The first time I went to Cananea was in 1998 -- for a miners strike. I thought the situation was quite dramatic then, but over the years I've learned that the miners in Cananea are on strike most of the time, so the situation wasn't as unique as I thought.
That said, today's situation is truly dramatic. On Feb. 11, a court in Mexico rejected the miners' final appeal of a ruling that said their strike is illegal. In other words, the workers are now occupying the huge copper mine there illegally.
People are now worried that there will be a repeat of the town's occasionally bloody history -- that the army or federal police will come in and oust the miners to restore the mine to its owners.
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A bloody labor conflict in 1906 was one of the incidents that set off the Mexican Revolution. And in 1989, then-president Carlos Salinas sent in troops to seize control of the mine as part of its sale in a controversial privatization of government-owned businesses.
I could hear intense chants and shouting from what sounded like a large crowd as I spoke with a couple of people in Cananea today. From this distance, the energy was palpable.
Maybe we'll be lucky and it will just be another tense moment in the town's long history of labor strife. Or maybe it will turn out like 1989, or 1906.
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