MEXICO CITY, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Three of 10 mine workers kidnapped last month from a mine run by Canada’s Vizsla Silver Corp in Mexico’s northern Sinaloa state have been found dead, the company and the country’s mining chamber said on Monday.
Ignacio Aurelio Salazar, Jose Angel Hernandez and Jose Manuel Castaneda were confirmed dead by local authorities, Mexican mining chamber Camimex said in a statement, in which it called for the killings to not go unpunished.
“We ask that the absolute priority remains locating our coworkers who are still missing alive so they can return home with their families, where thy belong,” Camimex added.
The group was kidnapped at the end of January from a silver mine, in an area which security authorities say is under the control of the Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of ex-Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
On Friday, Mexican authorities said at least one body found in a clandestine grave in Concordia – some 45 km (28 miles) east of the Pacific coast city of Mazatlan – matched the description of one of the missing miners.
Mexico’s government sent over 1,000 troops, including elite marines, to the area over the weekend to try to locate the missing miners. On Thursday, four suspects were arrested over the case.
Speaking in a press conference on Monday morning, President Claudia Sheinbaum said the government was in close contact with the workers’ families and the mining company.
“We are looking into everything that could have caused this situation,” she said. “We hope a situation like this will never happen again.”
Four relatives of kidnapped miners told Reuters no one had asked them for a ransom, but said workers had told them the area was dangerous due to local crime groups.
Jaime Lopez, the uncle of 26 year-old engineer Pablo Osorio, who remains missing, told Reuters that his family were struggling and had not received financial support.
“We are not a family with resources, what is happening is very sad,” he said. “So far they have not helped with anything.”
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Vancouver-based Vizsla Silver said it will provide further updates as it awaits confirmations from the Mexican authorities. Its Panuco mine has been closed since the kidnapping and company shares were down nearly 6% in late morning trading.
(Reporting by Pranav Mathur in Bengaluru, Raul Cortes, Sarah Morland and Lizabeth Diaz in Mexico City; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Natalia Siniawski)
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