Camino Rojo & The Narco Cover-up

ByCarlos Fernández-Vega

This column by Carlos Fernández-Vega originally appeared in the April 14, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

What the Mexican government should have immediately investigated and resolved (given its sensitive nature regarding workplace and physical safety for workers, as well as the rule of law itself) has been handled with utter inertia. Instead of addressing it promptly and through the appropriate channels, the government has stalled for at least two years, to the point that an international body had to intervene. And so, the issue has reached the President’s daily press conference, where, in any case, it should have been announced that everything had been resolved, and not, as was done yesterday, that it is merely “under investigation.”

This is about Minera Camino Rojo – a concession to the Canadian company Orla Mining – in which, with the company’s authorization, drug traffickers intervened as a shock group against the workers affiliated with the National Union of Miners (holder of the collective agreement) presided over by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, who has denounced this situation.

In recent days, La Jornada‘s Jared Laureles reported it as follows: “The Camino Rojo mining company, located in Mazapil, Zacatecas, used organized crime to threaten its workers, affiliated with section 335 of the National Mining Union, and violate their labor rights, in addition to seeking to make them desert this union, warns the unprecedented investigation of the panel of the Labor Rapid Response Mechanism (LRRM) of the USMCA, which determined that the company is ‘directly responsible for employer interference’ in union activities.”

Furthermore, the MLRR resolution emphasizes that “evidence was documented of acts of violence and death threats, both at union meetings and at workers’ homes, to force them to join a company-backed union affiliated with the National Federation of Independent Unions (based in Nuevo León and headed by Jesús González Cárdenas). The panel’s findings corroborated that ‘the mine hired a drug trafficker to disrupt union meetings with armed individuals, issue death threats, and force workers to accept the company’s preferred union.’”

To put it mildly, this is a tremendous slap in the face to three Mexican government institutions: the Secretariat of Economy (legally responsible for mining concessions) and the Secretariat of Labor (the supposed guarantor of workers’ rights), and the Attorney General’s Office (which hasn’t lifted a finger to resolve this matter). Meanwhile, the Canadian corporation is laughing all the way to the bank, along with its drug-trafficking cronies who protect its interests at gunpoint.

So, these three institutions, far from redoubling their efforts and investigations, if any existed, simply “rejected the panel’s determination,” because the MLRR “exceeded its scope, arguing that it intended to analyze conduct of a criminal nature and that the acts of ‘coercion’ cannot be attributed to the mining company.” And what about the documented crimes?

With their slow, deliberate approach, that trio of aces ensured that, two years later, the matter reached the National Palace without any resolution and exploded in the hands of President Sheinbaum, who yesterday merely stated that the Camino Rojo case “is being investigated.” She also announced to her colleagues that “tomorrow, the security cabinet will provide an update; today I will speak with Marath (Baruch, Secretary of Labour) to learn (two years later!) the context of this situation at the mine… And of course it’s illegal; no company, not even mining companies, that uses any form of intimidation against workers is not only breaking the law, but there are also crimes to prosecute if it is proven that this occurred.” Right, and where were Marcelo, Marath, and Ernestina?

Meanwhile, as Gómez Urrutia points out: “Who will be held accountable if mine personnel are beaten, disappear, or even murdered? This sets a very important precedent for the MLRR, prompting companies from the United States and Canada to reflect on the fact that they cannot come to Mexico and act as they cannot in their own countries. The complete lack of government response and the silence of the Canadian government and its embassy in Mexico are deeply concerning.”