Blood, thus far into the bowels of the Earth
Ternium mining company's involvement in the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Díaz, an investigation by Heriberto Paredes.
Ternium mining company's involvement in the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Díaz, an investigation by Heriberto Paredes.
→ The original version, in Mexican-Castilian is available here.
Translated and illustrated by taller ahuehuete, in solidarity1.
✎ Reading time: 20 minutes.
Iron and Blood
The days continue to pile up, and there is no trace of the whereabouts of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and teacher Antonio Díaz, who disappeared last January 15 in the town of Cerro de Ortega, Colima, after their participation in a communal assembly hosted by members in San Miguel Aquila, the homonymous municipal seat of one of the largest regions in Michoacán, which is located near the border between these two states (Colima and Michoacán).
The situation in this zone is characterized by the division of its communal assembly. Since the Italian-Argentine mining company Ternium bought out its predecessor Las Encinas, owned by Hylsa, beginning at 2005 and up to the present, there have been a series of problems surrounding the agreements that both the community and the company have signed.
The issues increased since 2012, when the mine decided to make public the royalties paid to certain community members, leaving the population at the mercy of extortion, particularly at a time when the Knights Templar cartel controlled almost the entire economy and politics in the region.
The links between members of this drug-trafficking group and the support they receive from the mining company to extract iron ore behind the backs of the population are well known.
Today, after more than four years of not having elected agrarian representatives within the community — as required by the Agrarian Law recognized in the Mexican nation-state — Aquila continues to demand that the Unitary Agrarian Tribunal #38 call for the election of new representatives, a procedure that, according to the testimonies of local residents in interview with Peninsula 360 Press, has been obstructed by a minority group allied and committed to siding with the mine and its profit-driven interests.
❝Ternium is incurring in serious breaches of the land-occupation pacts, and they are identified as responsible for the forced disappearance of two representative figures of the communal assembly…❞
A Prism of Conflict
«The company was the one responsible for this division. This is convenient for them, because if we get along, if we see eye to eye, we can get them [the capitalist extractive firm] out of here — countless are the anomalies they have been committing. Seeing the problems they have generated, we would have already removed them from here! This minority group, they are ex-commissioners who, during the time they were participant, engaged in shady, dishonest acts on behalf of the company, without representing our interests, against our backs. All along they have been filling their pockets with money, on the grounds that they work for the company» explained Eduardo Sandoval, a recognized community member from Aquila and participant in the recognized assembly.
«They have not contributed to the community, they haven’t abided by our collective agreements, and this division has been very harmful,» he added.
Ternium is incurring in serious breaches of the land-occupation pacts, and they are identified as responsible for the forced disappearance of two representative figures of the communal assembly. Reyes Cisneros, a resident of Aquila, expressed:
«The firm forced us to sign a deal, they made the community sign, and we really don't agree with what they are doing. They were looking for an expansion for land, although they really did it for exploitation, and we don't agree, that's why we are holding informative meetings…».
«In this framework of negative practices, Professor Antonio Díaz Valencia assumed the leadership of the majority of the recognized community inhabitants, and in order to represent them before the agrarian courts or wherever necessary, in 2019 he hired Ricardo Lagunes Gasca, a recognized defendant of human rights with great experience in agrarian matters,» stated a communiqué released on February 28.
This legal entanglement is only the tip of the iceberg of what is perhaps one of the most representative examples of the complicity between mining operations and hired armed private actors, involving intermediaries from the community itself, who until now have been accused by local residents themselves of being allied with the interests of the mine.
Naturally, this is not the first time in the region — and in Mexico — that the economic interests of a natural resource exploitation company have divided the community in which it operates, shaping the law to suit its own convenience and, if necessary, eliminating the people considered a hindrance for capital.
Nothing good has come out of Ternium
With a hat and a calmly-paced phrasing, Eduardo Sandoval, a native of Aquila, agrees to sit down with us to talk about what is happening after the arrival of Ternium:
«What they have done is pollute, our river used to have a lot of fish, many young jackals and every little animal imaginable, but now there is nothing left because they dug it up.
