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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Tuesday, 18 March 2014 06:23
(Ottawa/Washington/Sydney) The President-elect of El Salvador has publicly committed to prohibit new mining during his administration, just as his predecessors have done since 2008. OceanaGold should respect the democratic process in El Salvador, abandon its acquisition of Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining, and drop its lawsuit against the government of El Salvador for not having permitted a mine, according to international civil society organizations. A new study debunks eight falsehoods the company has used to try to justify mining in El Salvador and undermine public debate and policymaking.
Canadian-Australian firm OceanaGold acquired Pacific Rim Mining in November 2013. Up against stiff local and national opposition in El Salvador, Pacific Rim has been trying to get at gold deposits in northern El Salvador for about a decade.
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Category: Cerro Blanco
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Published: Tuesday, 04 March 2014 13:22
Due the risk of contaminating key bodies of water shared by the three countries
Translated from: http://elecciones2014.elsalvador.com/articulo/sanchez-ceren-evitara-mineria-trifinio-976
Vice President Salvador Sanchez Ceren was emphatic in his statement that he will advocate for the suspension of all mining activity in the Trifinio Reserve area, alluding to the Cerro Blanco mining project located in Asuncion Mita, Guatemala , 18 kilometers away from Metapan.
A technical report carried out by Salvadoran authorities, after a visit to the mine, stated that the project has many shortcomings that could cause negative impacts on nearby bodies of water where toxic discharge will occur, contamination of the Ostúa river, could travel to the Güija lake and then to the Lempa river.
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 09:37
Environmental movement presented a set of proposals to the FMLN candidate asking for greater commitment on the issues.
Cristian Melendez, LA PRENSA GRAFICA
Translated from: http://www.laprensagrafica.com/2014/02/23/sanchez-ceren-se-compromete-a-no-explotar-la-mineria
The Movement of Victims Affected Climate Change and Corporations (MOVIAC) delivered a proposal to the presidential candidate of the FMLN, Salvador Sanchez Ceren, yesterday in San Isidro, Cabañas. The proposal asks the government to acquire a greater commitment not to allow the exploitation of metal mining in the country, particularly in the department of Cabañas.
The proposal, which was submitted by the MOVIAC, is supported by 10 NGOs. According to Ricardo Navarro, director of the Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology(CESTA) and one of the promoters of the proposal, was presented only to the FMLN slate because, "you are within two weeks of being elected and officially proclaimed President and Vice President”.
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Thursday, 13 February 2014 13:29
Activists are challenging rules that grant corporations the right to sue governments.
By Robin Broad and John Cavanah
Published in http://www.thenation.com/article/177930/global-fight-against-corporate-rule?page=full#
Over the past several decades, multinational corporate Goliaths have helped to write and rewrite hundreds of rules skewing tax, trade, investment and other policies in their favor. The extraordinary damage these policies have caused has become increasingly apparent to the communities and governments most directly affected by them. This, in turn, has strengthened the potential of a movement that’s emerging to try to reverse the momentum. But just like David with his slingshot, the local, environmental and government leaders seeking to revise rules to favor communities and the planet must pick their battles carefully.
One of the most promising of these battles takes aim at an egregious set of agreements that allow corporations to sue national governments. Until three decades ago, governments could pass laws to protect consumers, workers, health, the environment and domestic firms with little threat of outside legal challenge from corporations. All that changed when corporations started acquiring the “right” to sue governments over actions—including public interest regulations—that reduce the value of their investments. These rights first appeared in little-known bilateral investment treaties. Twenty years ago, corporate lawyers embedded them in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Today, more than 3,000 trade and investment agreements and even some national investment laws grant foreign investors these powers.
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Category: Mining and Human Rights
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Published: Thursday, 13 February 2014 13:01
By Robin Oisín Llewellyn
First published in http://mondediplo.com/blogs/el-salvador-violence-and-impunity
The bullets buried into the walls of the room within a foot of their intended victim, in El Salvador’s northern town of Ilobasco. After the attacker had fled unrecognized into the dusk, the phone rang: “Have there been any deaths in the house?”
The female caller used an anonymous number and refused to give her name. This time Alejandro Guevara had been targeted: the anti-mining activist had been receiving threats by phone and text message in the weeks before the attack. On 8 October 2013, five days after the shooting, he told the press: “This is a plan that we have seen since 2009 ... the same method they used when they killed our colleagues. This is the same structure operating to persecute us; it reveals the forms of suppression used against the environmentalists working in opposition to mining projects in the municipality. This has been happening all along, but here it is uncovered.”
Guevara’s cousin was one of three environmentalists killed in 2009, and his daughter was injured in another of the attacks. All those killed had campaigned against the Canadian mining group Pacific Rim, which explored for gold at two locations in the department of Cabañas, but as yet no link between the deaths and mining has been investigated by the authorities.
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Category: Background and reports
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Published: Monday, 20 January 2014 11:20
by: P. Cabezas
As the February 2nd presidential elections in El Salvador quickly approach, environmental activists are stepping up pressure on candidates to address issues relating to the country`s precarious ecological balance.
Despite the environmental crisis facing El Salvador, there are few environmental proposals in the official government programs presented by the leading parties (FMLN, ARENA, and UNIDAD).
"We are concerned about the exclusion of environmental issues on the agendas of all presidential candidates and political parties participating in the current electoral campaign" states a press release by the Environmental Alliance of El Salvador. "We are also alarmed by the lack of discussion on the threats posed by large scale metal mining projects, the negative impacts of the indiscriminate use agro toxics, and the vulnerability to natural disasters that threaten the lives of all Salvadoran families” continues the Jan 09 statement of the coalition of diverse environmental groups that came together in late November 2013 to advocate for a unified environmental agenda for El Salvador.
A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that El Salvador could be heading towards an environmental crisis if drastic measures are not taken to reverse environmental degradation caused by pollution, deforestation and the chronic dependence on carbon fuels, pesticides and other agro toxics. In 2010, a water quality study on surface water resources conducted by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources-MARN concluded that only 2% of the country`s surface water had good conditions for the growth of aquatic life. The rest of water was found to be in a state that delays or inhibits the development of life: 65% in regular condition, 27% in bad condition and 7% poor condition.
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