Carrizalillo, Municipality of Eduardo Neri, State of Guerrero, November 3, 2025

Seven months ago, we began our struggle against the imposition of the regressive, unjust, undignified, and colonialist demands of Canadian mining company Equinox Gold, concerning the continued occupation of our lands. The company’s terms for the land use agreement were accompanied by another “incomprehensibly shaved down” proposal related to social compensation, which included issues of enormous importance to us, such as preferential access to employment, equipment and machinery concessions; attention to serious health harms, many of them irreversible; and access to clean water free of heavy metals, the latter issue unfulfilled since 2007 by the three companies that have occupied our territory, despite having reached agreements with us.

Shortly before we set up our current protest camp, the company opted for a strategy to wear down our community. First, it declared an indefinite and illegal suspension of the Los Filos mine, for which reason the “negligent” Mexican Secretary of Economy (SE) should, by law, have withdrawn the mining concession months ago and made the company pay for the corresponding damages. Second, the company made an absurd launch of the “New Filos” project with witnesses of honor from the government of the state of Guerrero. This has now been shut down by the Mexican Environmental Protection Agency (PROFEPA) for failing to comply with remediation measures it had requested in response to our request for an environmental inspection to call the company into line, something which it seems the company did not think we would do. The company is also violating the management plan authorized by SEMARNAT and, as a result, violating environmental law by failing to perform basic maintenance, which has increased the risks of environmental harm. Incidentally, Equinox is trying to blame us for this lack of maintenance, as if we were the mining concession holders, to such an extent that now—politicizing the discourse—they are trying to persuade the environmental authorities that it is our responsibility.

Equinox is trapped because it has too many legal violations, its supporters in Guerrero have no legal power over any aspect of the mining sector, and if it really wants to resolve the situation it has created through its violations and non-compliance, it only has a few options, among which we cite the following: Equinox must negotiate the continuation of mining operations with us or, if it does not do so, it must negotiate with us the implementation of the plan and program for the closure and post-closure of the mine. Before deciding on one of the above, it must negotiate with us the remediation measures and maintenance for which the project is now shuttered.

The flagrant violations and breaches of the law is clear; the company is in fact and de facto occupying our lands, because by refusing to enter into a new agreement to continue occupying our lands, it is obliged—under law—to initiate the process of the mine’s closure and post-closure, which among other things means rehabilitating and returning our lands to us so that, having decided not to cease mining, we can continue to exercise our right to be campesino farmers. In this context, the law is clear and simple; there is nothing in the law that obliges us to rent our land to an entity who does not meet our expectations, just as it is the company's obligation, by law, to rehabilitate the land it occupied during the years operating the mine.

This is not stubbornness on our part, it is what the law says. The company, however, with acts of discrimination and racism on full display, continues to punish our ejido because for them it is unthinkable to them that the law would be on our side. Instead of focusing on meeting legal requirements, they foment diverse scenarios against us that are completely illogical: they undermine social peace by inflaming tensions between the communities related to the project, they distribute false and biased information about the present and future of the New Filos project to neighboring communities, they do everything possible to convince politicians—in some cases successfully—to join them in defending the company’s interests, by which unfortunately “our” public servants literally dishonour their roles and responsibilities. Of course, there is no shortage of threats against the lives of some community members and they regularly use the racist and worn out phrase: “It’s just a few who oppose progress and development.”

Faced with this insatiable quest for revenge by local company officials—including CEO Darren Hall, either through collusion by omission or because he is aware of it— prior to the celebrations of Day of the Dead, a stepped up social media campaign began to criminalize us in order to sway public opinion and among political operators that, instead of being victims of fundamental rights violations from the company that threaten our lives, we are now perpetrators working for organized crime.

The company's pettiness knows no bounds, and we once again hold Mr. Hugo Vergara—the principal company official working threatening the peace—responsible for whatever may happen to us, while warning his colleagues in the mining sector who will participate in the 36th International Mining Convention to be held this month in Acapulco where the Canadian company Equinox will be boasting about its respect for the highest international standards related to corporate social responsibility (CSR). The reality is clear: Equinox is threatening our lives because it refuses to rehabilitate and return our land to us, it has been shut down by federal environmental authorities (PROFEPA) for environmental contamination and breaking the law, and now, with its media campaign, it is focusing its strategy on criminalizing our struggle and trying to put us in jail.

We are well aware that in this country, those who defend our rights end up being classified as criminals, while those who violate our rights walk the streets with impunity and with a smile on their face. The premise is simple: if the company does not want to negotiate the mine’s continued operations, they must rehabilitate and return our lands to us. They must comply with the environmental measures linked to the closure orders issued by PROFEPA, and when that happens, then they can go to Canada or somewhere else where the population and public officials are willing to accept crumbs, racism, discrimination, exploitation, and to accept violations of the law.

Equinox is not only seeking our lands at any cost under its terms of submission and subjugation; now it wants us in jail. While we are aware that the Governor of Guerrero, Evelyn Salgado, has not fallen for the company's deception, other state officials and the municipal president of Eduardo Neri are servants and lackeys of the company.

Criminalizing us is a despicable act by Equinox, but having met the company’s main operators at Los Filos, Hugo Vergara and Armando Fausto, we are not surprised because they have been trying to discredit us for months. They have been doing everything possible to get away with their flagrant violations and after everything, it seems that all that remains for them is to convince the state to violently evict us and put community members in jail. We insist that our struggle must set historic precedent and end the impunity, racism, and discrimination with which Canadian mining companies operate, as well as those from other nations, including private Mexican firms. But for this to happen, we need politicians with political conviction who are not afraid of them and who want to put an end to impunity.

We insist that any act against any of our community members in the ejido is the sole responsibility of Equinox Gold and its racist local operators.

SINCERELY

Agrarian Representatives of the Ejido of Carrizalillo