Defending Natural Resources
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 and Commerce (CEICOM) were intercepted by armed men that identified themselves as members of the Guatemalan Police.
The event happened at kilometer 43 on the highway that goes from the border town of Las Chinamas to Guatemala City.
Among the victims were two journalists from Channel 10 that were traveling to the Guatemalan Congress to cover the questioning of the Minister of the Foreign Relations and of the Environment and Energy and Mines from the Alvaro Colom government.
These government officials were to respond to the criticism of Guatemalan legislators based in of the dangers to El Salavador posed by the Cerro Blanco Mine, operated by the transnational company Gold Corp Inc.
This mineral extraction project is located in Asunción Mita (Jutiapa), only 10.8 miles from Metapán (Santa Ana), and could contaminate the Guija Lake and the Lempa River. That is why Salvadoran and Guatemalan communities oppose it.
Even the catholic churches in both countries have called on their respective governments to suspend the mining project. The Archbishop of San Salvador, José Luis Escobar, has asked President Mauricio Funes to intercede with his Guatemalan counterpart, but the Salvadoran official hasn’t yet followed the urgent request.
The criminals punched the members of CEICOM and the journalists from the Salvadoran state run TV channel, they stole their money and equipment (video cameras, laptop computers, and cell phones) and left them tied up on a farm.
The criminals rebuked them for traveling to Guatemalan Congress, which arouses suspicions that this could have something to do with mercenaries hired by the mining company Gold Corp, whose goal would be to intimidate the resistance leaders that were criticizing this border mining project.
Terrifying anti-mining activists is common practice with mining companies in order to defeat community resistance to their projects. People from Cabañas have accused Pacific Rim of doing the same thing in its failed attempt to impose its El Dorado Project.
The National Roundtable against Mineral Mining, of which CEICOM is a part, condemns this act and asks the Funes administration to demand a thorough and exhaustive investigation from the Guatemalan government.
For this reason, this morning the Roundtable demanded that the Minister of Foreign Relations, Hugo Martinez take a proactive attitude with respect to the aggression against Salvadoran environmentalists in Guatemala and with respect to the national threat presented by the Cerro Blanco mine.
