Mexico produces three times more mercury (63 tons) than the Kingdom of Norway (20);and although it produces 57 times less than China (3,600) – the main producer of mercury in the world, which must stop extracting this metal by 2032, in accordance with the Minamata Convention –, until 2021 it exported more than anyone else to America from the south.Mexico has regularly sold mercury to the three countries that make up the Pacific Alliance –Colombia, Chile and Peru–, all of them signed to the same agreement that has the objective of controlling the presence of mercury in the biosphere.Since Peru stopped importing mercury in 2015, Bolivia became the second largest importer of mercury in the world and "no regulations have been issued to control mercury imports. Bolivia signed Minamata but did not regulate compliance; this import is legal , although there is increasing pressure," says Óscar Campanini, from the Bolivian Documentation and Information Center (CEDIB), who did research for the report Opening the Black Box: Revealing the Global Mercury Trade, with the support of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN).Campanini confirms that until 2020 the majority of imports came from Mexico (93%) and that to date they continue to enter Bolivia mainly by land (98%), after arriving by ship in Arica, Chile.According to the General Import and Export Tax Law, mercury requires a permit from the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) and an authorization from the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) to leave the country and embark to the Amazon.In the customs records of Bolivia, 26 Mexican companies that exported mercury to that country are recorded.The Union of Miners of the state of Querétaro, headed by Juan José Zamorano Dávila, has sent at least 56 shipments of liquid mercury.He is also the administrator of Vesia Internacional, SA de CV, a company established with his partner Sandra Ceballos Parra, in March 2019, dedicated to "the import and export of rocks and minerals, both metallic and non-metallic, in compliance with applicable regulations. for this purpose".Productos Mineros RT, SA de CV, owned by René Reyes Santillán and Marisela Terán Alcántara, registers 19 shipments sent from the port of Manzanillo, on the west coast of Mexico, to the port of Arica, Chile, in transit to La Paz, Bolivia .Productos Mineros RT, SA de CV, was incorporated in Ecatepec, State of Mexico, in November 2013, as a corporate purpose for the "purchase, sale, distribution, import, export, commission, consignment and marketing of materials, articles, equipment , spare parts, accessories, products and everything related to mining".His sons, Armando and Miguel Ángel Reyes Terán, are dedicated to marketing and selling liquid mercury in Mexico and Colombia – via Comercializadora Internacional Euromanantial SAS – through the page www.mercurioqro.com and online sales platforms, such as Mercado Libre , where a kilo is sold for 4 thousand Mexican pesos (199 dollars).There are also other companies, such as Solvitec México, SA de CV, established in 2011 and owned by Enrique Polo Madero, whose corporate purpose is "the purchase, sale, distribution and export of deposits or deposits containing metals or minerals of all kinds for their exploitation".In Zacatecas, Aldrett Hermanos, SA de CV, founded in October 2003, is a family business whose board of directors is chaired by Jorge Luis Aldrett Lee and is dedicated to the "purchase and sale of metals and minerals and all kinds of proprietary machinery for mining", also to the "purchase, urbanization, subdivision of all kinds of non-rural land, as well as the construction of houses and their sale".According to the Directory of Mining 2022, in Mexico there are six companies that produce metallic minerals dedicated to the extraction of mercury.Among them, Barite Pacific Corporation, SA de CV –with operations in Colima capital and Zimapán, Hidalgo–;of Erick Marte Rivera Villanueva, federal deputy of the PAN, also owner of the El Tabaquito and La Minita mines, both in Coalcomán de Vázquez Pallares, Michoacán, according to records of the Ministry of Economy.There are also the mining companies Proyectos de Metales y Minerales Sony, SA de CV (SLP);Jales de Zacatecas, SA de CV;Mercurio del Bordo, SA de CV (Zac) and Minera Orca, SA de CV (Zac).Most mercury exports to South America leave the port of Manzanillo, Colima.On Sunday, June 12, the theft of 20 containers with precious metals, including gold and silver, was reported in that same port.heDR © Editora DEMAR SA de CVMatías Canales Street 504 Col. Ribereña Cd. Reynosa, Tamaulipas CP.88620. Phone (899) 921-9950