Sister Cities
President Funes to Investigate Murders and Prohibit Mining, Jan 15, 2010
The President of the Republic, Mauricio Funes, assured on January 12th that his government would investigate the assassinations of the environmentalists in Cabanas in depth, and reiterated that he would not permit mining projects in the country.
“We promise our friends in the environmental movement that we are going to investigate the four assassinations of leaders who have offered their lives in the struggle for a better environment and higher quality of life for the Salvadorans, especially in the communities that are facing mining projects.” Funes declared.
Next, President Funes reiterated his decision to not permit metal mining. “Here there is no place to get confused, my government will not authorize any mining exploitation project, we are not going to authorize it.” He said this during the inauguration of the school year in Sensuntepeque, Cabanas, where the anti-mining activists Ramiro Rivera Gomez and Dora Alicia Sorto were assassinated on December 20th and 26th respectively.
Funes affirmed that his government has clarity about the collision that mining projects cause. “A few weeks ago, I heard an environmental friend say that he did not see clear signs from the government. We will not authorize any mining exploitation project, we will not do it, no one has convinced us that there are ways to extract metals without contaminating the environment and affecting the health of the population. We will not do it.” He insisted.
“We are also not going to permit that systematic disappearances and threats continue against members of the environmental movement. I personally have given instructions to the Ministry of Justice and Security and the director of the National Civilian Police so that they investigate these cases; but we need the collaboration of the Public Ministry and the communities in order to clarify a couple of doubts that we have about the motivations behind these assassinations.” Said the President.
After that, directing himself toward the representatives from the Environmental Committee of Cabanas that were present, Funes insisted: “But friends, feel sure that we will find clarity about these deaths, feel sure that we will not permit that there continue to be more deaths as a result of the environmental struggle.”
The President of the Republic had said similar things in the past, but this was the first time that he had given information about his orders to the corresponding authorities to do a deep investigation of the crimes against the environmentalists Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, Ramiro Rivera Gomez, and Dora Alicia Sorta, who was eight months pregnant.
The National Anti-Mining Table, which has called for Funes to become involved in this situation, applauds his commitment to clarify the assassinations of environmental activists in Cabanas and not permit mining.
The Anti-Mining Table hopes that the Execute Branch will promote the immediate approval of a new Mining Law, which will prohibit metallic mining and will stand firmly against the suit from the Pacific Rim and Commerce Group Mining Companies in the ICSID.
Translated by US-El Salvador Sister Cities
