2013 Community makes freedom of information request

In March and May 2013, communal authorities of San Miguel del Progreso filed freedom of information requests with the support of the Centre for Human Rights of La Montaña -Tlachinollan (CDHM Tlachinollan). The petitions based on the General Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information were directed through the System for Information Requests (INFOMEX) at the Ministry of Economy seeking any information on mining concessions granted on community lands. Prior to this, the community had only been able to gather limited informal information in relation to the concessions and the degree to which they impacted the community’s territory.

In May and June 2013, in compliance with freedom of information legislation, the Technical Secretary of the Information Committee of the Ministry of Economy responded. The documents stated that San Miguel del Progreso “is partially situated on the mining concessions “Reducción Norte de Corazón de Tinieblas (title 232560) and Corazón de Tinieblas (title 237861)”” (CDMH Tlachinollan, 2014: 62). The concessions had been granted for 50 years to Minera Hochschild México, a subsidiary of Hochschild Mining plc.

This was the first official information provided to the community confirming the existence of the concessions and their location on community territory. As a result, the community discovered that the two combined Corazón de Tinieblas concessions covered 80% of their ancestral territory and impacted 12 agrarian centres from 6 municipalities involving almost 240 communities whose lands cover 168,436 hectares (CDHM Tlachinollan, 2021: 48).