In the Plaza Emiliana de Zubeldía, an anti-monument was installed against Grupo México, responsible for the spill of 40 million liters of copper acidulate and other poisonous metals into the Sonora River, which occurred on August 6, 2014.
Ten years later, the more than 22 thousand affected people from the municipalities of Arizpe, Banámichi, Huépac, San Felipe de Jesús, Baviácora, Aconchi and Ures, and the rural area of Hermosillo, continue to demand justice.
Poisonous metals such as copper, arsenic, aluminum, cadmium, chromium, iron, manganese and lead, whose levels were determined by the authorities, outside of ecological norms.
They crossed from Cananea, the municipalities of Arizpe, Banámichi, Huépac, San Felipe de Jesús, Baviácora, Aconchi and Ures, until reaching the rural area of Hermosillo.
On the anti-monument there is a plaque with a text signed by the Río Sonora 2024 Watershed Committees.
“On August 6, 2014, the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers were contaminated with acids and heavy metals from the Buenavista del Cobre mining company, owned by Grupo México.”
“The spill was caused by the company’s negligence and the complicity of the authorities who did not ensure the safety of the Basin.”
“Despite the overwhelming evidence of the damage to our water sources, the health of the populations and the hoarding of the aquifers by the company, the governments have not taken action to protect the region.”
“We use our words, our bodies, our time, our lives to demand justice and to remember that our streams, rivers, lands and skies are worth more than copper, that no one should be above the law, that the constitution should not be a dead letter and that human rights should prevail over corporate interests.”
On the night of August 6, those affected by the ecocide that occurred in the Sonora River unveiled the anti-monument in the Plaza Emiliana de Zubeldía, in Hermosillo.
“This is to remember the ominous state of impunity in which the Mexican government has maintained against the people of the Sonora River, from Cananea to Hermosillo. Here you can see the letters of impunity, injustice, resistance that we have had for 10 years now,” said Martha Patricia Velarde Ortega, affected from the municipality of Baviácora who read a statement from the Committee of the Basins of the Sonora River.
“The goal is to commemorate and that every time we pass by here and look at this anti-monument that represents Río Sonora 2014, we bring to mind all that we have narrated,” she said.
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“We want justice and accountability, a state government that does not bow its head when Grupo México shows up.”
“That does not beg companies for infrastructure works to later pay them back, ignoring the environmental disaster they leave in their wake, the same thing that is used for political campaigns.”
“A government that does not use institutions in favor of its own interests,” emphasized the activist.
Source: eluniversal
