Mexico probing whether B.C. mining company was responsible in kidnapping of its workers
Listen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office is investigating whether a Canadian mining company holds any responsibility in the suspected cartel kidnapping of 10 of its workers, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday. Sheinbaum said the federal body, led by Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos, will investigate the motive behind the Jan. 23 kidnappings. “We have to … look into exactly what the labour conditions were for these miners and see if there is or isn’t responsibility," on the part of Vizsla Silver Corp. employees, she said during a morning news conference in Mexico City.Sheinbaum said the office is also examining whether extortion or threats played a role in the kidnapping. The workers were abducted from a gated residential compound in Concordia, a municipality in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Five have since been found dead near the rural village of El Verde, some five kilometres to the northwest, with an unknown number of other bodies and human remains. A number of vehicles bearing the Vizsla Silver Corp. logo are parked inside the gated residential compound where 10 of its employees were kidnapped last month. (Heriberto Luzanilla/CBC)Mexican authorities have linked the kidnappings to a faction of the Sinaloa cartel called Los Chapitos, who follow the sons of the jailed druglord Joaquín (El Chapo) Guzmán. They are fighting a faction, known as La Mayiza, that is loyal to the son of Ismael (El Mayo) Zambada, who once co-led the Sinaloa cartel with Guzmán.The nearly 18 month-long civil war within the cartel has left thousands of people dead and disappeared across the state. An engineer, who was working for a different company, was also kidnapped in the same area on the morning of Jan. 23 while he waited for a ride to a worksite near Vizsla Silver’s exploration operations, which sit roughly 40 kilometres east of Concordia. He remains missing and federal authorities have not commented on his abduction. Mexico's Security and Citizen Protection Secretary Omar Harfuch said previously authorities were exploring whether the 10 workers had been kidnapped by mistake. But that "doesn’t mean we won’t be doing a full investigation,” said Sheinbaum during her Friday news conference. She said Harfuch was relaying statements made to authorities during the interrogation of four people arrested in connection with the kidnappings.The brother of one of the slain employees told CBC News earlier this week that Vizsla Silver workers laboured in a tense environment — hearing gunfire during the night near the Concordia compound and that armed men would sometimes stop and search company vehicles at irregular checkpoints. The Vancouver-based company said earlier this week saying that it conducted its security operations “with the highest degree of caution" and maintained a "zero-tolerance approach” to "any form of unlawful or unethical conduct.”Canada's ambassador to Mexico, Cameron MacKay posted a statement in Spanish on Thursday saying his thoughts were with “the families, friends and co-workers” of everyone affected “in these difficult moments.” The Canadian Embassy in Mexico posted a separate statement, saying that it hoped “those responsible would face justice.”
