"Mexican Environmental Protection Office Closes “New Filos” Project", 16 October 2025

...Equinox Gold CEO Mr. Darren Hall’s celebration of the New Filos project did not last long. The project was inaugurated in the presence of representatives from the state of Guerrero, the municipality of Eduardo Neri and the communities of Mezcala and Xochipala on September 4, 2025. Since Wednesday afternoon, Equinox and its New Filos project face a new reality, having being closed by the federal government, specifically the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA).

Based on the information we have, at least 5 sites have been closed where there was sufficient evidence of harms and failure to comply with remediation measures previously identified by the federal environmental authority. The closure also includes observations of another 15 to 18 sites, which we presume could be closed in another 15 to 20 days if unaddressed.

For us, this closure on the part of PROFEPA is unprecedented and is encouraging to our struggle because it lends support to what we have been saying for a long time, that Equinox breaks the laws, does not comply with environmental regulations, uses its power to try to control communities and seeks to get around the legal framework in Mexico with tricks and political contacts. It is enough to recall that we have spent six and a half months camping outside the company’s gates waiting for our remediated lands to be returned in keeping with the law in order to continue our activities as campesino farmers, or that the company would otherwise make a real attempt to establish a process toward a just agreement and not the miserable terms that have been proposed together with racist treatment, without social justice or consideration for our most basic human rights....

We have been in resistance for six and a half months, enduring the violation of our human rights by Equinox Gold. Today the environmental laws speak for us. Soon the civil code will do its part...