"PBI-UK notes win by farmers against LSE listed mining company in Mexico, the environmental defenders killed after denouncing abuses", 31 January 2025.

PBI-UK has posted on X/Twitter: “WIN! Court confirms UK-registered company owes farmers in El Bajío over £5 million for gold illegally extracted from community land. Environmental defenders were murdered after denouncing land & environmental abuses.”

The Pie de Página article by independent journalist Alejandro Ruiz shared by PBI-UK reports: “The Unitary Agrarian Tribunal Number 28 accredited that the company Fresnillo PLC, owned by the Baillères family, owes the ejidatarios of the ejido El Bajío, in Sonora, the sum of 13,258,667,000 pesos. The amount corresponds to the illegal extraction of gold that the mining company carried out on ejido lands from 2005 to 2013…”...

PBI-UK highlighted the Fresnillo case in their investigative report: The Case For Change: Why human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence...

That report highlighted...:

“Minera Penmont operated the Soledad-Dipolos open-pit gold mine located in the territory of the El Bajío Ejido in Mexico, between 2010 and 2013. When mining exploration began on communal lands, local communities began to defend their rights. Agrarian Courts have ruled that Penmont were operating on the land illegally without the community’s permission, ordering Penmont to leave the land and compensate the residents. However, land and environmental defenders calling for accountability have faced a series of reprisals including arbitrary detention, criminalisation, and killings. Minera Penmont is a subsidiary of Fresnillo PLC, a UK-incorporated company listed on the London Stock Exchange.”

Their report further notes:

“Leaders of the peaceful community resistance faced arbitrary arrest in April 2016 when police officers – allegedly escorted by private security guards of Minera Penmont – arrived at the Ejido and arrested land rights defender Bartolo Pacheco and four other members of the Ejido.

Attacks against community representatives continued to escalate and, in February 2018....

In May 2021, José de Jesús Robledo Cruz, human rights defender and former Ejido President, was found murdered in the middle of the desert together with his wife, María de Jesús Gómez Vega. José de Jesús had actively opposed the activities of Minera Penmont in the region... When invited by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre to respond to the killing of José de Jesús and his wife, Minera Penmont categorically rejected that it is linked in any way with the crimes.

PBI has provided security and advocacy support to members of the Ejido due to the ongoing threats they face.”...