She has worked directly on mining issues as an organizer in Cabañas communities since 2006. She has been invited to speak internationally about El Salvador’s fights against mining a number of times over the years and in 2009 gave the acceptance speech for the Mesa’s Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award. 

“Instead of a law allowing Pacific Rim to sue our government, they should be sued,” she says. “The company should be made to pay for all the damage they’ve caused to our environment and our community.” -2010 Interview

SANDRA CAROLINA ASCENCIO is a secular member of the Franciscan order of El Salvador.  She is a community advocate, educator and environmentalist who has experience working in diverse issues ranging from family violence to environmental education.She currently works at the Office for Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation, JPIC, and is in charge of developing capacity building programs for environmental educators in local parishes where the order is active. She is a sitting member of the Permanent Coalition on Environmental Risk Management and the Coalition Against Metal Mining in El Salvador, La Mesa.