‘Our deepest condolences are with our colleagues’ families, friends and co-workers’
Relatives in Mexico have identified the bodies of three employees of Vancouver-based Vizsla Silver Corp. who were kidnapped late last month in the violence-torn state of Sinaloa, according to family members, company statements and officials.
Jaime Castañeda said he identified the body of his 43-year-old geologist brother on Sunday by viewing photographs shown to him at the federal attorney general’s local headquarters in the coastal city of Mazatlán, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa.
José Manuel Castañeda Hernández was working for Vizsla Silver when he was kidnapped on Jan. 23, along with nine other employees, from Concordia, a municipality about 50 kilometres east of Mazatlán.
Castañeda Hernández, originally from the state of Guerrero, was a husband and father to two children, a 14-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter.
“It’s so hard to see … how they suffer,” said Jaime Castañeda. “There’s no justice with what’s happening.”
Three workers found dead by federal authorities
The identities of two other kidnapped Vizsla Silver workers from the state of Zacatecas were also confirmed on Sunday by a family member and a federal politician, says CBC.
All three men were found dead late last week by federal authorities near the rural village of El Verde, about 15 kilometres north of Concordia. Their bodies were discovered in what local media have widely described as a mass grave.
The Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Friday that authorities found “bodies and human remains” at the El Verde site, without specifying a number or using the term mass grave, says the CBC.
“We are devastated by this outcome and the tragic loss of life," said Michael Konnert, president & CEO of Vizsla in a statement.
"Our deepest condolences are with our colleagues’ families, friends and co-workers, and the entire community of Concordia. Our focus remains on the safe recovery of those who remain missing and on supporting all affected families and our people during this incredibly difficult time.”
Families confirm 2 more victims
Jaime Castañeda said he met at least seven other families at the federal attorney general’s local headquarters who were there to identify bodies taken from the site.
The families of two Vizsla Silver employees from Zacatecas were among those asked to identify bodies in Mazatlán, according to Zacatecas state Attorney General Cristian Paul Camacho.
“We are in communication with both families … and one of the families just told us that they are already in the process of carrying out the corresponding identification procedures,” said Camacho, in a telephone interview with CBC News.
Ignacio Aurelio Salazar Flores, 40, from Zacatecas, was one of the employees whose body had been identified, his wife Dayanara Nataly Esparza confirmed.
Esparza told CBC News in a text message that it was “the toughest day” of her life, adding she was too distraught to speak.
The identity of the second worker from Zacatecas, José Ángel Hernández Vélez, 37, was confirmed in a social media post by Sen. Geovanna Bañuelos, who is from the same state and a member of the government-aligned Labour Party.
Canadian mining firm Capstone Copper also posted a notice of condolences for Hernández Vélez, says CBC.
Kidnappings allegedly tied to Sinaloa Cartel
The kidnapping and discovery of multiple bodies in the mountainous area around Concordia have unfolded against the backdrop of an 18‑month civil war between factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, described as one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the world.
Mexico’s Security and Civilian Protection Secretary Omar Harfuch has said it is suspected that a cell linked to Los Chapitos was behind the kidnapping of the mining company’s employees, says CBC.
David Mora, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, travelled to the Concordia area in the middle of January, days before the kidnapping, to gather testimonies from families who had been displaced by violence and were returning home.
Targeting workers connected to a foreign company, like Vizsla Silver, may have been part of their calculations, he told CBC.
“These people have connections to a Canadian company and this area is very strategic because of the minerals and also the logging industry,” he said. “It raises the political angle of this specific attack.”
There have been 2,776 cases of intentional homicides and 3,290 people reported missing since the war between the factions exploded in 2024, according to CBC citing statistics compiled by the Noroeste news organization in Sinaloa.
