline has begun despite not having the permission of the Yaqui tribe in this town, which has been in conflict [against the pipeline] for almost a decade.”

“The government of Loma de Bácum estimates that the passage of the pipeline through this place puts the lives of close to 20,000 people at risk.”

The article adds: “Members of the Yaqui tribe for years began to dismantle the pipeline… The Yaqui tribe has been characterized by its ancestral and tireless struggles; proof of this is these 8 years in which they have not yielded despite the company’s promises to pay millions of pesos to allow them to pass.”

In August 2020, Natural Gas Intelligence carried an opinion piece that noted: “President López Obrador [has] promised the Yaquis of Sonora the option to change the route of the stalled 510 MMcf/d Guaymas-El Oro gas pipeline owned by IEnova, the Mexican subsidiary of California’s Sempra Energy. It will be costly, but it will be more expensive not to complete the pipeline.”

It does not appear that re-routing happened.

And as documented in the Banking on Climate Chaos website, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is the second larger financier of Sempra Energy, providing $3.23 billion to the company between 2016 to 2023, including $551.9 million in 2023.

Other Canadian banks involved in Sempra are Toronto-Dominion Bank ($323 million), Scotiabank ($122 million), and CIBC ($109 million) since 2016.

We continue to follow this.


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