Killings cast shadow over major Canadian business visit to Mexico

Vizsla Silver's Panuco Project in Sinaloa, Mexico, is shown in this photo from the company's website. (Credit: vizslasilvercorp.com)

Hundreds of Canadian business leaders visited Mexico on Monday, aiming to deepen commercial ties despite the recent kidnapping and killing of several employees of a Canadian mining firm.

About 400 Canadian industry representatives -- billed as one of the largest-ever Canadian delegations to visit Mexico -- were joined by a senior minister in Mexico City.

Ottawa is pushing hard for deeper trade ties with other mid-sized economies to pivot away from its dependence on the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Canadian goods with tariffs and is reportedly considering scrapping a U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal that has spurred commerce for decades.

“There’s no better time than now to forge these new partnerships,” said Dominic LeBlanc, the visiting minister, who is responsible for commerce between Canada and the United States.

But the Canadian visit was overshadowed by deep security concerns.

Just weeks ago, ten miners working for a Canadian firm in Mexico were kidnapped. Five have been confirmed dead, while the rest remain missing.

LeBlanc said that security should be a priority and announced that the Canadian Royal Mounted Police plans to double the number of officials who work in the Canadian Embassy in Mexico this year.

Organized crime groups are suspected of being behind the kidnapping of the ten mine workers in violence-plagued Sinaloa state.

The workers, all Mexicans, according to local media, were kidnapped on Jan. 23 from a silver mining project belonging to the Vancouver-based company Vizsla Silver.

Abductions by armed groups are all too common in Mexico, where more than 120,000 people have vanished since the 1950s, many of them abducted and killed by drug cartels.

Mexican Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard said it was “intelligent” to include the issue of security in talks.