19 MARCH 2007 – Letter to President of Mexico lays out the case of persecution of Los Mineros Leader

BURNABY, BC – District 3 Director Steve Hunt says that a United Steelworkers letter sent from USW International President Leo Gerard and National Director for Canada Ken Neumann to the President of Mexico last Friday (March 16), helps further “lay out the lumber” that Napoleon Gomez, the democratically elected secretary-general of Los Mineros (the National Union of Mining and Mellurgical Workers of Mexico) is being persecuted by that country’s government.

Following the February 19, 2006 explosion at Grupo Mexico’s Pasta de Conchos Mine which killed 65 miners in the community of San Juan de Sabinas in Coahuila state, Gomez called the deaths “industrial homicide” and called on the federal secretary of labour and social security to resign.

He was then forcibly removed from office by phony charges – charges created in forged documents, as the letter details. A puppet leader, Elias Morales, was place in office.

Today Gomez resides in Canada, awaiting his rightful return to Mexico once his family’s and personal security can be assured.

“Brother Gomez and his family have been really been through the wringer and our union solidly stands with him and supports his rightful return to the leadership of Los Mineros,” says Hunt. “Napoleon deserves the support of every Steelworker and every Canadian worker that wants to see justice done.”

The Gerard and Neumann letter urges current Mexican President Felipe Calderon to “end this embarrassing chapter in Mexican history which has politicized the legal system in Mexico and disregarded ILO (International Labour Organization) conventions enshrined in the Mexican constitution.”

In March and May of 2006, Gomez was confirmed as the leader of Los Mineros, following his removal from office. Even President Calderon’s current federal labour minister, Javier Lozano, certified that the union has only 70 sections (ie local unions), which confirm Gomez’s election.

The letter also points out that allegations by the previous federal labour minister that Gomez laundered $55-million US have been proven false by a Scotiabank audit and an investigation by the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission.

The International Metalworkers Federation has hired the respected firm KPMG to audit the money in question.

Three federal courts in Mexico turned down attempts, by Mexico’s own Attorney-General to have criminal complaints issued against Lopez. Then, points out the USW letter, the government of then president Vicente Fox
“shopped around” the case to three states judges. Those judges actually issued identical complaints, with the same typo mistakes in them!

The letter also raises the issue that Coahuila state governor Humberto Morreira (where the Pasta de Conchos explosion occurred) has alleged that then president Fox pressured him to charge Gomez with unsubstantiated crimes.

“Our union is calling the Mexican government to account on these and other matters and urges it to cease its corrupt political persecution of Napoleon Gomez,” says Hunt.

Both the AFL-CIO and the CLC are also backing Brother Gomez his long and arduous fight for justice. The letter has been sent to the president of both national labour bodies, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter McKay and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

See attached pdf of March 16, 2007 letter.

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