Emergency update: Second anti-mining activist killed in less than a week in El Salvador

[CISPES National Office]

Compañeras y compañeros,

We are very sad to inform you that another anti-mining activist has been 
assassinated in Cabañas, El Salvador.  On Saturday, Dora "Alicia" 
Recinos Sorto was shot by hitmen as she returned from washing clothes in 
the river.  She was 32 years old and 8 months pregnant.  This follows 
the killings of two other prominent anti-mining activists this year: 
Ramiro Rivera, shot dead in an ambush on December 20, and Marcelo 
Rivera, disappeared, tortured, and ultimately found dead in June.  There 
is truly an emergency right now in Cabañas, and CISPES and other 
solidarity allies will continue to follow the unfolding of events, 
increase pressure on authorities to protect environmental activists, and 
take other actions in the coming weeks.

Attached is a press release that we hope you can help distribute to your 
media contacts (it's also on the CISPES website 
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=654&Itemid=1>.)

Also, Upsidedownworld.org continues to provide excellent coverage of the 
spate of violence in El Salvador and below are three articles, including 
Jason Wallach's recent story about Recinos Sorto's murder, much of which 
was taken from accounts by another prominent Salvadoran anti-mining 
activist, Hector Berrios.

Finally, on our website there is also information in Spanish, including 
the press release by the Mesa Nacional Frente a la Mineria 
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=653&Itemid=98> 
and a press release by CISPES about the Ramiro Rivera assassination 
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=650&Itemid=98>.

Please stay tuned for more updates and alerts, and thanks to everyone 
who already responded to our action alert from last week 
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=648&Itemid=1> 
targeting the Salvadoran attorney generals office.

In solidarity,

-CISPES National Office

---------------------

Canadian Mining in Latin America: Paramilitaries, Assassinations, and 
Impunity <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2280/1/> (from 
Upsidedownworld.org, December 28, 2009)

El Salvador: Company Promoters Shred Social Fabric of Communities 
<http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1584/74/> (from 
Upsidedownworld.org, November, 2008)


*Hitmen Assassinate Prominent Woman Activist in Cabañas; Pro-Mining 
Violence Continues   *    

written by Jason Wallach on Upsidedownworld.org 
<http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2279/1/> - Sunday, 27 
December 2009

Six days after heavily armed men took the life of a respected 
anti-mining activist in Cabañas, El Salvador, another prominent 
community leader has been assassinated. On December 26 at 3:30 pm Dora 
"Alicia" Recinos Sorto, 32, was killed as she returned from doing 
laundry at the river near her home in Cantón Trinidad, in the 
municipality of Sensuntepeque, Cabañas. "Alicia," as she was known to 
friends, was carrying one of her children in her arms as she was shot 
dead. The child was shot in the foot and is receiving medical care.
 
Since 2005, many Cabañas residents like Recinos Sorto have been involved 
in a fierce battle over whether the US/Canadian Pacific Rim Mining 
Company can re-open the shuttered El Dorado gold mine. Late last year, 
outgoing President Tony Saca responded to local pressure and negated 
Pacific Rim's permit applications for gold extraction. Activists are 
concerned that re-starting the mine will threaten local water supplies 
and ruin their ability to grow crops. Supporters---mostly Pacific Rim 
employees and their families---see the revival of the mine as a source 
of job creation and economic development.
 
Alicia Recinos Sorto together with her husband, José Santos Rodriguez, 
were active members of the Cabañas Environment Committee. Santos 
Rodriguez holds a position on the CEC Board and was attacked with a 
machete for his anti-mining views in May 2008. According to Hector 
Berríos of MUFRAS-32, the now-deceased Alicia recently told fellow CEC 
activists that armed men showed up at the couple's home looking for her 
husband. She said that he had not been present at the time.
 
Recino Sorto's murder has further shaken Cabañas, a region which was 
already reeling from the Dec. 20 killing of the Vice President of the 
Cabañas Environmental Committee (CEC), Ramiro Rivera. Rivera had been 
the target of a previous attacks and was under police protection at the 
time of his murder. The police presence, however, did not deter the 
hitmen, who rode up to the side of the Rivera's pick-up as he drove and 
shot him repeatedly in the head and chest. A passenger in Rivera's 
pick-up was killed and a teen girl was injured. According to elfaro.net, 
a fourth passenger escaped by running into the woods.

Information for this report was taken from a report by Hector Berríos, 
MUFRAS-32, previous UDW reports, and the recent Salvadoran press.

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