Nothing’s left!», he continues without fuss, despite the heat. «Nothing is being restored, despite our reforestation treaty. Nothing, they don't comply. Allegedly they have reforested the zone of San Juan, in Ojo de Agua, or so they report. But not, nothing, no reconstruction of the habitat as agreed. There is nothing but deforestation. The millenary trees that we had — they were cut down by the corporation, and they left the pure deserted zone, where they are digging...».
Indeed, the devastation is visible to those who visit this municipal capital, especially if one compares this town and its surroundings with other neighboring areas where there are no mines. The mountains are completely bare of trees in considerable parts, and the image of the large pit is as if a monster had torn off a piece of the hill with its sharp teeth. We get the image of this giant bite and get to perceive that, in addition, the wound expands and threatens other parts of the mountain range that surrounds Aquila.
❝Indeed, the devastation is visible… especially if one compares this town, and its surroundings, with other neighboring areas where there are no mines. The mountains are completely bare of trees, and the image of the large pit is as if a monster had torn off a piece of the hill with its sharp teeth.❞
Sandoval's point about the river is also one of the most prominent consequences to the eye, as one arrives from the coast. The road passes over a bridge across what was once a rushing river. It is now just a trail that holds foam, and some kind of white liquid.
Amidst this scene, and the bitten mountains, the burning sun and the few remaining trees providing shade, the municipal seat of this village is the epicenter to a conflict in which lives have been taken and others put on hold, but with the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Diaz, the spotlight returns to the scene once again.
«They came with a huge pile of machinery, they said they were going to move the east hill — and if they wanted to they would move the other hill as well. A tremendous blow was heard all over, and then there was a lot of ore. They had a small breaker, but then they changed to a bigger and more agile one, which moved much more ore. As a result, they began to make very large and very deep excavations. And there they uncovered aquifers, and spilled water everywhere, and contaminated the fresh springs and so many things», adds Eduardo Sandoval as he reaches the only moment of the interview in which he is noticeably troubled.
For his part, Reyes Cisneros affirms that they have conducted several inspections, and have discovered that it is clear Ternium breached the agreements and signed contracts regarding the use of the land, as agreed in writing by the community, specifically because instead of using it for maneuvers, the land is being used for exploitation. Once again the monster is trying to bite off more than it is supposed to.
«Now we realize that they are exploiting there, they are exploiting over there, they are exploiting up there, from all angles... They never intended to honor their word…»
Divide and Conquer
Don Eduardo points out how, as Ternium began to get involved in the organizational affairs of the community, and gained control over the decisions of its judges in their district’s Agrarian Unitary Court, it focused attention on a group of around 40 people who shared their vision.
This is what is known as a minority group, a sort of shadow council, which wanted to have its own commissioner — one above the law, and the interests of the majority of community members. They even came to have their own headquarters for meetings, away from the official communal auditorium: «a private house in Zapotán they referred to as The Communal House, formed and run without consent or a voice from the rest».
Among the core interests of this small group — on the side of the mining company — is a location known as La Colmena, a place that holds the greatest amount of iron, according to what Don Eduardo tells us:
«That ‘minority group’ had already given the green light to the company to move there. They wanted to do it as the other group wanted, they were planning to earn a million dollars from this transaction…», he expressed.
«We don't want division,» adds Don Reyes, «but to unify the community. What we aim for is a peaceful unity. What we want is that, if a negotiation is made in the future, the benefits are distributed among all community members. We are very saddened that the agrarian courts, especially the one in Colima, decide things without our voice taken into consideration, and proceeding with developments against our will…»
Taking this background into account, on January 4, 2023, a meeting took place in Aquila with the participation of officials from Morelia, the federal government, the municipal president José María Valencia, and all legitimate community members. That was where the threats were made known: from Ternium against the representative of the community assembly, Antonio Díaz, and his lawyer, Ricardo Lagunes.
«The teacher, Toño [Antonio Díaz], was the one who represented us in all the trials throughout Mexico, and in Morelia. And the lawyer, [Ricardo] Lagunes, was the one who took the trials before the courts, such as the Tribunal 38 of Colima. He fought a hard battle against the aforementioned ‘minority group’, and received their many threats,» said Eduardo Sandoval.
