Anti-Mining Movement Wins International Human Rights Award

The SHARE Foundation congratulates the National Working Group against Mining in El Salvador for winning the 2009 Letelier-Moffitt Memorial Human Rights Award. The award is sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in memory of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt.  Orlando Letelier (pictured at left) was a Chilean economist, politician, activist, and a diplomat under the government of Salvador Allende.  Later he became the Director of Transnational Programs at IPS.  Ronni Karpen Moffitt was a 25 year-old American activist and IPS Development Associate.  Letelier and Moffitt were killed 1976 by a bomb placed under Letelier's car in Washington DC.  Only Moffitt's husband survived the terrorist attack committed by agents of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's secret police.

Since 1997, IPS has granted a domestic and an international award to honor "these fallen colleagues while celebrating new heroes of the human rights movement from the United States and elsewhere in the Americas."  This year the National Working Group against Mining in El Salvador, one of SHARE Foundation's partners and grantees, was chosen for the international award.  The working group, known in Spanish as "La Mesa contra la Minería" or simply "La Mesa," is a coalition of eleven grassroots organizations in El Salvador.  According to Joseph Eldridge, American University's chaplain and a member of the award selection committee, La Mesa was chosen for their "courage in struggling against huge odds to press El Salvador to become the first country in the world to ban gold mining: a victory for rural communities and for the environment."  The award ceremony will be on Thursday, October 15, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. 

To read La Mesa's press release announcing their receipt of the award, click here.

About the National Working Group against Mining in El Salvador (La Mesa)

La Mesa began in 2005 when communities in the Cabañas province organized against the Canadian mining corporation, Pacific Rim.  In 2004, the mining company applied to the Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment for exploration permits in the mining district of El Dorado, Cabañas.  After Pacific Rim's technicians confirmed the existence of gold and silver in the area, the company stated that they would begin mining in 2007.  After learning about how mining has negatively affected people in Honduras and Guatemala, communities from Cabañas and Chalatenango organized themselves in "La Mesa."  Ever since La Mesa began, other local and national environmental, religious, legal, and grassroots organizations have joined as they became aware of the environmental degradation, health problems, and labor rights abuses that come with mining.

Currently there are 29 mining exploration concessions for gold and silver in El Salvador.  Thanks in great part to the work of La Mesa, exploitation permits have not been granted by the Salvadoran government.  La Mesa combines grassroots organizing, popular education, and local and national strategies to resist and confront Pacific Rim and other mining corporations.  In 2006, La Mesa introduced into the Legislative Assembly a bill that would prohibit metallic mineral mining exploration and exploitation.  However, this bill has never been discussed.  The educational work carried out by La Mesa has raised awareness about issues of water pollution, cyanide contamination, and community displacement that gold mining entails.  This information campaign has reached out not only to the general population but also to the government and policymakers, undermining the expensive and powerful pro-mining campaign led by Pacific Rim.  The Catholic Church has also joined La Mesa in rejecting gold mining exploitation, stating that mining would cause irreversible damage to humans and the environment in El Salvador.

These combined efforts have been successful in preventing the Salvadoran government from granting exploitation permits to Pacific Rim and other mining corporations.

Pacific Rim Sues El Salvador under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)

The Letelier-Moffitt Award comes to La Mesa in a very significant and precarious moment for the anti-mining movement, as Pacific Rim, unwilling to forego its investment, has decided to sue El Salvador in an international tribunal.  According to the company's press release, Pacific Rim began CAFTA arbitration proceedings against El Salvador on April 30, 2009.  This is the first international dispute filed under CAFTA.

Pacific Rim has filed the claim under its subsidiary, "Pacific Rim Cayman LLC" based in Nevada, and is being represented by Crowel & Moring, LLP in Washington, DC.  According to Pacific Rim, they are seeking compensation for damages caused by the failure of the Salvadoran government to finalize the permit process to begin mining exploitation in the country.  The company claims to have invested US$77 million in El Salvador, which has become an economic loss.  Pacific Rim also argues that its mining activities have been in compliance with Salvadoran law and have met or exceeded environmental, mining, and foreign investment legal requirements.

According to CAFTA's legal framework, the arbitration will follow the rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a subsidiary of the World Bank.  According to Pacific Rim's press release, once the case has been filed and an arbitration tribunal has been consulted, the process may take up to three years.

Commerce Group Corporation Files Notice of Intent Under CAFTA

Two other US mining corporations working in El Salvador in a joint venture agreement filed a Notice of Intent (NOI) on March 16, 2009 to begin arbitration procedures against El Salvador under CAFTA.  In the NOI, Commerce Group Corporation and San Sebastian Gold Mines, Inc. (Commerce/SanSeb) asked the government of El Salvador to pay Commerce Group a minimum of US$100 million in compensation for its losses due to the denial of mining permits.  In addition, they asked the government to grant permits allowing Commerce Group to resume mining activities in the country that are "subject to reasonable and appropriate environmental protection conditions."

Commerce/SanSeb Joint Venture is registered in Wisconsin, US, and in El Salvador, and Commerce Group is authorized to execute agreements on behalf of the Joint Venture.  These mining companies have operated at the San Sebastian Gold Mine in La Unión since 1968.  They suspended operations in 1978 due to the Salvadoran civil war and resumed in 1985.  Commerce/SanSeb alleged that the Salvadoran government revoked its environmental permits in September 2006 without any justification, and in 2008 it also refused to grant exploration permits to the companies.

According to Commerce/SanSeb, El Salvador has violated Articles 10.3 and 10.5 of CAFTA regarding obligations with foreign investors.  The parties have 90 days to resolve the dispute amicably before the mining companies begin the arbitration proceedings.  The mining companies are being represented by Machulak, Roberston & Sodos, S.C., Attornies at Law, based in Milwaukee, WI.

The Struggle Continues

The news about mining corporations commencing or wanting to commence arbitration proceedings against El Salvador creates a grim situation for El Salvador.  If El Salvador loses the arbitration cases, the Salvadoran goverment will have to pay millions of dollars in compensation to the mining corporations just when the country is facing a severe fiscal deficit.  Moreover, the country would have to allow mining exploitation permits to the corporations.  That would cause irreversible environmental damage to El Salvador, creating health problems due to cyanide contamination and the displacement of rural communities.

La Mesa's anti-mining struggles are far from being over.  CAFTA has brought this issue to the international and governmental arena.  Local grassroots efforts will not be enough to stop the avarice of mining corporations.  This is a moment when solidarity among citizens from the two signatory countries is necessary in order to put pressure on their governments.  The revision of CAFTA is imperative in order to promote fair trade and to prevent US corporations from using it to exploit natural and economic resources at the expense of the poor.

- Claudia Rodríguez-Alas, DC Policy Director