CALL OUT: International observer delegation, September 2014

“CHALATENANGO FREE OF MINING” 

Community Consultations on mining in El Salvador

September 2014

Communities in the department of Chalatenango have been at the forefront of organized opposition to mining in El Salvador.  Since 2005, organizations such as CRIPDES-CCR, CORDES, members of the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining, municipal authorities and faith groups have fiercely opposed attempts by Canadian based corporations Pacific Rim, which has an exploration license at Cerro Petancol in the town of Potonico, and Au Martinique, now Triad, which owns licenses to explore three concessions within the historical Eramon mountains. 

As the government of El Salvador has failed to ensure a long term ban on mining, affected communities are now seeking to further their organizing efforts to assert local autonomy and to declare territories free of mining though a process of community consultations innovating on provisions of the municipal code of El Salvador.

This delegation aims to bring international observers to learn about the impacts of large scale mining operations in El Salvador, to provide international observers to a process of building local autonomy and to support the defence of territorial integrity.

community leaders

 

More specifically participants in this delegation will:   

  • Become familiar and gain an overall understanding of the different dimensions of the anti-mining struggle in El Salvador.
  • Engage in knowledge exchange sessions with local leaders and local communities affected by mining.
  • To support, observe and verify community consultations on mining led by local organizations in the Chalatenango region of El Salvador.
  • To increase long term solidarity with communities leading anti-mining struggles in El Salvador.