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Mining for Treasure — Who Has the Right?

Hernán Cortéz, Spanish conquistador who conquered Mexico, with Moctezuma II, last Aztec Emperor, 1519. Universal History Archive/GETTY IMAGES

Bling! Humans have been dazzled by gold since forever. In many eras and cultures, gold has symbolized power, beauty, and accomplishment. From the crowns of kings to Super Bowl rings, gold is valued, revered — and coveted. 

The original peoples of Mexico were struck with the beauty of gold and silver. Their leaders adorned themselves with the precious metals lying beneath their feet. In the early 1500s, when Cortéz discovered the abundance of gold and silver in Mexico, his eyes lit up with greed. Who would own the gold? No brainer — whoever had the biggest armies and the most advanced weapons of war. How to mine it? The indigenous people were brutally worked to death in underground darkness to bring riches to the light of day for their colonial masters. 

In today’s era, who gets the gold in the mining Olympics? Military power still determines who wins and who works. But as capitalism developed, legal tools were devised — free trade agreements in the modern era — to allow foreign powers to own and export México’s natural mineral riches, and to further impoverish the Mexican people. 

So, can legal tools also be used by the exploited? Recently, Mexico revised its Mining Law. Economist Violeta Nuñez explains how the new Mining Reform (Reforma Minera) aims to benefit México’s peoples and to preserve its natural environment. Will foreign powers accept these laws? 

Eduardo Galeano’s classic book The Open Veins of Latin America (Las veinas Abiertas de América Latina) described the brutality of mining in Latin America. Those of us who believe in Mexico’s sovereignty can demand that the new reforms be honored. The blood-letting must stop.

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Mining in Mexico:  New Rules of the Game

What drew you to become an expert on mining in Mexico?

I grew up in the city of Guanajuato which has been a mining center for centuries; that history always surrounded me. As an economist, I wanted to learn how  mining evolved from the 16th century to the present, and how the exploitation of México’s mineral resources affected the world economy.

In the early 1500’s, Moctezuma II gifted the first Spanish conquistador, Hernándo Cortéz, with gold and silver, thinking he could buy Cortéz off. Opposite effect! The Spanish found plentiful veins of gold and silver in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and built massive mining operations. Local workers were forced into the mines — their lives having no value except as expendable tools to use and discard.

The violent theft of natural resources by private individuals Is what Marxists call primitive accumulation. Precious metals taken by force made European colonialists rich, and laid the basis for the developing capitalist system.

In the last three decades of neoliberalism, that process has intensified. The amount of gold taken out of the ground in that time was greater than all the gold extracted in the previous three centuries; it increased seven fold.  The amount of silver doubled.

What did Mexican governments do to protect its mineral resources?

According to the 1927 amendments to the Constitution, minerals, as well as water and agricultural resources, belong to the Mexican nation. Therefore, between 1927 and 1992, the principal actor in the mining sector was the state, though many private actors existed as well.

But in 1992, the balance shifted to the private sector when neoliberal president Salinas de Gortari passed the Mineral Law, which allowed both Mexican and foreign private entities to immensely expand the extraction of Mexico’s minerals. The Mexican government granted 106,000,000 hectares — over 50% of Mexican land! — as concessions. Concessions are contracts permitting a private company to explore, locate and extract minerals from public land. The concessions were granted for a 50-year period. 

Where do the metals go? About 80% of the gold and silver are exported to the US, and about 70% of the copper goes to China. What remains in México? Impoverished, injured and diseased workers. Environmental devastation.

In May, 2023, the Mineral Law of 1992 was reformed. Are they minor changes or game changers?

Just to clarify — the law applies to hard minerals such as gold, silver, copper, graphite, lithium, phosphate, magnetite. It doesn’t apply to oil and gas; those are handled separately. 

The Mining Reform, consisting of 46 amendments to the 1992 law, made major changes.  Here are some that stand out. 

The amendments provide new protections for the environment. 

• Under neo-liberal presidents Calderón and Peña Nieto who preceded AMLO, México had the sorry distinction of becoming the first nation to grant concessions permitting mining under the ocean. Now marine exploration is prohibited.

• Importantly, in order to be granted a concession, companies must perform environmental impact studies and prove that they won’t damage ecosystems.

The amendments also provide new protections for the people who live in areas with mining operations.

• Companies bidding on a mining concession are required to conduct social impact studies, including consultations with the people living in the concession areas, which are predominantly rural and coastal. Indigenous people, collective farmers, agricultural and fisher communities are the ones most harmed by the toxic effects of mining. Before, local people were never consulted and the social costs were never considered. 
• Mining companies are no longer given priority for water rights over those of residents.

The state will increase its control over the mining companies.

• Existing concessions will not be canceled — but their taxes will be brought in line with other sectors. Before, while the corporate tax rate was 30%, the mining tax was only .002% of income, owing to corrupt collusion with the PRI government. 
• The term of a concession is reduced from 50 years to 30 years.
• Financial speculation that pushes up the price of the minerals is also prohibited.

Mexico is rich in lithium, which has been called the "new gold". AMLO wants to nationalize the lithium industry — was that in this reform?

What further reforms do you think are needed? 

I’m very worried especially about the coastal areas, which, because of climate change, are at risk of disaster. Look what just happened with Hurricane Otis — Acapulco was demolished by the exceptionally fierce winds. Otis’ strength wasn’t predicted, because the water has never been this warm in the past. 

The ocean is fragile. In the coming years, we need to ensure that our marine ecosystems are not sacrificed to capitalist greed and private profit. Mining on the land did just that for the last 500 years.  It must stop. 

