Mexico says 5 of 10 workers kidnapped from Canadian miner found dead
The workers were kidnapped on January 23 from a silver mining project in Mexico’s violence-plagued Sinaloa state
Mexican authorities have recovered 10 bodies in the search for workers kidnapped last month from a mine run by Canada’s Vizsla Silver Corp in Mexico’s northern state of Sinaloa, the country’s attorney general’s office said on Monday.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement that it found 10 bodies in the municipality of Concordia, of which five have so far been identified. Forensic teams are working to identify the remaining five bodies, it added.
Relatives of those kidnapped told Reuters that they have not been provided any information by authorities regarding the possible identities of the bodies yet to be identified. Family members were due to meet with local authorities on Tuesday.
A relative of one of the workers said she feared entering Sinaloa, which is beset by violence perpetrated by drug cartels. “We want to go to Sinaloa,” she said. “But we have no guarantee that we will be safe. We know about the violence and we are afraid to go.”
The group was kidnapped at the end of January from a silver mine in an area security authorities say is under the control of the Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa cartel led by the sons of former drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Earlier on Monday, Mexico’s mining chamber confirmed the death of three of the kidnapped miners.
