About the project and its impacts
In Brazil, communities living in Santa Cruz, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, are affected by severe air, soil, and water pollution caused by a steel plant operated by Ternium Brasil, a subsidiary of Ternium S.A., a transnational steel corporation headquartered in Luxembourg. The plant has operated for years without adequate environmental impact assessments and has generated documented health and environmental harms. Community members and defenders have faced intimidation and threats linked to private security and paramilitary-style actors, making territorial defense highly risky.
In Mexico, the Indigenous Nahua Community of Ayotitlán, located in the Sierra de Manantlán (Cuautitlán municipality, Jalisco), is affected by more than 1,200 hectares of mining concessions granted to Ternium México (subsidiary of Ternium S.A., Luxembourg) and ArcelorMittal (headquartered in Luxembourg). Mining operations have resulted in soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and the capture and contamination of water sources, without free, prior, and informed consent, and without fair benefit-sharing with the community.
Although geographically distant, these cases are linked by the same transnational steel supply chain, similar patterns of environmental harm and repression, and the involvement of corporations headquartered in the Global North but operating in contexts of weak accountability in the Global South.
Through the CRE, Tsikini (Mexico) and Instituto Políticas Alternativas para el Cono Sur (PACS, Brazil) have been connected as part of a broader effort to build a transnational analysis of the steel industry’s impacts, enabling shared learning, coordinated documentation, and joint strategies for accountability.
About the community-led struggles
In Mexico, the Nahua Community of Ayotitlán, accompanied by Tsikini, has developed a sustained legal and documentation strategy. This includes filing injunctions to suspend mining activities, submitting complaints to the National Human Rights Commission, and securing precautionary measures from the Inter-American human rights system. Through CRE-supported documentation processes with community-based communication teams, defenders have worked to break the “zone of silence” surrounding the impacts of mining and to strengthen the evidentiary basis for justice and accountability efforts.
In Brazil, communities in Santa Cruz, accompanied by PACS, have pursued multiple legal and advocacy strategies against Ternium Brasil. These include periodic community assemblies, engagement with the State Public Defender’s Office, and the preparation of climate- and pollution-related litigation. PACS has also supported efforts to internationalize the case, including engagement with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, where community-generated documentation has been formally submitted.
Through the CRE, these struggles have been intentionally linked. The exchange has enabled Tsikini and PACS to share methodologies for community-led documentation, defender protection, and legal strategy, while situating both cases within a global steel accountability coalition active in Brazil, Mexico, Liberia, and South Africa. This connection has been further strengthened through joint participation in international spaces, including the Global Steel Meeting in South Korea and the ALLIED network meeting, facilitating coordination with other Global South organizations and international allies.
Together, these communities and their accompanying organizations are contributing to a growing international coalition for accountability in the mining and steel sectors, challenging corporate impunity, documenting patterns of violence and state capture, and demanding access to justice from transnational corporations and their financiers. Their collaboration illustrates how community struggles, when connected across borders, can confront globalized corporate power more effectively.
Further resources
- #PareTernium (Stop Ternium) website