Stop the Suits!

from US-El Salvador Sister Cities

For the second time in the last three months members of the Center of Investigations into Investment and Commerce (CEICOM), an active member of the National Roundtable against Mineral Mining, have been kidnapped, robbed and left at an abandoned farm while traveling in Guatemala. In both instances the anti-mining activists were traveling to events in Guatemala related to the Cerro Blanco mine.

The Cerro Blanco mine, owned and to be operated by a Guatemalan subsidiary of Gold Corp, is located less than 10 miles from the Salvadoran border in the Guatemalan municipality of Jutiapa. If the project is allowed to continue it poses the risk of contaminated the Guija Lake which is one of the main sources of the Lempa River. The Lempa River supplies water to 65% of El Salvador.

CEICOM has been a leader in forming relationships with local resistance to the mine in Guatemala. During the most recent case they were accompanied by two journalists from the Salvadoran TV station Channel 10.

For more information see:

Is Gold Corp Responsible? (English Version)

¿Es Gold Corp Responsible? (Spanish Version)

CEICOM Website

El Salvador Lodges Complaint with the Guatemalan Government About Attack on Environmental Activists

Written by Angélica Cárcamo — Translated by USESSC Staff
SAN SALVADOR – Three Salvadoran environmentalists from Center of Investigations into Investment and Commerce (CEICOM) and two journalist from Channel 10 were kidnapped and later left on an abandoned farm on October 28th, while they were traveling to the capital of Guatemala. Continue reading →

A coalition of solidarity, environmental, religious, educational and civil society group have commenced a campaign against the Commerce Group San Sebastian gold mine in El Salvador. The campaign coincides with the initial hearing in the international arbitration suit which Commerce Group commenced against the government of El Salvador.

The press release issued by the coalition states:

A coalition of Milwaukee and national organizations called on Commerce Group, a Milwaukee-based mining corporation to drop its controversial $100 million legal case against the government of El Salvador. 58 organizations from across the country signed a statement demanding that the case not only be dropped, but that there be cleanup of environmental damages caused by the mine and compensation to victims of mine pollution. In 2006 the Salvadoran government revoked the company’s mining permits, following evidence that its operations were dumping highly toxic poisons into local water. In retaliation, Commerce Group filed a demand before a World Bank trade court (the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, ICSID) demanding not only payment for its investments but also for tens of millions of dollars in what it claims are “lost profits.” The demand is being filed under the foreign investor “protections” of the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). The first hearing in the case will take place on November 15 in Washington, D.C.

Miguel Rivera, an environmental organizer with the Association for Economic and Social Development (ADES) in El Salvador, warned that the case and the international trade rules that allow it “limit the government’s ability to defend the lives of the residents” and “put economic rights above the people’s right to life.”

Commerce Group’s mining activity in El Salvador over the past 40 years has resulted in severe environmental and public health problems in the municipality of Santa Rosa de Lima, where the mine is located. The Salvadoran government revoked Commerce Group’s mining permit on September 13, 2006, citing devastating environmental damage that can’t be prevented with any existing modern technology.

A 2006 study by Dr. Flaviano Bianchini found that the San Sebastian River, which runs through the town contains 100,000 times more acid than uncontaminated bodies of water in the same region. The study also found levels of poisonous cyanide more than 10 times higher than the maximum allowed by the World Health Organization. The Investment and Trade Research Center in El Salvador has recently filed a lawsuit against Commerce Group with the Salvadoran Attorney General to investigate the connection between mining activities and disproportionate rates of death due to kidney failure in nearby communities, likely related to elevated levels of heavy metals in the San Sebastian River.

According to Al Gedicks, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and author of Resource Rebels, commenting on the case, said “If anything, it is Commerce Group who should be paying for the toxic legacy they have left behind.” Gedicks is one of several scholars who have joined an international coalition of environmental organizations, policy advocates and churches to halt the lawsuit and stop metallic mining in El Salvador. The group, the Midwest Coalition Against Lethal Mining (MCALM), includes several national organizations such as Sister Cities and CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the people of El Salvador. Continue reading →

November 16, 2010 – SALVADORAN ANTI-MINING ACTIVISTS KIDNAPPED

Members of a Salvadoran environmental organization travelling to meet with the Guatemalan government, to protest a new [Goldcorp Inc.] gold mine, were kidnapped and robbed by men wearing Guatemalan police uniforms. They are members of the Center of Investigations into Investment and Commerce (CEICOM) and were travelling with journalists from Salvadoran TV Channel 10.

They had been driving to Guatemala City to discuss the risks to bodies of water shared by Guatemala and El Salvador if a proposed [Goldcorp Inc] gold mine is developed. After their cameras and computers were taken from them, the activists and journalists were left on an abandoned farm. The proposed mine is the Cerro Blanco mine in the department of Jutiapa, near the municipality of Asuncion Mita. The Cerro Blanco project is being developed by the Canadian mining company Goldcorp.

Goldcorp’s mining activities in Guatemala and elsewhere in Latin America have been the subject of numerous protests by environmental and civil society organizations. This was the second time members of CEICOM were kidnapped on their way to a meeting in Guatemala regarding the Cerro Blanco mine. On July 30 of this year, the same thing happened as they drove in Guatemala to a meeting with that country’s Human Rights Ombudsman. CEICOM delivered a letter to El Salvador’s foreign minister, demanding that the Salvadoran government spur a complete investigation into these events.

