Category Archives: Defending Natural Resources

Sister Cities Mining Fact Sheet

The State of Mining in El Salvador ·       According to Salvadoran Mining Law a company must obtain both an exploration and exploitation permit in order to open a mine in El Salvador. ·       There are currently 29 active exploration permits and 73 applications. They are for areas in the Northern region of El Salvador, which […]

Salvadoran, Canadian & US Organizations Protest Canada’s Support of Mining

David Pérez-Diario Co Latino http://www.diariocolatino.com/es/20100723/nacionales/82506/?tpl=69 (Unofficial Translation) The National Roundtable Against Mining, with support from various international organizations, demanded that the Canadian Embassy in El Salvador stop favoring from Pacific Rim and other mining companies, since they only cause pollution and damage the health of the population. Since the left-wing government has said it will […]

One Year Anniversary of the Assassination of Anti-Mining Activist Marcelo Rivera

June 24th was the one year anniversary of the assassination of Salvadoran anti-mining activist, Marcelo Rivera. In San Isidro, Cabañas, the murders of Rivera and fellow community leaders Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos and Ramiro Rivera – crimes which has so far gone unsolved and unpunished – were commemorated by nearly two hundred people with musical […]

El Salvador: Mining the Resistance

by Gabriel Zucker Additional reporting by David Lee Originally Published in the June 2010 volume of Monthly Review            “Ultimately,” said Miguel Rivera, a soft-spoken man in his late 20s, “we are a family that has dedicated ourselves to helping the people with their needs and defending their rights. But in the process of denouncing […]

Declaration: We Must Deter Mineral Mining in Mesoamerica!

On Wednesday, April 14 in San Salvador, representatives of community organizations, indigenous communities and environmentalists from Mexico and Central America participated in an International Forum entitled: Mining Companies in Mesoamerica  “Sustainable Development or a Threat to Sovereignty?.” Out of the agreements reached at the International Forum we make the following declaration:   Companies from Canada […]

Honduran campesinos under the gun

On April 13th, over 5000 police and military were deployed to the valley of Aguán where over 3,500 families have been occupying reclaimed land that was stolen from them by the wealthy Honduran businessmen Miguel Facusse, René Morales and Reynaldo Canales. Observers feared that the army would massacre the landless families if they did not […]

U.S. Embassy Supports Pacific Rim Mining Co? Feb, 2010

On December 30th, 2009, right after the murders of Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto in Cabanas, the U.S. Embassy called a meeting with the members of the National Roundtable Against Mining in El Salvador. Among the points in the meeting, the Embassy representative told the Roundtable that they should not speak about the role […]

A Compelling History of Mining in El Salvador, Jan 2010

Everything has to do with Pacific Rim and the company’s longing to exploit the gold found underground in the department of Cabañas. Almost from the time that the company set up in said zone, conflicts began, whose biggest opponent is the resistance of the communities to sell their land, and prevent the negative environmental impacts […]

CoLatino: Murder of Dora Alicia Sorto Rodriguez, Dec. 26, 2009

New act of violence against environmentalists in Cabañas Saturday, December 26, 2009 Diario Co Latino, San Salvador, El Salvador Ivan Escobar Diario Co Latino staff Less than a week after the murder of the environmentalist Ramiro Rivera in Cabañas, today another murder was reported, this time a woman who was also a member of the […]

mineria es muerte

Mesa Frente a la Mineria Release: Assassinations continue, Dec. 27, 2009

The National Roundtable Against Mineral Mining San Salvador, December 27 2009 The assassinations of those opposing mining projects continue. The environmentalist Dora Alicia Sorto Rodriguez, was assassinated yesterday at 3:30 in the afternoon, in the town of Trinidad in Sensuntepeque (Cabañas). This crime occurred only a week after the murder of Ramiro Rivera Gomez, another […]