Compadres y Comadres Journal 2011 - meeting with Mesa National Frente a la Mineria Metalica

One of the issues of greatest importance to NGOs in El Salvador is mining. We touched on this topic on our first meeting with CRIPDES. On our second day, this was the focus of our morning meeting. There is not a strong tradition of mining in El Salvador. The Mesa is learning from the unfortunate experiences of other countries in Central America. While some people believe that mining will be good for the country, there is great concern that mining operations will have a negative impact on the fragile environment of El Salvador.

Free trade agreements like CAFTA allow international companies to come in and exert authority over the national government of the country. Currently, Pacific Rim is suing the government using mechanisms available under CAFTA.



Why is there such opposition to mining in El Salvador? First, the environment of the country is fragile. El Salvador’s major river, the Lempa is shared with Honduras. El Salvador relies on the river for irrigation, power, tourism and fishing. There is grave concern that mining operations would deplete this vital national resource. Most of the potential mines are located in the north of the country. Most of the agricultural production also occurs in the north. This is a country that already relies on food imports and needs to put more land into production. Mining is a threat to initiatives that encourage food production.



While mining companies argue that their operations will bring jobs to poor underemployed areas, it is also recognized that 98% of the profits from mining will flow back to the country of origin, leaving very little permanent wealth in El Salvador.



There is also an unacceptable social cost to mining. As mentioned earlier, there is a high social cost to the search for minerals. In Cabanas, five people have died in fighting within communities. There is concern that there will be more violence in an area that has experienced a great deal of violence over the past twenty years. Apart from the murders, Radio Victoria a community radio station in Cabanas has received many threats in reaction to their reporting on the mining issue.



The solution may lie in creating a law against mining in El Salvador. Such a law exists in Costa Rica and is being studied by the government. While proposals are being studied, Pacific Rim and other mining companies continue to pursue claims against the country.



Compadres y Comadres Journal 2011 - our meeting with CRIPDES

July 4 Meeting with CRIPDES

First day, our meeting with Rosa and Bernardo of CRIPDES


We met with Rosa and Bernardo, the current president and vice-president of CRIPDES respectively. Always on our delegations we begin to set context by meeting with our hosts, CRIPDES. Rosa started with a history of the organization. Formerly the Christian Committee of the Displaced, CRIPDES was founded in 1984 to support people displaced by the Salvadoran civil war as they returned to their homes. At the time, there was much repression in the countryside. Massacres had taken place on the Sumpul River in and around Suchitoto, San Vincente and other areas. People were forced to move from place to place. Many left for Honduras, Nicaragua, the United States and also San Salvador. Most of the original board members were women. CRIPDES quickly got involved in resettling the displaced population. They linked themselves to Salvaide in Canada and Sister Cities in the United States.

It was hard to bring people back to the countryside; the army did not want the people resettled. There were no services for the people, no access to education or health care. People had to learn to help themselves. They became their own teachers and they had to learn how to look after each other medically as well. People also did not have access to clean drinking water or even land. CRIPDES worked with communities and helped them to become organized.

After the war ended, the struggle continued. CRIPDES assisted women as they advocated for their rights. They trained popular educators in order to get schools going again. This work is on-going, some communities have schools and teachers however in other areas, there is a lack of teachers and schools. There is a great deal of work to do in this area!

CRIPDES has done a great amount of work on the issue of water privatization. Rosa was amongst several staff members who were imprisoned a few years ago as they took part in protests against water privatization policies of the government. CRIPDES members were actually charged as terrorists under post-911 legislation. The charges were eventually dropped, but the law they were charged under still exists.

CRIPDES works in 390 communities across the country. They are divided up into regional groupings that include the CCR (Chalatenango), PROGRESO (Suchitoto), San Vincente and La Libertad. Within each community there are local organizations. Good, strong organization is certainly the key to success for CRIPDES. Throughout the organization, there is a strong emphasis on programming for youth and women. Training is the key and CRIPDES uses popular education methods to empower youth and women.

CRIPDES, along with many other Salvadoran groups focuses on the issue of mining. National and especially international laws favor the exploitation of mineral resources by mining companies. Most of these companies are Canadian. The main problem is that El Salvador is a densely populated country. People live where companies want to mine. Currently there are 29 mining projects on hold as the current Salvadoran government studies the possibility of banning mining outright in the country.

The drive to exploit these resources has led to violence, especially in Cabanas, where Pacific Rim is hoping to develop a gold mine. Five people, including a woman eight months pregnant, have been killed over the past two years as a direct result of this conflict. An economy based on exploitation is not sustainable. CRIPDES advocates for the development of a local economy focusing on local crops and animals. Tourism is also being encouraged as a well to develop resources in a sustainable fashion.

