The days continue to accumulate and there is no trace of the whereabouts of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and professor Antonio Díaz, who disappeared on January 15 in the town of Cerro de Ortega, Colima, after their participation in a meeting of community members in San Miguel Aquila, the municipal seat of the same name in one of the largest municipalities in Michoacán, which is located near the border between these two states.
The situation in that community is characterized by the division of its communal assembly. Ever since the mining company Ternium – of Italian-Argentine capital – bought its predecessor Las Encinas, from the company Hylsa. Around 2005 and up to the present, there have been a series of problems regarding non-compliance with agreements to which both the community and the company have signed.
Especially from 2012, at which point the mine decided to make public the royalties it paid to each community member, leaving the population at the mercy of extortion, particularly at a time when the criminal group Knights Templar controlled almost all of the economy and politics in the region.
The links between this group and the support received from the mine to illegally exploit some of the mountains and extract iron.
Today, after more than 4 years of not having legally elected agrarian authorities – as established by the Agrarian Law in force in Mexico –, Aquila continues to demand that the Unitary Agrarian Tribunal #38 call for the election of new authorities, a procedure that, according to some members of the legitimate assembly, they commented in an interview for Peninsula 360 Press, has been obstructed by a minority group allied to the mine.
«The company caused this division, it suits them, because if we got together we would get them out of the place, because of the anomalies they have been doing. Seeing the problem they have caused, we would have already kicked them out of here. This minority group are former commissioners who, during their time there, did shady, crooked things in favor of the company, not the community, because they have always left to fill their pockets with money, based on the fact that they work for the company and the company gives them their money,» explained Eduardo Sandoval, a recognized community member of Aquila and member of the legitimate assembly.
"They have not contributed to the community, to all the community members who make up the entire group, and this division has been very damaging to the community," he added.
Ternium is committing serious breaches of the land occupation agreements and is being held responsible for the disappearance of the two figures representing the majority of the community assembly. Reyes Cisneros, also a recognised member of the Aquila community, comments that: "It was a deception by the company, they negotiated, made the community sign and we really do not agree with what they did. They were looking for an extension of the land, although they really did it for exploitation, and we do not agree, that is why we are holding information meetings and the call to action so that we can define why things are happening.
"In this framework of criminal acts, Professor Antonio Díaz Valencia assumed the leadership of the majority of the recognized community members, and to legally defend them in the agrarian courts and wherever necessary, in 2019 he hired attorney Ricardo Lagunes Gasca, a recognized defender of Human Rights and with great experience in agrarian justice," they announced in a statement. released statement last February 28.
This legal mess is just the tip of the iceberg of what is perhaps one of the most representative examples of collusion between mining companies and armed criminal groups, using intermediaries from the community itself, who until now have been pointed out by the community members themselves as allies of the mine's interests.
It is not that it has not happened before, in the region and in Mexico, that the economic interests of a natural resource exploitation company divide the community in which it is located, bend the law to its convenience and, if necessary, remove from the path those people it considers an obstacle.
Nothing good has left Ternium
Wearing a hat and with a soft voice, Eduardo Sandoval, originally from Aquila, agrees to sit down with us to talk about what is happening after the arrival of Ternium: "What they are doing is polluting, our river had a lot of fish, a lot of jackals and all kinds of little animals, now there is nothing because they dug it up."
«There is nothing – he continues without fuss despite the increasing heat – that is restoring us. We agreed to a reforestation agreement, but there is nothing, they don't do it, they do it elsewhere, in San Juan, in Ojo de Agua, and they report that they do it in the community, but here there has been nothing. There is deforestation, yes, the thousand-year-old trees that we had were cut down and they left just sunbathing where they are and that is where they are digging.»
Indeed, the devastation is visible to anyone who visits this municipal capital, and even more so when comparing this town and its surroundings with other neighbouring areas where there is no mine. The mountains are completely bare of trees in considerable parts, and the image of the large gash is as if a monster had torn off a piece of the hill with sharp teeth. We managed to see the image of this giant bite and we could also perceive that the wound is expanding and threatening other parts of the mountain range surrounding Aquila.
Sandoval's statement about the river is also one of the most visible consequences when arriving at the community from the coast. The road passes over a bridge over what was once a mighty river and is now just a trail that holds foam and a white liquid. Between this scene and the bitten mountains, the burning sun and the few trees to protect it, the municipal seat of this municipality is the epicenter of a conflict that has already taken lives before and left others in suspense, but with the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Díaz, it once again attracts attention.
