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7 September, 2009
In Mexico on 25 August, an appellate court overturned the government’s freeze on bank accounts of the National Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union (SNTMMSRM), or Los Mineros. But a week later, on 2 September, Mexico’s Attorney General reissued an order freezing those accounts.
The appeals court ruled that the government’s asset freeze on union accounts could only be imposed on specific evidence, not on a general suspicion of money laundering. The court thus ruled against a decree from late last year that continued a freeze on the union’s funds, now tied up for nearly three years.
The Attorney General’s office again used Article 181 of Mexico’s penal code to freeze the union’s assets.
Los Mineros will continue to appeal this order, despite not having the necessary information from the government in order to wage its legal fight.
Meanwhile, a special working group of the Mexican Senate has agreed to accept videotape testimony from the union’s leader in exile, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, over the Cananea mine strike. Napoleón Gómez, who is in exile in Canada, will be allowed to testify on Grupo México’s complicity in alleged human rights abuses at the mine where SNTMMSRM members have now been on strike for 25 months.
The Mexican Miners’ and Metalworkers’ Union was approved for ICEM affiliation during the 23-24 June Executive Committee meetings.