Union members in Mexico say HR ignored concerns about cartel connections before deaths of 9 kidnapped miners
A Vancouver-based mining company is under fire after workers at its Mexican gold operation say their warnings about alleged links between local managers and organized crime went unanswered.
Nine of 10 workers for Vizsla Silver Corp. were found dead after being kidnapped in January 2026 from a mining project.
Workers at Orla Mining’s Camino Rojo gold mine in Zacatecas say calls to the company’s own ethics hotline about alleged cartel interference in a union fight were effectively ignored, according to a CBC News investigation.
Several employees at the Canadian‑owned mine say they phoned Orla Mining’s workplace ethics hotline between July and December 2024 to report that local management was “working with a prominent organized crime group to force out the existing union,” according to two former members of the Mineros Union.
“We informed [Orla Mining's HR department] of everything that was happening, how [management] had made a deal with the narcotraffickers, and they never did anything,” the first former union member told CBC News.
“The truth is, there was never any type of response,” the second union member said.
CBC News said it is not naming the pair, who say they were driven from their homes by death threats linked to the union struggle.
No ‘substantive followup’ from HR
Some workers received case numbers tied to their complaints, they said, but none of them saw “any substantive follow-up” from the human resources team that oversees the hotline, according to CBC News.
The Mineros Union — formally the National Union of Workers for Mining, Metalworking and Similar — had held the collective agreement at Camino Rojo from 2021 until a bitterly contested union vote in November 2024.
Orla Mining did not respond to detailed questions from CBC News for the story. In a statement earlier this week, the company said it was “engaging in dialogue with the governments of Mexico and the United States” and implementing “additional measures” in response to recent labour findings, CBC News reports.
For Aaron Zaltzman, employment lawyer with Toronto firm Whitten and Lublin, the question of what employers are responsible for when sending employees to risky locations is simple: “All of it," he tells Canadian HR Reporter.
Labour panel cites intimidation tactics
The Camino Rojo mine lies about 600 kilometres north of Mexico City, in the semi‑desert municipality of Mazapil, in the state of Zacatecas. Orla Mining, headquartered in Vancouver, owns the site and has also recently taken over the Musselwhite gold mine in northwestern Ontario, according to CBC News.
In February, a three‑member rapid‑response labour panel created under the Canada‑U.S.‑Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) concluded that workers at Camino Rojo suffered a “severe” denial of labour rights.
The panel found management engaged in “employer interference” and was “acquiescent to the acts of pressure and intimidation” used to steer workers toward a rival union, the National Union of Exploration, Exploitation and Processing Mine Workers (Beneficio de Minas), CBC News reports.
A U.S. government labour review found that the Operativa Flechas member — nicknamed “el Paul” and “el Mocho” — appeared at Mineros Union meetings with armed men and delivered death threats to union supporters, CBC News reports. One U.S. filing included a photo of “el Paul” in the front of a vehicle bearing an Orla Mining logo on its door.
Political scrutiny of Mexican mines
The case has now reached the highest political levels in Mexico. This week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her security cabinet is examining allegations that a faction of the Sinaloa cartel — which Canada lists as a terrorist organization — “strong-armed Camino Rojo workers so they would vote for management’s preferred union,” according to CBC News.
Orla Mining disclosed in an August 2025 second‑quarter filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it was “reviewing potential criminal activity at the [Camino Rojo] mine.” In that filing, the company said it had notified the RCMP, as well as Mexican and U.S. authorities, CBC News reports. The RCMP did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News.
In a statement to CBC News on Tuesday, Orla Mining said the review is still underway and that the company is “enhancing the mine’s security measures in collaboration with authorities.”