«They came with a huge pile of machinery, they said they were going to move this hill and if they wanted, they would move that one too. In a short time they had a tremendous drop and there was a lot of mineral, they had a small crusher but then they changed to a bigger and more agile one, which moved a lot more mineral and as a result of that they began to make very large and very deep excavations and there they uncovered aquifers and made a spill of water everywhere and the contamination of the water and so many things», adds Eduardo Sandoval as the only moment of the interview arrives in which he seems distressed.
For his part, Reyes Cisneros says that they have carried out inspections and have discovered that Ternium has violated the agreements and contracts regarding the use of the lands that the community has provided, specifically because instead of using them for operations, they are using them for mining exploitation. Once again the monster is trying to bite off more than allowed.
"Now we realize that they are exploiting there, that they are exploiting here, from all angles of the temporary occupation of the mine."
Divide and conquer
Don Eduardo points out that Ternium began to meddle in the organizational affairs of the community and also began to control the decisions of the magistrates in the TUA #38 and, in addition, favored a group that agreed to work with them, a group of around 40 people.
This is what is known as the minority group, which wanted to have its own commission, above the law and the interests of the majority of the community members. They even had a different headquarters from the Communal Auditorium, "a private house, in Zapotán, in what they called the Communal House, which they themselves formed, which was not formed by an agreement of the community members."
Among the main interests that this small group has together with the mining company is a point known as “La Colmena”, a place that has the largest amount of iron, according to Don Eduardo. “That group had already given the green light to the company to move there. They wanted to do it the way the other group wanted, they were going to earn a fortune.”
"We do not want division," adds Don Reyes, "but to unify the community, but to unify it in a peaceful manner. We want, if negotiations are held in the future, the benefits to be shared among all those who prove to be community members. It saddens us greatly that the agrarian courts, especially that of Colima, decide things with which we do not agree."
Given this background, on January 4, 2023, a meeting took place in Aquila, attended by officials from Morelia and the federal government, the municipal president, José María Valencia, and all legitimate community members. It was there that the threats that Ternium had made against the representative of the Communal Assembly, Antonio Díaz, and his lawyer, Ricardo Lagunes, were revealed.
"Teacher Toño was the one who represented us in all the trials or all the places we went to, in Mexico, Morelia, and Mr. Lagunes was the one who conducted the trials, before the courts, such as the 38th in Colima. He had a very strong battle against the minority group and many threats from them," said Mr. Eduardo Sandoval.
"I have been there on many occasions, going to hearings and such things, and there you could see the anger that they have for the lawyer, for Don Toño, for us. Threats of all kinds. The threat was made on January 4 and was carried out on the 15th, there is no more reason to doubt here, it is the opposition group and the company that agree on this," he stressed.
According to these two community members who agreed to be interviewed, the majority group of community members are at latent risk and fear that the disappearances and/or murders will continue as long as the mining company Ternium and its allies within Aquila do not achieve their economic and political objectives of profits and control.
The suspicions we have, through the threats and all that, are about Ternium and the people who work with them, that is, the minority group. We have to be very careful with these businessmen, so they don't find us there and they come down with the guillotine on us, otherwise we'll have to deal with it."
criminal strategy
Far from the aforementioned disappearances and attacks on the Aquila community members being isolated incidents, in the Sierra-Coastal region of Michoacan, the criminal group Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación has also attempted to destabilize other communities, particularly Santa María Ostula, a territory neighboring the municipal capital and one of Ternium's main interests for expanding its exploitation areas.
Pedro, a member of the Ostula community, also agreed to be interviewed by Península 360 and shares some events that have occurred since the beginning of 2023:
«First, on January 6, they ambushed the Communal Guard on the border with Aquila. There have been constant attacks and on January 12, the death of three comrades, Isaúl, Miguel and Rolando, occurred. They were at a strategic control point to stop the CJNG from advancing into our communities.»
«They were ambushed there, during the shift change, and a commando of about 20 hitmen surprised the colleagues and killed them. Later, a few days later, the disappearance of the lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and the professor Antonio Díaz occurred. It was in Cerro de Ortega, they shot at the truck and some individuals dragged one of them out, according to witnesses.»
According to investigations by the community itself and its Communal Guard, these acts were committed by the same armed group that is allied with the mining company and the minority group that operates illegally.
According to a confidential source who asked to remain anonymous, three well-known figures in the region are involved in this triangle: Agustín Villanueva, a former self-defense force and apparent opponent of the same Ternium company, which is now accused of being an ally due to shared economic interests; Cemeí Verdía, expelled from the community of Ostula for being linked to the CJNG; and José Luis Arteaga Olivares, former municipal president of Aquila (2015-2018).
«They want to control the municipal seat of Aquila now, that is why they hit the majority organized group, to decapitate it and so that no one wants to be its representative, in this way the small but armed group will now be able to pretend a conciliation and will try to impose a candidate for the next elections in 2024, someone from the PRI, surely it will be Cochelo [José Cortés Ramos, former mayor (2008-2011) disqualified for a period from holding public office in Michoacán]».
