Payments made by Calgary-owned mining company should be probed: coalition

CALGARY — A Calgary-based mining company already embroiled in a Mexican shooting scandal should be investigated for payments made to a public official there, a coalition of non-governmental organizations is charging.

Nine groups have signed a letter asking the RCMP to review whether payments totalling about $20,000 were made by Blackfire Exploration to the mayor of Chicomuselo, located in southern Mexico, intended to quell local dissent toward the mine.

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The coalition has submitted to police a company spreadsheet that appears to show 14 payments made by Blackfire to Julio Cesar Velazquez Calderon, along with a letter to state Congress there in which the company asks for the mayor to be removed from office.

Blackfire has offered two explanations for the payments, saying the money was either extorted or meant for charitable donations to an annual fair.

The coalition groups — including Common Frontiers, MiningWatch Canada, the Sierra Club and Council of Canadians — want the company investigated under the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, which came into law in 1999.