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Delegation to Mexico looks at
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Who: Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United
church leaders
When: March 11-19
Where: Mexico--San Luis de Potosi, Chiapas, Ciudad Juarez
A Canadian company stands accused of illegal gold mining in Mexico, and a KAIROS delegation is on its way to investigate. Seven Canadian church leaders will visit Cerro de San Pedro, March 17, where KAIROS’ Mexican partners say a mining operation owned by Metallica Resources, threatens to destroy both the historic town and the surrounding fragile ecology. The Canadians will meet with local people to bear witness to their struggle and bring details home to Canada, including video and other documentation.
“Foreign mining in Mexico is another by-product of NAFTA
and the trade liberalization policies that affect the poor,”
says Lutheran National Bishop Ray Schultz, a delegate with the KAIROS
program. “When our Mexican partners raised concerns about
this Canadian-owned mine, we felt we had to investigate.”
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994.
Half the delegation will also visit the state of Chiapas, in the
southern highlands. The other half will journey to the Ciudad Juarez
industrial zone on Mexico’s northern border (opposite El Paso,
Texas). The Chiapas delegation will meet with indigenous peoples
whose once-thriving corn and coffee production has been virtually
wiped out by NAFTA policies, and who suffer ongoing violence. Many
unemployed Chiapans have no option but to migrate to Maquiladora
(sweatshop) zones like Ciudad Juarez.
“I’ve been told that hundreds of women and girls have
been murdered in the northern free-trade zones in the last decade,”
says delegation member and Anglican Bishop Sue Moxley. “We
want to explore the links between free trade and violence, especially
these attacks against women, which seem to be continuing with impunity.”
The delegation will also share their concerns in a meeting with
Gaëtan Lavertu, the Canadian Ambassador to Mexico.
Delegates will be available after March 19. They will bring their
concerns to Parliament Hill April 13-15, during the Global Week
of Action on Trade.
For more information and documentation, or to arrange interviews
or commission articles, contact: John Bird, KAIROS media relations
coordinator (interim)
Email:
jbird
Tel: 416-463-5312, ext. 223; Toll free: 877-403-8933; Cell: 416-875-8755
See also KAIROS website: http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/economic/trade/index.asp
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