The foreign ministry has agreed to send a diplomatic request to its counterparts in Guatemala urging a thorough investigation. The concerns of environmental activists about Cerro Blanco were described in this IPS news story earlier this year: GOLDCORP MINING PROJECT IN GUATEMALA FACES CROSS BORDER OPPOSITION Written by Danilo Valladares, Tuesday, 06 April 2010, (IPS) The Cerro Blanco gold and silver mine in the southeastern Guatemalan province of Jutiapa, on the border with El Salvador, is under fire from environmentalists in both countries concerned about the threat it poses to the shared Lake Güija and rivers on either side of the border. Continue reading →

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HONDURAS:  Goldcorp Inc. Faces Criminal Charges … Even As It Aims to Re-open Its Controversial “San Martin” Mine
August 16, 2010
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August 16, 2010

HONDURAS:  GOLDCORP INC. FACES CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS & RELATED HEALTH HARMS, AS IT TRIES TO RE-OPEN ITS GOLD MINE IN HONDURAS

RIGHTS ACTION Commentary:

Over the past few years, Rights Action has supported and worked closely with the Siria Valley Environmental Defense Committee, reporting on a wide range of environmental and health harms, and other human rights violations, caused by Goldcorp Inc’s “San Martin” open-pit, cyanide leaching mine.

The Siria Valley Environmental Defense Committee, Rights Action and other groups have denounced the range of harms and violations inside Honduras, and to the Canadian government, the company itself, and many investors (such as the Canada Pension Plan) that are profiting greatly from their investments in Goldcorp, given the record high prices of gold.

These denunciations have fallen on deaf ears in Canada – including in the Canadian media that rarely investigates or reports on these issues, enabling Goldcorp to continue to operate with impunity and immunity from any effective accountability.

Goldcorp Inc. denies any wrong doing, harms or violations whatsoever, despite the growing list of well-documented harms and violations.

BELOW: News release from CAFOD (Catholic Overseas Development Agency, http://www.cafod.org.uk/) – that criminal charges have been filed against Goldcorp Inc (via its wholly owned subsidiary Entremares) for pollution and environmental harms.

RE-OPENING THE CLOSED MINE

Not only does Goldcorp Inc. (Entremares) deny any wrong doing, harms or violations, but with the Honduran Congress controlled by politicians that supported the 2009 bloody military coup against the elected government of President Zelaya, Goldcorp Inc. now aims to re-open its controversial “San Martin” mine. Continue reading →

From: http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/protestaktion.php?id=602

Crucitas is located North of the country, in a fragile area of high rainfall, within the biological corridor San Juan-La Selva, which puts together the Costa Rican forests to the great Mesoamerican corridor. This is one of the country‘s largest biodiversity hot spots, with about 130 tree species per hectare. Thousands of trees are under threat. Also, the most threatened bird species in the country, the green macaw, lives in this area and is equally endangered.

The pollution will remain in Costa Rica, while the gold will go abroad. Besides the forests, the Crucitas mining project jeopardises the water resources on which hundreds of communities depend. The cyanide pollution of underground and superficial surface waters of a large part of the San Juan river basin, bordering Nicaragua, is of great concern to over more than 90% of the population. In order to extract 700,000 ounces of gold, 16 million tons of soil will be crushed and dipped in cyanide.

In contrast, the European Parliament recently issued a striking resolution about the general prohibition of cyanide-based mining technologies within the European Union. Such resolution takes root in three important reasons: first the high toxicity of the cyanide used in gold mining, second the need to preserve human health, the environment and biodiversity and lastly the concern over dangerous technologies used in mining activities that carry possible trans-border consequences. It points also that the benefits do not compensate the risks and that the only guarantee to protect rivers and ecosystems is to forbid the use of cyanide. The situation in Costa Rica is similar to that in Europe with the aggravating facts that the country is more vulnerable to tropical storms, has one of the highest biodiversity rates in the world and is subject to high rainfall.

Write a letter to the new Costa Rican president, asking her to use her powers and veto the presidential decree 34801-MINAET, with which the Crucitas Mining Project would come to a halt and also the destruction of the primeval forest.

“We can live without gold, but not without water.”

take action here

from rightsaction.org – July 10, 2010

PUBLIC LETTER TO:  The Canadian government & parlamentarians, the Canada Pension Plan and other investors, the media
FROM: Grahame Russell, Rights Action co-director, info@rightsaction.org

GUATEMALA:  TEODORA ANTONIA HERNANDEZ CINTO (“DONA MARIA”) SHOT IN HEAD

A Mayan-Mam woman in resistance to the harms & violations caused by Goldcorp Inc’s gold mine, was shot in the head.  Her health status is critical.

To Whom It May Concern:

We write to bring to your attention yet one more serious case of aggression and human rights violation that is most probably linked to the operation of Goldcorp Inc.’s open-pit, cyanide leaching gold mine in Mayan territories of western Guatemala.

On July 5, a Rights Action delegation led by co-director Grahame Russell (with the Mayflower congregation of Minneapolis/ St. Paul) completed a two day visit to the mine affected communities of San Miguel Ixtahuacan (department of San Marcos).  Continue reading →

by Gabriel Zucker

from Monthly Review

“Ultimately,” said Miguel Rivera, a soft-spoken man in his late twenties, “we are a family that has dedicated ourselves to helping the people with their needs and defending their rights. But in the process of denouncing the consequences of mining especially, I think there are people that will be your enemies.”

Rivera, a director of the Asociación de Amigos de San Isidro Cabañas (ASIC), a human rights-based community organization in San Isidro, El Salvador, spoke from personal experience. Last June, his brother, and colleague, Marcelo went missing after a series of death threats linked to his opposition to gold mining in the region. A few weeks later, his body was found in a well, stripped of its fingernails, scalp, nose, and mouth.

Despite repeated calls for justice, police never investigated the crime, and Marcelo turned out to be the first in a series of activists attacked that year. His murder was followed by two more assassination attempts in coming months, and then by the killing of two more anti-mining activists during the last week of December 2009. Continue reading →