“Mining companies use organized crime against unions”: Napoleon Gómez Urrutia

ByAlexia Villaseñor

This article by Alexia Villaseñor originally appeared in the May 5, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The case of Camino Rojo, in Zacatecas, is joined by others of mining companies (international and national) in which organized crime is involved, both to attack workers and to interfere in union life, denounced the leader of the National Mining Union, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.

In a press conference, he indicated that several mines are replicating the model of the Canadian company Orla Mining, which consists of using armed groups to interfere in union assemblies, forcing workers to vote for a particular group and thereby causing them to desert the National Mining Union. Some of these mines are Plata Panamericana in Zacatecas; Américas Gold and Silver in Cosalá, Sinaloa; and Torex Gold in Guerrero.

“There are several mines, unfortunately from Canada for now, (because) it is the country that has almost 70 percent of foreign investment in mining, and there are three other companies that are acting with total impunity,” he warned, within the framework of the 44th Convention of the National Union of Mining, Metallurgical, Steel and Similar Workers of the Mexican Republic.

The union, he explained, is demanding that the concessions of these companies be revoked and that the employers’ unions be stripped of their registration so that workers can operate normally and safely, without any risk to them or their families, since, he lamented, there are cases where they have received death threats.

Regarding the Camino Rojo case, Gómez Urrutia indicated that the Orla Mining company denied workers’ rights to exercise their freedom and democracy, and that they were at risk because they resorted to “organizations linked to company unions, which are almost narco-unions , as they could be called, used by organized crime, which is a total violation not only of human rights, but of all labour legislation.”

He reported that the union he represents requested the Labour Secretariat to revoke the concession granted to the Canadian company due to the labor violations it has committed, as well as the removal of the employers’ union registration.

The federal deputy, who is currently on leave, also considered it would set a “very negative” precedent if the practice of mining companies resorting to organized crime or company unions to attack workers continued.