Industrial and precious metals are the loot object of dispute among the mining companies, especially Ternium, behind which it is Argentinian giant Teching and some Italian companies.

But the local community keeps resisting and this week its representatives will meet with governmental authorities from the Mexican state, told Juan Carlos Marmolejo to Real World Radio. Marmolejo is member of the organization called “Guardians of the Forest”. Where the corporations see gold and iron, the community sees the possibility of survival, since the mining exploitation would compromise freshwater sources for human and animal consumption, and irrigation, said Marmolejo.

The company has already caused serious damages to Coahuayana municipality in terms of the processes of rain water collection, storage and release which allows for life in this region. This is why the population is opposing activities in La Colomera mine carried out by Ternium, since during the last few months they have been being witnesses of how the mining operations are causing El Saucito river to pollute in a rapid way, as well as the forest and the living beings which inhabit the area, who according to the population “are part of ourselves as communities, and this company is an alien in this land and does not care if it destroys forests and rivers”. The greatest concern is that “in ten years we will be peoples without life”.

The population demands two things: that the North-West area of the municipal territory of Coahuayana, which spreads from El Saucito to Cerro de la Aguja be declared a Municipal Ecological Conservation Area, so that no company or person can feel they have the right to come and destroy the natural resources of the forest and river. And secondly, that the permits granted to Ternium company in Coahuayana municipality be cancelled.

“We don´t want to negotiate, we don´t want the money or the jobs promissed by the company, because there is no money or jobs that can pay for the life it´s being destroyed here. We want respect for our right to have clean water, as well as the dignity of the river and the forest”, state the communities.

Despite the company´s attempts to generate social division and confrontations by making false statements about the people resisting the mining operations, they say that the resistance has been always peaceful and they explain: “We do not oppose the development of our municipality, as long as that development doesn´t mean a threat to our environment and the basic natural resources like water.