This was our introduction to the work of CRIPDES. Themes relating to mining and sustainable development will reoccur throughout our meetings.

CRIPDES logo outside the main office in San Salvador

Emergency Update and Action Alert

December 21, 2009



Anti-Mining Activist Ramiro Rivera Assassinated in Cabañas;

Demand an investigation and an end to the murders!

Ramiro Rivera Gómez, vice-president of CAC (Comité Ambiental de Cabañas/ the Environmental Committee of Cabañas) and a local leader in the community struggle against the environmentally-destructive gold mining projects proposed by Pacific Rim, was assassinated on Sunday, December 20, 2009 in the Trinidad neighborhood of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas where he lived.

Héctor Berríos reports that Ramiro Rivera was killed by hitmen carrying M-16 rifles. Ramiro’s thirteen-year old daughter who was with him on Sunday afternoon was also injured but is reportedly in stable condition.

On August 7 of this year, Ramiro Rivera was shot 8 times, but survived the vicious attack. Oscar Menjívar, previously implicated in physical attacks on anti-mining activists, was arrested and charged with Ramiro’s attempted murder. Community members report that Menjívar had previously worked for Canadian mining company Pacific Rim; Pacific Rim denies that he has ever been an employee.

Since his recovery, Mr. Rivera had been under the protection of two police officers from the Witnesses and Victims Protection Unit of the National Civilian Police. On the afternoon of December 20th, they were apparently unable to protect him.

Since June of 2009, when anti-mining and FMLN activist Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found tortured and killed in Cabañas, there have been continued attacks, death threats and attempted kidnappings of community members and activists who have vehemently opposed the proposed El Dorado gold mine. The Ministry of Environment denied mining exploitation permits to Pacific Rim, a Vancouver-based mining company, which subsequently announced a $77 million dollar lawsuit against the Salvadoran government under CAFTA, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (watch the Real News video here).

Despite the overtly political overtones of this wave of violence, local police authorities and the former Attorney General's office have classified these cases as common crimes. Salvadorans are fearful and outraged by the continued violence but also by the inability or unwillingness of the police and the office of the Attorney General to protect community activists like Ramiro Rivera and to halt the violence.

Join the international response to this repression of anti-mining organizers in Cabañas TODAY. Call on the Salvadoran authorities to carry out an exhaustive investigation of these crimes and their motives.

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TAKE ACTION:

E-mail Rodolfo Delgado, head of the Organized Crime unit of the Attorney General’s Office (Sample e-mail text at the end of this alert) This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it radelgado@fgr.gob.sv. Please copy Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna to your email, via his front desk: heidybrizuela@pddh.gob.sv





Please forward a copy of your sent email to cispes@cispes.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

SAMPLE E-MAIL (English translation below):

Estimado Señor Rodolfo Delgado:

Como miembro de la comunidad internacional, quiero expresar mi profunda preocupación por lo más reciente hecho de violencia contra un líder social en Cabañas, el asesinato de Ramiro Rivera Gómez. Después de que él fue baleado ocho veces en agosto del 2009, fue bajo la protección de la Unidad de Protección de Víctimas y Testigos de la Policía Nacional Civil.

El asesinato de Ramiro Rivera parece otro hecho de violencia sistemático que ha traspasado en Cabañas desde el junio de este año: el secuestro y brutal asesinato del activista Gustavo Marcelo Rivera; las amenazas de muerte a periodistas de Radio Victoria, al director de la Asociación de Desarrollo Económico y Social Santa Marta (ADES) y a varios líderes comunitarios de Cabañas; el sabotaje al sistema electrónico de Radio Victoria; y los intentos de asesinato de los líderes comunitarios, Padre Luis Quintanilla y Ramiro Rivera.

Considero que existen suficientes evidencias para presumir que el asesinato de Ramiro Rivera y los demás crímenes están relacionados y forman parte de una campaña para intimidar a las organizaciones sociales en Cabañas. Es preocupante que la Fiscalía, bajo la dirección de Ástor Escalante, adjudicó a priori estos crímenes a la violencia común, ignorando las evidencias y antecedentes presentados que indican la naturaleza política de los eventos.

Por lo tanto como miembro de la comunidad internacional, hago un llamado para que ahora bajo la dirección del nuevo Fiscal General de la República Romeo Barahona, la Fiscalía realice una investigación imparcial, exhaustiva y efectiva en el caso del asesinato de Ramiro Rivera y de todos estos casos, para dar a conocer a los autores intelectuales y materiales de estos crímenes y garantizar así la protección de los líderes sociales en la región de forma verdadera.

