by the El Reportero’s wire services
The National Miners’’ Union is demanding today an independent probe into the spillage of millions of litters of toxic substances into the rivers Sonora and Bacanuchi two years ago in the mine Buenavista del Cobre, property of Grupo Mexico.
Considered the worst environmental tragedy in the country’s history, those affluents remain contaminated, as well as water reservoirs and other people’s means of survival, and the damage to the inhabitants’ health continue.
According to reports, authorities of the federal and state governments and Grupo Mexico ignore the denunciations against the consortium by the aforementioned union and its leader Napoleón Gómez.
The organization specified that the damage to nature in that region are obvious, because the inhabitants, especially children and women, continue being affected by diseases related to the use of contaminated water.
More than 200 kilometers of basin are affected in the municipalities of Cananea, Arizpe, Ures, San Felipe, Banamichi, Baviocara and Hermosillo, in the northern state of Sonora.
The union said that on Aug. 6, 2014, the mine Buenavista del Cobre, called so by Grupo Mexico, spilled 40 million litters of sulfuric acid, toxic substances and heavy metals into the aforementioned rivers.
He demanded to carry out urgently a thorough investigation into the ecological and environmental damage in Sonora, by impartial independent experts, the newspaper La Jornada said today.
U.S. Court rules in favor of chevron in Ecuador’s $9 billion lawsuit for rainforest damage
Ecuadorean plaintiffs cannot collect a $9 billion judgment in the U.S. against Chevron for rainforest damage, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, upholding a judge’s finding that the judgment was obtained through bribery, coercion and fraud.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had the authority after a trial to rule in March 2014 as he did. It noted, however, that Kaplan’s decision doesn’t invalidate the Ecuadorian judgment and doesn’t stop the enforcement of the judgment outside the U.S.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-court-rules-chevron-ecuador-161658312.html.
International microfinance forum ends in Nicaragua
The 8th Central American and Caribbean Conference on Microfinance will end today in Nicaragua after three days of keynote speeches, panels, discussions and plenary sessions on economic projects and its impact on the development of the area.
Considered the most important event of its kind in the region, the forum brings together experts from Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, USA, Canada, Dominican Republic, France, the Netherlands and the host country.
Participants in this event had the opportunity to exchange experiences and update innovative business models, with emphasis on micro, small and medium companies that need support to engage in the productive development of the nation.
Mexico spends billions of dollars on fuel imports
The government of Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto has spent nearly $86 billion USD on imports of gasoline, natural gas and petrochemicals, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) said today.
Mexico was self-sufficient in gasoline production until 1998, when fuel demand exceeded domestic supply, and it became a net importer in the following 18 years, a trend that will continue in the next decade if the country does not built new refineries.
The national refining system consists of six refineries with a processing capacity of about 1.6 million barrels of oil per day.
The low refining capacity in Mexico is associated with several factors, including the lack of investment in the field, which along with a growing demand for gasoline (mainly by the automotive sector) have led to an increase in fuel imports.
