Mexican Mining Union Says It Will Confront Dissidents
Some 200 leaders of the union who are loyal to Secretary General Napoleon Gomez Urrutia said they reached an accord to take their battle to the central state of Zacatecas starting Wednesday.
In an 11-page document, which followed a two-day assembly in Mexico City, Gomez Urrutia's supporters said they would seek out his former right-hand man, Carlos Pavon.
Pavon broke with Gomez Urrutia in May, saying his former boss was using the union for his own purposes. Pavon had acted as union spokesman since Gomez Urrutia left Mexico for Canada in 2006 to avoid arrest on charges of misappropriating $55 million in union funds. The union rejects the charges.
In June, miners from the two camps clashed in Fresnillo, the site of the country's biggest silver mine, which is owned and operated by London-listed Fresnillo PLC (FRES.LN), a unit of Mexican mining firm Industrias Penoles SAB (PE&OLES.MX). Ten miners were injured and one was killed in the clash.
Penoles officials weren't available to comment Tuesday.
Gomez Urrutia's supporters said they were going to Fresnillo to confront Pavon and seek justice for the miner killed in June.
"It was agreed to go for Carlos Pavon in his stronghold in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, or wherever he might be, to refute his lies and make it clear that he is a traitor who has attempted to prostitute the union movement," the statement said.
In a telephone interview, Pavon challeged Gomez Urrutia to come for him personally, and said "Napo," as Gomez Urrutia is known, now has minority support within the organization.
Pavon, who leads the internal opposition group National Front of Mining Union Renovation, said his and another internal movement have about 17,000 workers to Napo's 7,000.
He said he doubted the miners at Tuesday's Mexico City conference are planning violence in Zacatecas. "I don't think the workers want that," Pavon said. "If Napo is so brave, he should come and get me himself and not be hiding out in Canada."
Gomez Urrutia, who participated in Tuesday's union meeting through teleconferencing, called the split in the union group "a war."
Miners loyal to Gomez Urrutia have been striking for more than two years at three mines run by Grupo Mexico SAB (GMEXICO.MX), including Cananea, the country's largest copper mine.
-By Laurence Iliff, Dow Jones Newswires; (52-55) 5980-5184, laurence.iliff@dowjones.com
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Publié le 25 novembre 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones
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