Investigative report details connections between U.S.-based steel producer Nucor and Los Pinares mine in Honduras
Photo: “Protest of the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods (CMDBCP) against the Ecotek thermoelectric project in Tocoa, during an open town hall to socialize the plant. Tocoa, Colón, December 2023. Photo: CC / Fernando Destephen.”
An investigative report by Contra Corriente and Drilled reveals that U.S.-based Nucor maintained a relationship with Inversiones Los Pinares, the company behind a controversial mining megaproject in Honduras, at least until September 30, 2023, despite having claimed to have ended their ties in October 2019.
The struggle to defend the Guapinol River from this megaproject has taken the lives of Levin Alexander Bonilla (October 27, 2018), Roberto Antonio Argueta Tejada and José Mario Rivera (August 28, 2019), Arnold Joaquín Morazán Erazo (October 13, 2020), Aly Dominguez and Jairo Bonilla (January 7, 2023), Óscar Oquelí Domínguez Ramos (June 15, 2023) and most recently Juan López (September 14, 2024).
Video still: Juan Lopez.
“According to the income statements in the consolidated annual statement of the concession of Inversiones Los Pinares in 2022, until December 31 of that year the Honduran company had an account receivable from Nucor Corporation of 6,448,571 lempiras, about 260 thousand dollars, and at the same time Los Pinares had a long-term account payable in favor of the multinational for an amount of 860,923,000 lempiras, about 34.72 million dollars.
The following year, in 2023, the values in the accounts payable and receivable between Nucor Corporation and Los Pinares increased. An annual statement registered in the Los Pinares file indicates that by September 2023 Nucor’s debt with the Honduran company had risen to 6,706,134 lempiras, almost 271 thousand dollars. That is, it had increased by 11 thousand dollars. On the other hand, Los Pinares’ debt with the multinational increased to 862,466,500 lempiras, about 34.78 million dollars, rising 60 thousand dollars.”
A previous investigative report by Contracorriente, the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) and Univision Investiga, found that the U.S. firm has partnered with the project since March 2015 with the Panamanian company NE Holdings Subsidiary and since August 2016 through a second Panamanian firm with a similar name, NE Holdings. A spokesperson for Nucor said in November 2020 that the company decided to sell the shares in NE Holdings in October 2019.
Photo: A mining company operating at the ‘Botaderos’ National Park, ‘Carlos Escaleras Mejía’, near Guapinol, Honduras. ©OHCHR/Vincent Tremeau.
Notably, a feature article in RadioProgreso.hn speculates on three “lines of accusation” on who could have been behind the murder of Juan Lopez. The first line suggests “the mayor of Tocoa, Adán Fúnez, with whom López had permanent altercations, confrontations and disagreements”, the second line speculates “Lenir Pérez and his closest and most public partners in Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek” while the third line conjectures it was the military and its links to organized crime given “the army’s role in the security and intelligence services of Inversiones Los Pinares and Ecotek, but also [as] an investment partner of the company.”
Canadian connections
Photo: Google image of Nucor headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor has an office in Burlington, Ontario, as well as Vulcraft Canada locations in Leduc, Alberta; Ancaster, Ontario; Wetaskiwin, Alberta; and Montreal, Quebec.
Investors in Nucor have included the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (an institutional investor that manages the Québec Pension Plan), the Royal Bank of Canada, the Bank of Montreal, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
The Nucor Corporate Social Responsibility 2023 report can be read here.
The Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group, the largest shareholder in Nucor, has an office in Toronto, Ontario.
Photo: Vanguard Investments Canada Inc. is located in the Bay Adelaide Centre at 22 Adelaide Street West, Suite 2500, in Toronto.
Accompaniment
The Municipal Committee for the Defense of the Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) continues to demand an investigation of the murder of their comrade Juan Lopez with “international technical assistance and advice. without the participation of corrupt operators of the local justice system” in order “to guarantee the capture and punishment of the material and intellectual authors of the crime.”
The Peace Brigades International-Honduras Project has accompanied Municipal Committee for the Defence of Common and Public Goods of Tocoa (CMDBCPT) processes and Guapinol River defenders since January 2019.
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