Many in Mexico are calling for better security for workers after the disappearance of 10 people from a Canadian-owned mining site in the state of Sinaloa.
The bodies of five of the mine’s employees have been identified. Five others remain missing.
The state of Sinaloa has been wracked with violence since 2024, when two factions of the Sinaloa cartel began battling for power. Mexican authorities have suggested one of those factions was likely behind the abduction.
Some foreign mining companies operating in Mexico do have a history of paying off organized criminals to work in cartel-controlled parts of the country, security analyst David Saucedo said.
“There’s a very high profit margin in mineral extraction, and mining companies are accustomed to operating this way,” Saucedo said.
Canada-based Vizsla Silver, which owns the mine where the 10 workers disappeared in late January, said in a statement it maintains a “zero-tolerance approach” toward “bribery, corruption, extortion, and any form of unlawful or unethical conduct.”
But miners in Mexico are calling for companies, and the government, to do more to protect them. At a recent march in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora, miners and advocates of the sector’s workers demanded justice for the individuals abducted in Sinaloa.
“Miners deserve to come home,” read one sign at the Hermosillo rally.
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