«I was present on many occasions, going out to hearings, and those kinds of things. And it was always palpable: the courage their lawyer, Don Toño, brought in the face of their threats. Threats of all kinds. One example of such coercion was made on January 4, and it was consummated on the 15th. There is no doubt about this, it was perpetuated by the opposition group and the company, together, they were behind this…», he stressed.
In the opinion of these two witnesses, the majority group of community members is at latent risk and under concealed threat. They fear that the disappearances and murders will continue as long as the Ternium mining company and its allies within Aquila have not fulfilled their economic and political objectives of profit and control.
«The suspicions that we have, through the threats and all that, point at Ternium and the people who work with them, that is, the ‘minority group’. We have to be very careful with these businessmen, that they do not find us out there and throw the guillotine on us…».
The Janus-Faced Strategy
The aforementioned disappearances and the attacks on the Aquila community members are hardly isolated events. In the Michoacan sierra-coastal region, the drug-trafficking cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) has tried to destabilize communities, in particular Santa María Ostula, a territory neighboring the state capital, and one of the main targets of Ternium in order to expand its exploitation.
Pedro, a community member of Ostula, agreed to be interviewed for Peninsula 360, and witnessed crucial events that have occurred since the beginning of 2023:
❝On January 6, they ambushed the communal guard on the border with Aquila. There have been constant attacks, and on January 12, the three compañeros, Isaúl, Miguel and Rolando were killed at a strategic control point meant to stop the advance of the CJNG into our communities…❞
«They were standing, guarding when it came time for the shift change, a command of about 20 hitmen surprised our comrades, and murdered them. A few days later, the lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and the professor Antonio Díaz disappeared. This was in Cerro de Ortega. They shot at the truck, and some individuals dragged one [person] out from the vehicle,» according to witnesses.
These acts were committed — indicate investigations conducted by the community itself, and its communal guard — by the same armed group allied with the mining company and the minority group that operates behind the residents’ backs.
A confidential source asserted, under condition of anonymity, that three well-known figures in the region are involved in this triangle: Agustín Villanueva, a former self-defense group member, and former opponent of the same Ternium company, now an ally to capital by sharing economic interests; Cemeí Verdía, expelled from the Ostula community for being linked to the CJNG; and José Luis Arteaga Olivares, former municipal president of Aquila (2015-2018).
«They want to control the municipal seat in Aquila now, that is why they hit the majority-formed organized group. They seek to decapitate it, and ensure that no one feels brave enough to become a representative. The small — but armed — group can fake a conciliation, and try to impose a candidate for the upcoming 2024 elections, and someone from the PRI [Institutional Revolutionary Party] will surely be Cochelo [José Cortés Ramos, a former mayor disqualified for a period from holding public office in Michoacán]».
According to this source, the CJNG is beginning to operate as the Knights Templar did before, that is, aiming for territorial control, and demanding a collection of quotas. For this reason, «we must move forward, thinking as a cartel thinks, to be able to counterbalance it. No matter what name you give them, if in the end, their strategies, and the people that make them up are monstrous — that is what must be fought. This is why Ostula defends its territory, to prevent the cartel from moving inward, and to put an end to the calm life that we have, which has cost us so much to achieve...»
For Pedro, the CJNG’s aim is to enter the communities of the sierra-costa,
❝I think they seek to reach the port of Lázaro Cárdenas, and to control it. Because, as far as I understand it, they currently only control Manzanillo. The route of the chemicals for making methamphetamines, and for trafficking is key.
Furthermore, in this area, there is the collection of quotas: a clear example of this is Chinicuila [a municipality adjacent to Aquila].
Since the CJNG settled there, they demand two salaries a day, as a tribute, from all businesses. All businesses, apart from the mines; when the Knights Templar cartel were there, they went for everything. As for the people who betrayed the communities, what is their purpose? To exploit the mines, to profit.❞
In this context, additional pain blends to the fear felt by the residents, bot only due to the constant shootings that take place almost daily, but with these coordinated target attacks against particular individuals, such as those of the community guards of Ostula assassinated by the CJNG cartel. The perpetrators recorded videos of this atrocity, and went ahead spreading them on social networks with a mocking tone.
