You are here

Brutal cartels fight over Mexico's 'conflict-free' gold revenues

Section: Daily Dispatches

By Frank Jack Daniel, Anahi Rama, and Lizbeth Diaz
Reuters
Sunday, December 6, 2015

CARRIZALILLO, Mexico -- Heroin traffickers linked to the abduction and disappearance of 43 students a year ago are battling over millions of dollars paid by Canadian mining giant Goldcorp to a village in Mexico's southern gold belt, leading to a wave of murders.

As a signatory to a Conflict-Free Gold Standard drawn up by the World Gold Council industry group, Goldcorp commits to extracting the precious metal in a manner that "does not fuel unlawful armed conflict or contribute to serious human rights abuses."

But residents of Carrizalillo in the impoverished state of Guerrero say the some $3 million a year in rent paid by Goldcorp for their land, which the mine is built on, is fuelling a bloody feud between two rival cartels.

Village authorities say the company is not doing all it can to protect them.

The violence highlights an ethical quagmire for industries operating in Mexico's drug badlands and raises questions of whether companies could do more to ensure safety for people connected to their operations.

In response to Reuters' questions, Goldcorp said it has held numerous meetings with authorities to seek better security outside the mine's perimeters, in line with obligations under the standard.

"Even though we can and do advocate with local authorities for the respect of human rights in the vicinity of our operations, we cannot take on the role of government," said Michael Harvey, Goldcorp's Latin America director for corporate affairs and security. ...

... For the remainder of the report:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-mine-insight-idUSKBN0TP0O020151...



ADVERTISEMENT

Direct Ownership and Storage of Precious Metals
Outside the Banking System in Zurich and Singapore

Goldbroker.com is a precious metals investment company that enables investors to own and store gold directly in their own name (no mutualized ownership) in Zurich and Singapore.

Goldbroker's clients are not exposed to any counterparty risks. They own gold and silver in their own names (the ownership certificate cites the name of the investor and serial number of his bars) and they have storage accounts opened in their own name as well. So Goldbroker.com's storage partner knows the exact identity of each investor. Goldbroker.com doesn't store in the name of its clients; rather, Goldbroker's clients store personally. All investors have direct access to their gold and silver bars.

Goldbroker.com was launched in 2011 so that investors would avoid any counterparty risk when investing in physical gold and silver.

Goldbroker.com is listed among GATA's recommended monetary metals dealers:

http://www.gata.org/node/173

To invest or learn more, please visit:

https://www.goldbroker.com/



Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006:

http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html

Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:

http://gata.org/tshirts

Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:

http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal

Help keep GATA going

GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:

http://www.gata.org

To contribute to GATA, please visit:

http://www.gata.org/node/16