Mining Boosterism in Sonora
When the
Sonora River disaster struck, there was little public information about social
and environmental impacts of the Cananea and other mining operations. The flood
of toxics washing down the Sonora River also led to questions by the media, the
pubic, and the anti-Independencia aqueduct forces about how much water the
Buenavista copper mine and other mining operations consumed.
The state
government’s role as a booster for the mining sector rather than a regulator
helps explain the almost total lack of information about the impact of mining
on Sonora’s environment and on its water resources. The one state government
agency that has most information about the state’s mining industry is the
Secretaría de Economía.
The
Secretary of Economy has four separate programs that work closely with Mexican
and foreign mining firms: 1) foment growth of mining industry; 2) training
courses (in association with Secretaría d Trabajo and education institutions)
for mine staff and workers, 3) technical assistance and consultations, and 4)
helping mining businesses grow with state assistance.[i]
Over the
past decade, the state government has dramatically stepped up its programs to
boost the mining industry, creating a series of quasi-governmental entities and
public trusts (fideicomisos) to aid
and abet mining operations.[ii]
Governor Guillermo Padrés
The Dirección
General de Minería, which is the office of the Secretaría de Economía in
Hermosillo that interacts with mining companies, doesn’t concern itself with
the adverse impacts of mining.
The decree
establishing the office makes no mention of water use, water contamination,
land restoration, or occupational safety and health. Instead, the decree
authorizes the state government’s mining office to work closely with the mining
industry. Its mission is not to monitor or to regulate but rather of series but
rather: “fomenter,” proponer,” “apoyar,” “impulsar,” “coadyuvar,”
“proporcionar,” “brindar,” “promover,” “publicar,” “difundir,” and
“desarrollar.”
The
Secretaría de Economía hosts fairs and forums to promote mining in Sonora and
serves as a public relations agency for the state’s mining industry. More than
a cheerleader for the advance of mining operations in Sonora, the state
government works to boost the industry by providing direct and indirect assistance.
The
Direccíon General de Minería does this by providing technical assistance,
undertaking exploration studies, training technical workers, and generating
sources of credit and financing. And when the industry’s aggressive development
of new mines encounters obstacles, the state’s mining office works to remove
these obstacles by working with public and private entities to “prevent and
resolve mining problems.”[iii]
Over
the past decade the state government of Sonora has created a series of fideicomisos (decentralized
semi-autonomous public trusts that answer to the governor’s office). These
mining fideicomisos function as governmental partners of the private mining
companies, clearing the path for mining operations and assisting the firms with
services that involve the expenditure of state revenues.
In November
2007 the state legislature passed the “Ley de Promoción y Fomento Minero para
el Estado de Sonora.” The main thrust of this mining law was to establish a
process to provide financing, financial and logistical support, technical
studies, and fiscal incentives for the mining industry. To provide this
assistance, the law authorized the creation of the State Fund to Promote and
Incentivize Mining.
Fiscal and
non-fiscal incentives provided to mining companies – large or small, foreign or
national – include: tax and fee exemptions and reduction; financing for
modernization; training; technical assistance; business expansion; acquisition
of goods and services; investment and feasibility studies; infrastructure;
development aid; and mining and metallurgical studies. Neither the state nor
federal government provide any accounting of the incentives and support for the
mining industry.
In June
2011, Governor Padrés issued a decree to create a new decentralized state
organization called the Regional Mining Development Promoter (PRODEREM) whose
mission is to “strengthen the industry.”[iv]
This strengthening extends to all phases of mining operations – ranging from
mining extraction and processing (smelting, refining, etc.) operations to
transportation and even sales.
Government
subsidies, infrastructure construction, and tax incentives are nothing new in
Sonora. Since the 1880s the government of Sonora as facilitated the extraction
of copper, gold, and silver by mining companies. In the early 1880s, Sonora exempted mining
firms from taxes for twenty years. More than anything else, however, mine
investors have demanded that the Sonoran government guarantee that they could
extract their minerals in peace.
Referring to
this need to establish a stable climate for mining and economic modernization,
Sonora’s governor in 1882 lamented the uprisings of “bábaros” and “the abnormal
situation presented by the Yaqui and Mayo tribes who are holding fast to the
river banks.”[v]
Servicio Geológico Mexicano
[i] Secretaría de Economía, “Minería Programas,”
at: http://www.1economiasonora.gob.mx/sectores/minero
[ii] There are private and public fideicomisos in Mexico. Both state and
federal governments can create fideicomisos
for a variety of social and development objectives that involve spending
government revenues. In practice, the proliferation of fideicomisos, particularly on the state government level, further
shields the government from transparency and accountability. For a definition
of a fideicomiso público see:
http://definicionlegal.blogspot.com/2012/11/el-fideicomiso-publico.html
[iii] Secretaría de Economía, Artículo 15,
Atribuciones y indicadores de gestión de la Dirección General de Minería,” at
http://transparencia.esonora.gob.mx/Sonora/Transparencia/Poder+Ejecutivo/Secretar%C3%ADas/Secretar%C3%ADa+de+Economia/Atribuciones+e+Indicadores+de+Gesti%C3%B3n/Atribuciones+de+la+Direcci%C3%B3n+General+de+Miner%C3%ADa.htm
[iv] PRODERM succeeds another fideicomiso of Sonora’s executive branch
called the Fideicomiso
de Apoyo al Programa de Exploración Minera en el Estado de Sonora (FAPEMIN).
[v] Juan Manuel Romero Gil, La
minería en el noroeste de México: Utopía
y realidad, 1850-1910 (Plaza y Valdes, 2001),
p. 129.
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