Feb
Defending Natural Resources, International Meddling
U.S. Embassy Supports Pacific Rim Mining Co? Feb, 2010
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 of Pacific Rim Mining Co in the recent murders in the regions where Pacific Rim had planned to mine in Cabanas.
Rodolfo Calles of the Roundtable said “The Embassy told us that we should not call for an investigation into the role of Pacific Rim in the murders unless we can give evidence to their participation. But this is incorrect, our role is not to provide evidence, we are not the Attorney General’s office, what we are doing is calling on the Attorney General’s office to do a thorough investigation. Until that investigation happens, it is not clear what role Pacific Rim has had in the murders.”
The U.S. Embassy’s decision to meet with the Roundtable worries U.S. organizations that are working against mining in El Salvador, as it represents one step that the U.S. Embassy has taken to support Pacific Rim instead of staying neutral on the issue. U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities worries that this may be evidence that Pacific Rim is lobbying the U.S. embassy, and that the U.S. Embassy will get more involved in the case in the future, siding with Pacific Rim.
The Pacific Rim Mining Co, which was exploring in the region of Cabanas until 2009, is a Canadian company with a branch in Nevada. Pacific Rim filed a suit against El Salvador in 2008 through CAFTA, claiming that the recent governmental decision to not allow mining violates their rights as investors through CAFTA.
UPDATE 16/1/20. On October 7, 2014, Miguel Rivera presented a request to investigate the involvement of Rodrigo Chavez Palacios (then in prison for the gruesome murder of a municipal employee in 2014) in the murder of his brother Marcelo. The request was made to the general attorney Luis Martinez, who is currently in prison. Rodrigo is the son of Fidel Chávez Mena, a presidential candidate in 1989.
