PBI-Canada sends its best wishes to Salvador Martínez from the Santa Catarina Minas community in Mexico
Educa Oaxaca has posted:
“The Solidarity group of Santa Catarina Minas in coordination with the Espiga de Maíz [Ear of Corn] collective invite you to participate in a raffle in support of Salvador Martínez Arellanes.
Chava [as he is known to friends and neighbours] has also participated in the No to Mining Front for a Future for All. As a community advocate, in 2018, Salvador Martínez from the Santa Catarina Minas community, went to Canada at the invitation of Peace Brigades International (PBI) to make visible the problems of Canadian mining projects in the region of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico.
In recent months Chava has had a condition that has deteriorated his health, he underwent surgery and followed by other complications of his immune system, recovery has been slow and expensive for him and his family.”
More about the raffle here.
Peace Brigades International, through its previous accompaniment of Services for Alternative Education A.C. (Educa Oaxaca), has long followed the situation of Vancouver-based Fortuna Silver mining operation in San José del Progreso, Mexico.
Jonathan Treat has reported: “[On March 14] 2009 roughly three hundred opponents to Fortuna Silver’s mining operation participated in a blockade of the entrance to the Trinidad/Cuzcatlán. After 40 days, the blockade was brutally broken [in May 2009] when some 700 police stormed into the community in full anti-riot gear, with automatic weapons, tear gas, attack dogs and a helicopter. People were beaten and more than 23 people were arrested; some were detained for three months.”
As the struggle against the mine continued, Bernardo Méndez was killed on January 18, 2012, and Bernardo Vásquez was killed on March 15, 2012.
During a PBI organized advocacy tour in Canada in November 2018, Neftalí Reyes Méndez from Educa Oaxaca and Salvador Martínez Arellanes (Chava) highlighted their concerns about Fortuna Silver.
On January 15, 2025, Promineria reported: “Fortuna Mining has signed a binding agreement to sell its 100% stake in Minera Cuzcatlán to Mexico’s Minas del Balsas. Minera Cuzcatlán owns the San José silver-gold mine in the state of Oaxaca. Following the sale, Fortuna will cease to participate in that mine, except for a royalty on the net smelter yield.”
That Promineria article further notes that while “the mine was scheduled to begin a phased closure process earlier this year”, Fortuna CEO Jorge Ganoza says “Minera del Balsas is well positioned to continue extracting value” from the mine, suggesting that the mine will continue to operate rather than close.
We continue to follow the situation with the mine and its impacts on local communities and send our best wishes to Chava.
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