«This affected the community a lot, because they were our brothers, they were comrades guarding our families from intruders. They were holding back the cartel so that we can live well, at ease. They were insuring that instead of the bullets being here, that the bullets remain out there where the cartels operate. As long as the communal guard exists, the community will be fine. Ostula is alert» concludes Pedro, as the interview is carried out in one of the security checkpoints.
The Institutional Path — Pure Performance
Nineteen days after the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Díaz, security and agrarian communal leaders peacefully stopped a convoy made up by various federal institutions: the Secretary of the Navy (SEMAR), the Secretary of Natural Defense (SEDENA), the National Guard (GN), the Secretariat of the Interior (SEGOB) and the National Search Commission (CNB).
The autonomous jurisdiction of the Nahua community opted to wait for this convoy to pass through their security checkpoints, as the State operation was conducted without prior notice, without request by these bureaucratic members to enter the communal territory, and without clarifying their objectives, or motives for the visit. After the ten vehicles stopped, and representatives of the State apparatus got out, a meeting took place where these and other questions were asked.
Only one representative of the CNB and SEGOB had been recognized as reputable. The latter commented that their motive was the search for the lawyer Lagunes and the teacher Díaz, according to Cristian de la Rosa. He mentioned that they were seeking the two «according to the locations their families gave us [the bureaucracy]».
«Their families are the ones who gave you these locations to search? Within our land?», inquired a community member and representative of the Ostula Autonomous Safety Commission.
«Yes, precisely» affirmed Erick Herrera Nieves, representative of the National Search Commission (CNB).
«We don't think so. We are in contact with the families, and they beg to differ. Besides, if the missing compañeros were in our territory, we would have already found them and handed them over to their relatives. In Ostula there are no missing persons».
« … »
Silence reigned.
Later in this dialogue, both officials acknowledged that it had not been, in fact, the family members of the missing persons, but rather, the commanders of the State Prosecutor Offices, both in Michoacán and Colima.
In the video that we present together with this report, we show an excerpt of the unfortunate conversation between public officials and the authorities of Ostula, who without a filter, were categorical in pointing out the collusion that has historically existed between State security institutions and the cartel organizations while specifying that the last had been the Knights Templar Cartel and currently, the CJNG (Jalisco New Generation Cartel).
«Popular knowledge states that those who don't know their history,» Pedro pointedly notes, «are doomed to repeat it. In a certain way, within our homes, this is the conversation at least once a week — a holistic narration of the entire circuit of events. And our parents tell us, our grandparents tell us how they used to live. You have to recount these events, even the unfortunate ones, the hardships, the process of struggle that the community has lived through. Our struggle for autonomy and freedom has cost deaths and disappearances. We’ve made sure the security here is the responsibility of the people, of the community itself. We understand that, in our struggle, in Ostula, the fight for safety is a permanent one».
As this reportage reaches its end, there are still no traces of the whereabouts of the lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and professor Antonio Díaz. Their families continue the search. The institutions (in this case the Michoacán and Colima departments, and the CNB have not only yielded no results — they are conducting their alleged searches, but in locations that do not correspond to any significant outcome.
Beyond a committed and honest effort, it is the Mexican State that opts for a theatrical performance they present as a search brigade, rather than actually searching for the disappeared persons. In this case, the lack of results has left not only two families hurt and in deep pain, but a community — that of Aquila — in permanent division, and the residents at the mercy of their opponents.
Their opponents, allies of a mining company that does everything in its power, day by day, to increase its profits.
Heriberto Paredes, Península 360 Press.
Translated by taller ahuehuete in solidarity.
❝Our struggle for autonomy and freedom has cost deaths and disappearances. We’ve made sure the security here is the responsibility of the people, of the community itself. We understand that, in our struggle, in Ostula, the fight for safety [outside the mechanisms of the State] is a permanent fight...❞
More on mining,
‘One part of society thus exacts tribute from another for the permission to inhabit the earth, as landed property in general assigns the landlord the privilege of exploiting the terrestrial body, the bowels of the earth, the air, and thereby the maintenance and development of life…’ — Marx, Karl. Capital Vol. III Part VI Transformation of Surplus-Profit into Ground-Rent Chapter 46. Building Site Rent. Rent in Mining. Price of Land.