On September 24, President Nayib Bukele confirmed that El Salvador would not sign the Escazú Agreement, considering that some of its articles do not adapt to the Salvadoran reality. Now, the team promoting the treaty, begins meetings with deputies of the Legislative Assembly to seek adherence through this state body. Focos spoke with César Artiga, […]
The Escazú Agreement, a watershed 2018 United Nations environmental treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean, could mark a dramatic shift in environmental policy for Central America. Despite the deepening climate change-related degradation of the country’s environment and violence against the environmentalists who come to its defense, though, the Bukele administration hasn’t publicly expressed its […]
On June 28th, President Mauricio Funes released a statement condemning the murder of environmental activist Juan Francisco Duran Ayala and reiterating his commitment not to allow any mining projects to start in El Salvador. Since the murder of Juan Francisco, the fourth anti-mining activist to be assassinated, pressure on the Attorney General and President to […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]