According to this source, the CJNG is beginning to operate as the Knights Templar did before, that is, they are trying to have territorial control and impose quota collection, therefore, "we must think - he continues - like a cartel thinks, in order to counterbalance it, it does not matter what name you give it if in the end the strategies and the people who comprise it are criminals, that is what must be fought, that is why Ostula defends its territory a lot, to prevent this group from advancing and ending the peaceful life that we have, which has cost so much to achieve."
For Pedro, the CJNG is trying to enter the communities of the mountain-coast, "I think they are looking to reach the port of Lázaro Cárdenas, to have control, because as far as I understand they only control Manzanillo and the route of the chemical precursors for methamphetamines, for drug trafficking, is key, but also in this area there is the collection of fees, a clear example of this is Chinicuila [municipality bordering Aquila], since the CJNG has been settled there, they charge all businesses 2 salaries a day."
"All businesses. Apart from the exploitation of the mines. When the Knights Templar were there, they went all out and the people who betrayed the communities, what is their purpose? To exploit the mines."
In this context, many pains are added to the fear in which the population of the region lives, not only due to the constant shootings that occur almost daily but also to selective attacks, such as those of the communal guards of Ostula who were murdered by members of the CJNG, who recorded videos of this event and spread them on social networks in a mocking tone.
"It affected the community a lot, because they are brothers from the community, they were comrades who supported us with security. They were containing the cartel so that we could live well, comfortably, and instead of the bullets being here, the bullets being there, where the cartel members are. As long as the Communal Guard is there, the community will be fine, Ostula is alert but it doesn't give us a hard time, but rather a hard time," Pedro concludes the interview conducted at one of the security checkpoints that his community has established to maintain order and security.
The search institution that does not search
19 days after the disappearance of Ricardo Lagunes and Antonio Díaz, security and agrarian authorities peacefully detained a convoy made up of various federal institutions: the Navy (SEMAR), the Natural Defense Secretariat (SEDENA), the National Guard (GN), the Interior Secretariat (SEGOB) and the National Search Commission (CNB).
The Nahua community authorities decided to wait for this convoy to pass through their security filter, in what seemed to be the end of an operation carried out without prior notice, without authorization for these authorities to enter the communal territory and without clarifying the objectives of the operation. After the 10 vehicles stopped and representatives of the aforementioned federal institutions got out, a meeting was held where these and other questions were posed to them.
After only one representative from the CNB and one from the SEGOB were accredited, the latter commented that the reason for the operation was the search for lawyer Lagunes and teacher Díaz, according to Cristian de la Rosa, who also stated that the search was being carried out "based on the information that the families gave them."
- Were the families the ones who gave you the points to search? Within our community? asked a community member, a member of the Ostula Security Commission.
-Yes, that was the case, said Erick Herrera Nieves, representative of the CNB.
-I don't think so. We are in contact with the families and they have not said this. Furthermore, if the comrades were in our territory, we would have already handed them over to their families. There are no missing persons in Ostula.
-…
Later in this dialogue, both officials acknowledged that it was not the families but the leaders of the Attorney General's Offices, both in Michoacán and Colima. In the video that we present with this report, we show a bit of the unfortunate conversation held by the public officials and the authorities of Ostula, who without further filters were categorical in their pointing out the collusion that has historically existed between the State security institutions and criminal organizations, specifying that the latter have been the Knights Templar and currently, the CJNG.
«They say that people who don't know their history - Pedro points out - are condemned to repeat it, in a certain way, in our homes. This is the conversation, at least once a week, about the whole situation. Our parents tell us, our grandparents tell us how they lived. We are living it these days. How can we not be aware of so many things? We have to tell everything that has been lived, the process of struggle that the community has lived through, which has cost deaths, disappearances, and that security here is the responsibility of the people, of the community itself. In Ostula, the fight for security is permanent.»
At the time of writing, there is still no trace of the whereabouts of lawyer Ricardo Lagunes and professor Antonio Díaz. Their families continue the search, while the institutions, in this case the Attorney General's Offices of Michoacán and Colima and the CNB, have not only failed to produce any results, but are also carrying out alleged searches in places that do not correspond to the real information that has been provided to them.
Beyond a committed and honest effort, it is the Mexican State that opts for a performance-based search, instead of actually looking for the missing persons. In this case, the lack of results has left not only two families battered and in deep pain, but also a community – that of Aquila – in a permanent division and the majority group of community members at the mercy of their opponents, allies of a mining company that does everything possible, day after day, to increase its profits and reduce its economic losses.
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