Bernardo Vazquez Sanchez was murdered on March 15th by gunmen hired by the mining company, according to the local organizations. At 9pm, Bernardo was ambushed and a few hours later he died in a hospital of the area. During the shooting, other two people who were with the leader were injured.

The Mexican groups remembered through a document that before this murder, peasant leader Bernardo Mendez Vasquez, and before him
Bety Cariño had been murdered. All these crimes “linked to mining companies and the corruption by governments have been left unpunished”.

Real World Radio interviewed Neftali Reyes Mendez, from the Collective in Defense of Territories of Oaxaca, who made reference to the background of this environmental conflict in the city of San Jose del Progreso.

He explained that the Canadian company started its operations in 2006 although the population wasn’t aware of the dimensions of the project. The investment was made official in 2008 when the works were advanced and by then Oaxaca organizations were denouncing cases of corruption involving the company and State officials.

The agronomist murdered last week was among the people who denounced these irregularities. Vasquez Sanchez also denounced that in 2010 the company had started to finance armed groups but these warnings were never taken into account by state and federal authorities.