CRIPDES Position Regarding Pacific Rim Notice of Intent: January 2009

CRIPDES Position Regarding Pacific Rim Notice of Intent

January 2009

Confronting the threat of the suit from the Mining Corporations (Pacific Rim) under the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), the Association for the Development of El Salvador CRIPDES, states:

At the end of 2001 the political parties ARENA, PCN, PDC signed the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, behind the Salvadoran people’s back.   Said agreement was never consulted with the Salvadoran population.

The Association for the Development of El Salvador, CRIPDES, in coordination with other urban and rural organizations of campesinos, cooperatives, of youth and women who make up the Popular Resistance Movement October 12th (MPR 12), state our position at this moment, considering that said trade agreement doesn’t respond to the interests of our people and violates the Constitution of the Republic.  The aforementioned political parties did not taken notice of the different petitions that the Salvadoran population made at that moment.

After signing the free trade agreement, it was expected that the transnational corporations would be interested in exploiting the natural resources and would protect themselves with said trade agreement, knowing that the Salvadoran people would defend their sovereignty and their resources.

Now, the mining company Pacific Rim is trying to put pressure on the Salvadoran government to obtain the precious metals extraction license or compensation for damages that would reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to the conflict resolution mechanism established in CAFTA, the parties have the possibility to resolve the dispute in a “friendly” manner during a three month period.  The “friendly solution” that Pacific Rim is looking for is authorization from the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN in Spanish) which has been denied until now.

This “friendly solution” is favorable for the mining company and unfavorable for our country, as different sectors of our country have stated, including churches, as well as experts in mineral exploitation, due to the huge environmental, social and economic damage that mineral exploitation would cause in El Salvador.

As communities we have made concrete proposals to the different fractions of the political parties, as well as different government officials like the ministries of the economy, and of the environment and natural resources, through which he have shared technical information about the consequences of mineral exploitation in our country.  Also, we have presented visual and written documentation of the health and environmental problems that mineral exploitation causes, which come from the experiences of destruction, contamination, and social conflicts that the people of neighboring counties like Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua are living.

Therefore,

As the rural communities that will be directly affected by the mineral exploitation, CRIPDES, the MPR 12, as well as the National Table Against Metallic Mining:

  1. We reiterate our position of rejecting metallic mining in our country, because it is not viable in our small territory.
  2. We hold responsible in advance all those officials that approve laws or push forward measure that create more destruction in our country, therefore putting in danger the health of people today and future generations.
  3. We call all the social sectors, churches, political parties, universities, professional organizations and the whole population to protest the intentions of Pacific Rim.

 

YES TO LIFE

NO TO METALLIC MINERAL EXPLOITATION IN EL SALVADOR

ORGANIZATION AND RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

 

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