Muralism and Resistance

This was the exhibition called Muralismo y resistencia (Muralism and resistance), murals by jóvenes artístas urbanos (young urban artists). I walked in to see first a scaffold in front of an empty wall (a work in progress) and then 4 long, huge, gorgeous walls of thoughtful, articulate, sparkling, wildly divergent images of youthful worlds. The concept of resistance can mean such different things. And picturing it, bringing it to life, is a whole ‘nother thing.

Just across the hall is a radiant dive into a world of neon color by master draftsman Dyg’Nojoch (@dyghojoch), called Muk ‘ta luch (El gran bordado).

The mural by Paola Delfin (@paola_delfin), Movimiento perpetuo, is the first piece you see as you come into this room.

It is in shades of gray, and feels like a gentle tonal embrace. Delfin’s work reads feminine in the bodies and gestures she captures but don’t mistake this for a simple, spineless kind of femininity. The central image is a maternal figure that definitely embraces sexuality, and the motion, the vibrancy of her figures, the intensity of her line all disallow the idea of a subservient kind of beauty. She belongs to herself. 

Pilar Cárdenas (@fusca667) paints a different picture. In Diego y La cuarta dimension, Diego Rivera hands over his reins of muralismo to Cárdenas, and she takes us into her internal world of dreams and musings that go past Diego’s influence. 

One of the interesting things about this room is the interplay between the murals. Of course, the boys are at one end, the girls at another. There are obvious comparisons here but the similarities and differences go deeper than that. There is shared history spoken here. Variety and happiness, pain and learning, knowledge and spontaneity, risk-taking and sophisticated technique, bounce all over this room. These murals represent a new mural way of thinking — youth accepts the reins from the old masters and surges ahead.

Recent news reports and commentaries, from progressive and mainstream media,
on life and struggles on both sides of the US-México border compiled by Jay Watts

Mattha Busby, Chlorine attacks and daily harassment: why Mexico’s female delivery drivers are organising The Guardian. The National Union of App Workers (Unta), which represents workers for four major food delivery firms, and other companies, in Mexico campaigns to regularise the status of its members as workers, which would see them obtain basic employment rights, and to defend female workers.

Hugo Tlalpan, a quien José Juan Hernández intentó sacar de Volkswagen, ganó la elección del SITIAVW; anuncia que lo auditará La Jornada Oriente. Hugo Tlalpan Luna ganó la elección del nuevo Comité Ejecutivo del Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores de la Industria Automotriz Volkswagen (SITIAVW), realizada el jueves pasado.

Movimiento Ciudadano breaks with opposition bloc in the Senate; Morena celebrates a new ally Yucatan Times. Eduardo Ramírez, leader of the Morena senators, considered that “it implies having the possibility of building qualified majorities with the Citizen Movement, the Greens, the Labor Party, Morena and Encuentro Social.

Ulises Rodríguez López, Calica será reserva natural; desechan amparo que lo detenía Revista Polemón. No se salió con la suya La corporación estadounidense Vulcan Materiales, pues esta resolución hará que el Presidente AMLO vuelva Área Natural Protegida el predio de Calica. AMLO tendrá vía libre para convertir 2,400 hectáreas que posee Calica en una zona para la protección de flora y fauna.

Karina Suárez, Mexico struggles to mandate a 40-hour work week, El País. According to the most recent data from the OECD, Mexico is one of the hardest-working countries in the world. Its people work an average of 2,226 hours per year. Mexico’s official work week hasn’t changed since 1917, over a century ago.

Yajaira Gasca Ramírez, Sindicato independiente gana nuevo contrato en Draxton de Irapuato POPLab. Detrás del cese de Carlos González estaba la incomodidad que el trabajador le causaba a Draxton por cuestionar sobre el reparto de utilidades, violaciones a derechos laborales de sus compañeros y por promover la integración de un nuevo sindicato.

Mexico’s La Jornada published Cuba’s list of terrorists Prensa Latina. All of those singled out are living outside Cuba and most of the actions mentioned were orchestrated from U.S. territory, stated the Cuban authorities.

María Fernanda Ruiz, Misión Internacional documenta violaciones a Derechos Humanos en México y llama a acciones coordinadas De Raíz. “Plataforma por la Paz y los Derechos Humanos México-Unión Europea” visitó cinco entidades para documentar la situación de los derechos humanos en el país. Entre los principales hallazgos que hicieron, y que presentaron este viernes, fue que prevalece la criminalización.

Joel Wendland-Liu, A new book examines global radicalism in the era of the Mexican Revolution People’s World. Christina Heatherton’s Arise! Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution explores the centrality of the Mexican Revolution to the creation of a revolutionary internationalist political consciousness in the Americas in advance of and in conjunction with the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Daniela Barragán, Los pozos del privilegio sin Embargo. El ex presidente Vicente Fox y su amplia familia no sufren sequía: amarraron concesiones para explotar agua.

The Mexico Solidarity Project brings together activists from various socialist and left organizations and individuals committed to worker and global justice. We see the 2018 election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador as president of México as a watershed moment. AMLO and his progressive Morena party aim to end generations of corruption, impoverishment, and subservience to US interests. Our Project supports not just Morena, but all Mexicans struggling for basic rights, and opposes US efforts to undermine organizing and México’s national sovereignty.

Editorial committee: Meizhu Lui, Bruce Hobson, Agatha Hinman, Victoria Hamlin, Courtney Childs.  To give feedback or get involved yourself, please email us!

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