El Salvador

Joint news release from Salvaide, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) and U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities: (San Salvador, El Salvador) With the first hearing in the case of Marcelo Rivera scheduled for Friday, April 30th, organizations in the United States and Canada continue being concerned about the murder case of the environmentalist in Cabañas.

A report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) concludes that the region of Cabañas, El Salvador is facing "a strategic campaign of domestic terrorism targeting mining opponents." The report, El Salvador: Gold, Guns, and Choice, states that police investigation into the recent rash of attacks, murders, and threats in Cabañas has been ineffective, and the lack of security in the region is unacceptable. The report further indicates that Pacific Rim Mining Corporation shares responsibility for the situation in having failed to conduct business consistent with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, specifically those guidelines regarding transparency and bribery of foreign officials.

Joint communiqué with CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador): On December 26, 2009, Dora “Alicia” Recinos Sorto, age 32, was assassinated, the second anti-mining activist killed this week in the small community of Nueva Trinidad in the department of Cabañas. Recinos Sorto was eight months pregnant and carrying her two-year old child when she was shot on her way back from doing laundry at a nearby river. She and her husband, José Santos Rodríguez, were outspoken opponents of the proposed El Dorado mine which Pacific Rim, a Vancouver-based mining company, is desperate to open despite widespread community opposition.

Joint communiqué with CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador): Wave of violence centred around Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining’s gold project – Canadian company banking on legal case against Salvadoran government after 5 years of net losses. For the second time in six months, a community leader known for his strong opposition to a Canadian gold and silver mining project in El Salvador’s Cabañas Department has been killed. Ramiro Rivera, vice-president of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas, was gunned down on Sunday, December 20, in the town of Ilobasco. His wife Felícita Echeverría, next to him, died as well, and a 13-year-old girl was wounded.

Communiqué from the National Coalition Against Metallic Mining of El Salvador: Last Sunday, the 20th of December, environmentalist Ramiro Rivera Gómez, leader in the community resistance to the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim, was assassinated in the Trinidad region of Sensuntepeque, in Cabañas, El Salvador. His wife Felícita Echeverría, next to him, died as well, and a 13-year-old girl was wounded. According to witnesses, several hired hitmen ambushed their vehicle and shot them with high-caliber weapons, despite the presence of two police agents that were there for their safety.

Community leaders from the region of Cabañas and Santa Marta have come under serious threat in the past months. Please help press Salvadoran authorities to make sure the threats and violence are stopped, and make sure Canadian officials, the Canadian public, and Canadian companies operating in the region are aware of the situation - and your concern.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN), voted in its international assembly in Barcelona, October 5-14, 2008, that current mineral exploration and open pit metal mining permits be cancelled throughout Central America, and that strategic environmental assessments and other relevant instruments for environmental management be implemented and conducted in a rigorous manner, particularly in the Meso-American Biological Corridor. The measure would affect several proposed mines including the Petaquilla project in Panama and the Crucitas project in Costa Rica.

"State of Mine, An Investigation of Canada's Extractive Industries", a special edition of The Dominion Newspaper, was published in November 2008 and is now available online.

[From Upside Down World] San Salvador -- Busloads of people surrounded the Salvador del Mundo monument in front of the Canadian Embassy in San Salvador today to protest the Canadian Government's role Central American mining, and specifically in the 29 mining projects currently active in El Salvador. The event was the culmination of the Central American Alliance against Metallic Mining conference held last weekend in Cabañas, El Salvador, where the Canadian Pacific Rim company is currently operating.