When communities in rural El Salvador
learned that Canadian and U.S. corporations were exploring for gold on their land in 2006, they began a national movement to educate and
resist gold mining in El Salvador.
In response to the threats of mining,
CRIPDES works as part of theNational
Roundtable against Mineral Mining,
a coalition of Salvadoran environmental, human rights and community organizations.CRIPDES
asked Sister Cities to advocate from the U.S. against North American
companies mining in El Salvador, a campaign that we have worked on
since 2007 as part of the International Allies Against Metallic Mining in El
Salvador.
As a national network, Sister Cities
educates about mining and takes action to publicize the issue,
advocates to our Congressional representatives and pressures North
American mining companies to respect the rights and soveirgnty of the Salvadoran people.
Abusive
Companies: We actively oppose the Pacific Rim’s law suit based in
CAFTA, totaling $77 million against the Salvadoran government for not giving
mining permits to the company. We also call on the Milwaukee-based
company Commerce Group to respond for the environmental and health damages they
have cased in El Salvador. For more information see here.
Mining Ban: We support the National Roundtable in
their demand for a law banning mineral mining in El Salvador. For more information see here
.
Violence Against Anti-Mining Leaders: We denounce the continued violence and threats towards
anti-mining activists and community leaders in the country, and
support the struggle for justice in the cases violence toward social
leaders. For more information seehere
As the
struggle to definitely ban mining in El Salvador continues, so does the
violence against anti-mining activist, the suits by mining companies against
the Salvadoran government, the mobilizations and actions in El Salvador
opposing mining, and the international support of
organizations in the U.S. and Canada.
This has
drawn the attention of press throughout the world.Below are recent articles about mining in the
international press:
Monthly Review Webzine:
"Environmentally Responsible?": "Rogue NGOs" Tackle Pacific Rim in El Salvador
By Alexandra Early and Jan Morrill- November 7th, 2012
On
October 20th, hundreds of people marched in Cabañas, El Salvador to voice their
opposition to the proposed gold-mining project of Pacific Rim, a Canadian
mining company. The National Roundtable against Metallic Mining, the coalition
that organized the march, insists that Pacific Rim respect the Salvadoran
government's decision to curtail mining. To support this stand, environmental
and solidarity activists from around the world called and emailed Pacific Rim
on October 20, urging the company to drop its lawsuit and leave the country. One
lucky North American e-mailer received a two-page response from Barbara
Henderson, Pacific Rim's Corporate Secretary and V-P for Investor Relations,
who defended her company as committed to building "a socially and
environmentally responsible mining company." Read full article>>
National Congress on Latin America:
International
Solidarity Bolsters El Salvador’s Anti-Mining Resistance
Emily Achtenberg - December 23, 2011
"On
December 15, more than 240 U.S. and international labor, environmental, and
civil society organizations called
on World Bank officialsto dismiss a $77 million lawsuit brought by the
Pacific Rim Mining Corporation against the government of El Salvador. According
to Pacific Rim, the Salvadoran government’s failure to grant a permit for the
company’s proposed cyanide-leach gold mining operation violates investors’
rights under the 2005 Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement
(DR-CAFTA)—even though the mine could poison a river providing water to more
than half the country’s population." Read
article>>
In These Times:
Free Trade Deal in Action: Milwaukee Firm
Seeks $100 Million From El Salvador Govt.
By
Roger Bybee - November 3, 2011
"For
working people, talk of free trade agreements tends to trigger fear of being
pitted against workers in low-wage nations—and being laid off.But another critical dimension of
free trade agreements and the race to the bottom has just cropped up in
Milwaukee. A multinational company named Commerce Group based in the city is
seeking to use the Central American Free Trade Agreement to overturn El
Salvador’s efforts to block pollution from its gold mine. Commerce Group wants
to win $100 million from the government of that poverty-stricken nation, which
has blocked the company from re-opening the mine." See
full article>>
“…The
communities’ goal: to make El Salvador the first nation to ban gold mining.
We traveled to El Salvador in April to find out if this
struggle to keep gold in the ground can be won. Our investigation led us from
rural communities in the country’s gold belt to ministries of the new
progressive government in San Salvador and ultimately to free trade
agreements and a tribunal tucked away inside the World Bank in Washington, DC.”Read
article>>
“…Now a case involving El
Salvador and Canadian mining company Pacific Rim is becoming something of a lightning rod
for this issue. Pacific Rim bills itself as an environmentally and
socially responsible mining company, making it rather crucial that it not be
seen as a corporate bully, pillaging El Salvador’s gold. The proceedings are
also the first in the ICSID’s history to be webcast, a big move on the part of
the World Bank to introduce more transparency into these disputes (if you’ve
got three hours to spare you can watch the webcast here)...”
“…El asesinato de un cuarto
ecologista, que rechazó un proyecto de minería metálica en una zona rural,
muestra la debilidad de los activistas en este país, que desde 1994 arrastra el
estigma de ser el segundo más deforestado después de Haití, según el Banco
Mundial…”
“…Though the company went to
court to ensure the level playing field for foreign businesses that it says the
treaty guarantees, the case has angered Salvadoran officials, who consider it
an attack on the sovereignty of a nation still struggling to fortify its
institutions nearly 20 years after a brutal civil war...”
