Hundreds of impoverished people are now afflicted with serious diseases; environmental devastation; dead crops; rivers and tributaries that remain at risk; children with severe skin diseases, ulcers, sores and facial blemishes—the same is true for the elderly and women who do not want to leave their homes due to problems on their faces and bodies. These are the effects registered in the areas surrounding the Sonora and Bacanuchi Rivers one year and seven months after the toxic spill caused by Grupo Mexico at Cananea. The impact of the spill is ongoing.
A committee of health professionals, union leaders, national academics and representatives of national environmental organizations in the United States toured this region from Cananea to Hermosillo, to assess the situation. The survey they conducted reveals that 76 percent of respondents still suffer skin diseases and have skin ulcers; 78 percent suffer from eye diseases, burning and vision problems. The vast majority of the residents surveyed suffer headaches, bone pain and hair loss. Tests indicate a high level of metals in their blood.
In a telephone interview with members of this committee, Cadelba Lomeli, specialist in infectious diseases and medical issues, said:
"We were able to confirm that there are children age four to 10 years with painful sores that have not healed in a year, and gentlemen with liver and kidney problems; hence, the health emergency is ongoing as a result of water consumption and agricultural products that are still contaminated."International Law
Jerry Acosta, national representative of the Union of Public Services in the United States; Brooke Anderson, director of Climate Workers; David Bacon, specialist and writer on labor issues, and Garrett Brown, with the Support Network on Occupational Health in the Assembly Plants [maquiladoras, along Mexico-U.S. border], among other experts, warned that given the persistent economic impact and health consequences for the people in the region, are facts by which Grupo Mexico has violated international law and failed to recognze the human rights of all the [largely indigenous] communities along the Sonora River.
They called for a resolution of the mining conflict and an end to the Cananea strike—which has now gone on for more than nine years, with the authorities "illegally" permitting the mine to close, then in a "legalistic action," allowing it to reopen with only a change in the name of the company. They argued that the federal government must set up clinics for care of the sick and that residents be compensated for economic damage.
Anderson and Bacon indicated that agriculture in this area is devastated, that sellers of agricultural products have lost half the market and have neither money nor food for their families.
Dr. Reina Castro, affiliated with the Department of Science Research and Technologies and Ecology at the University of Sonora, warned that the promise of giving residents water treatment plants has not been fulfilled:
"They only installed one plant, and it doesn't work."That single water treatment plant has been abandoned. Water from the tributaries continues being at risk. It hasn't even been possible to plant crops because contamination persists in the soil, and there are areas of dead vegetation, sick wildlife. Meanwhile, the supposed Grupo México's trust fund was a fiasco. According to Dr. Castro,
"What's required is a food plan, justice for the people, medical care and respect for their human rights."Antonio Navarrete, Section 65 of the National Miners Union, the union that supported the work of this committee, explained that both the strike and the toxic spill are the result of the impunity enjoyed by the company, and that so far no government has held Grupo México responsible for compensating the damages and paying for the disasters and illegalities that they have committed. Spanish original