Después del asesinato de Marcelo Rivera en junio, más de cien organizaciones de los Estados Unidos y Canadá mandaron una carta a la Fiscalía expresando su preocupación grave con los atropellos a los derechos humanos. También el Congresista Jim McGovern de los Estados Unidos expresó la misma preocupación en reuniones con el Señor Fiscal General, Romeo Barahona, y representantes de la Administración del Señor Presidente Mauricio Funes, durante su visita reciente a El Salvador.

También le estoy mandando una copia de este mensaje al señor Procurador para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, licenciado Oscar Humberto Luna, quien ha mostrado un compromiso fuerte para proteger la seguridad y los derechos humanos de los líderes sociales en Cabañas.

De quedar estos eventos en la impunidad, se estaría generando un clima de temor e incertidumbre para los demás líderes comunitarios, contrarrestando así los avances logrados en el proceso de democratización del país.

Agradezco de antemano sus gestiones para agilizar las investigaciones y espero que pronto se haga justicia en estos casos y se brinde protección a las víctimas y reparación a los familiares de Ramiro.

[Tu nombre/ Your name]

___________________

Translation of Email:

As a member of the international community, I want to express my profound concern about the most recent act of violence toward a community leader in Cabañas: the assassination of Ramiro Rivera Gómez. After being shot eight times in August, Mr. Rivera was under the protection of the Victims and Witnesses Protection Unit of the National Civilian Police.

The assassination of Ramiro Rivera appears to be another systematic act of violence that has occurred in Cabañas since June of this year: the kidnapping and brutal assassination of the activist Gustavo Marcelo Rivera; the death threats against journalists at Radio Victoria, the director of the Association for Social and Economic Development (ADES) and other community leaders in Cabañas; the sabotage of the broadcasting equipment at Radio Victoria; and the assassination attempt against the community leaders Father Luis Quintanilla and Ramiro Rivera.

I believe there is sufficient evidence to assume that Ramiro Rivera's murder and the other crimes are linked and part of a campaign to intimidate community organizations in Cabañas. It is alarming that the Attorney General’s Office under the direction of former acting Attorney General Ástor Escalante attributed these crimes to common violence, ignoring the evidence and antecedents that indicate the political nature of these events.

Therefore as a member of the international community, I now call on the Attorney General’s Office under the leadership of new Attorney General Romeo Barahona to carry out impartial, exhaustive and effective investigations of the assassination of Ramiro Rivera and all of these crimes in order to bring to justice the intellectual and material authors of these crimes and guarantee the protection of other community leaders in the region.

After the assassination of Marcelo Rivera in June, over 100 organizations in the U.S. and Canada sent a letter to the Attorney General’s office expressing their serious concern about the human rights abuses. Representative Jim McGovern of the U.S. Congress expressed the same concern in his meetings with Mr. Attorney General Romeo Barahona and with representatives of the administration of Mr. President Mauricio Funes during his recent visit to El Salvador.

I am sending a copy of this message to the Human Rights Ombudsman, Mr. Oscar Luna, who has shown a strong commitment to protect the security and human rights of social movement leaders in Cabañas.

Leaving these crimes in a state of impunity creates a climate of fear and uncertainty for the rest of the community leaders, undermining the advances in the democratic process in El Salvador.

I thank you in advance for your efforts to speed up the investigations and I hope that there will soon be justice in these cases and that the victims' lives will be protected and Ramiro’s family will be compensated for their loss.

[Your name]













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Threats to journalists in El Salvador

This morning one of our community correspondents received a written threat outside the front door of his house, saying they were still around, that he better be careful, that it would be better to leave and mentioning different people in the radio and saying he better stop expressing opinions against mayors and national assembly deputies or we will all be sorry, soon they will kill another and that they receive orders from above.

We are denouncing this new threat and also threats against a young woman around 20 years old from San Isidro who was very close to Marcelo Rivera and Jose Beltran. She has been followed, had men outside her house in the middle of the night pointing to her bedroom and received a threatening phone call.

we ask again that you denounce these threats to the General Attorney´s office, his name is Romeo Barahona, in San Salvador: prensa@fgr.gob.sv

Jesse Freeston [jfreeston@gmail.com]

Continuing problems with Pacific Rim in El Salvador

This article comes from upside down world. It goes into the Pacific Rim response to accusations made against it regarding the violence in Cabañas. Investor confidence in the company seems high and plans to pursue the lawsuit against El Salvador continue on track.