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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Sunday, 05 March 2017 15:13
Sandra Cuffe : Waging NonViolence
Communities and organizations in northern El Salvador continue to organize referendums in an effort to keep their territories free of mining. Established by the country’s Municipal Code as a mechanism for community participation, the consulta popular is an official municipal-level referendum on an issue of local concern that can be invoked by petition if residents are able to gather signatures from 40 percent of registered voters. On the books for years, the mechanism had never been used, but it now plays an important strategic role in the country’s movement against metallic mining. The most recent referendum took place on February 26, when more than half of all registered voters in the municipality of Cinquera flocked to polling stations in four communities. The final tally was along the lines of the four previous referendums on the issue: 98.1 percent of participating registered voters in Cinquera cast a ballot opposing metallic mining exploration and exploitation. The local government will now draw up an official municipal ordinance prohibiting mining in its jurisdiction. READ MORE
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Sunday, 05 March 2017 15:00
Telesur
Despite a deadline from the lawsuit passing, the company owes El Salvador US$8 million.
Over 280 organizations from around the world sent an open letter to Canadian-Australian mining giant OceanaGold on Tuesday, demanding that the company adhere to an earlier ruling by a World Bank body that ordered the company to pay the government of El Salvador US$8 million after a years-long legal battle.
OceanaGold, formerly Pacific Rim, was given 120 days to either to pay the US$8 million fine or to submit a plea to have the fine overturned, a deadline which ran out last week.
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Friday, 03 March 2017 16:27
MiningWatch
After seven years, four murders and US$24 million in total legal costs, in October 2016, a little-known World Bank tribunal trashed OceanaGold’s claim that El Salvador either owed it a mining permit for a proposed gold mine or US$250 million dollars.
The Washington D.C.-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) panel decided that OceanaGold’s predecessor Pacific Rim Mining never met the legal requirements under El Salvador’s mining law to obtain a permit to exploit gold and must pay the Central American country US$8 million towards its legal costs.
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Category: Pacific Rim/OceanaGold
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Published: Friday, 03 March 2017 16:13
By Robin Broad and John Cavanagh : The Hill
This week, labor, environmental, religious and other groups, representing over 180 million people from around the world, sent a letter to a corporate mining CEO — a letter that is also a wake-up call for President Trump's trade agenda.
The letter highlights the problems with the so-called "investor-state" provision in trade deals, first created through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) 23 years ago. This provision unfairly prioritizes corporations, encouraging them to file lawsuits against governments that implement public health and other measures that impede future corporate profits.
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Wednesday, 15 February 2017 06:27
Gloria Silvio Orellana: Colatino
"It is clear that OceanaGold does not want to pay, so we have to intervene; the National Police (PNC) and the Prosecutor's Office (FGR) must intervene their assets," said Ricardo Navarro, president of CESTA in rejecting the delay of 8 Million dollars owed to the Salvadoran State by transnational mining company, which lost its litigation before the ICSID.
"We already have serious problems in El Salvador with all the environmental pollution, problems with climate change and mining on top of that. They (Pacific Rim/Oceana Gold) wanted to steal US$250 million from us and thank goodness that the ICSID said it was clear that El Salvador was right (ruling in favor of the state)," he said.
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Category: Mining prohibition El Salvador
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Published: Monday, 13 February 2017 16:52
By Sebastian Rosemont - Photo: Genia Yatsenko
Pressure continues to mount on Salvadoran legislators to ban metal mining in El Salvador. On February 7th, mayors from the Department of Chalatenango, accompanied by leaders of the Association for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES), arrived in the capital to deliver a letter to the Legislative Assembly calling for lawmakers to pass a comprehensive ban on metal mining in the country. Their trip to Assembly reflects the growing grassroots support for a national law banning metal mining in El Salvador.
Bernardo Belloso, the president of CRIPDES (a Salvadoran NGO that is part of the National Roundtable Against Mining in El Salvador) said, “For the past several years, CRIPDES has accompanied Salvadoran communities that have taken the initiative to organize municipal referendums to ban metal mining.”
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