Category Archives: Defending Natural Resources

Violence Towards Environmentalists

Since July of 2009 there has been a wave of violence and conflict in the communities opposing mining in the department of Cabañas.  To date there have been three anti-mining activists murdered, one who was eight months pregnant at the time.  We denounce the continued violence and threats towards anti-mining activists and community leaders in […]

URGENT ACTION: New Threats and Violence in Cabanas

Our allies in the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining (the Mesa) are very concerned about a recent wave of death threats and crimes against members of El Salvador’s anti-mining movement as well as other violent crimes recently committed in Cabañas. Similar crimes in 2009 that went uninvestigated, including robberies, kidnappings, and death threats against members […]

PICA Gold Campaign a Shining Success

Contributed by Power in Community Alliances (PICA)  The  plans of U.S. and Canadian mining companies to begin mining gold in El Salvador continues to threaten Salvadoran rural communities. Salvadoran environmental and anti-mining activists have been assassinated and threatened. Through a free-trade provision closely resembling legal extortion, the Pacific Rim Mining Company continues its CAFTA suit demanding that […]

How about Saving all the Miners?

By Manuel Pérez-Rocha Originally posted on http://www.otherwords.org Mining endangers communities everywhere with safety hazards and environmental destruction. Remember the joy shared by millions around the world as we watched as the Chilean miners were rescued one by one? Celebrating their survival made me wish that the global mining industry could find itself in the spotlight […]

Is Gold Corp Responsible?

Written by the Communications Team of the National Roundtable against Mineral Mining — Translated by USESSC Staff   For a second time, Salvadoran environmentalists who are struggling against the Cerro Blanco mining Project have become the victims of humiliation in Guatemala. It happened on Thursday October 28th.  Three representatives from the Center of Investigations into Investment […]

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 […]