[CISPES-Alert] Call-In Day Today! Tell Pacific Rim Mining to get out of El Salvador!

[CISPES National Office]

ACTION ALERT

Monthly Call-In Day TODAY

February 10, 2010

 

Tell Pacific Rim Mining to get out of Cabañas!  

 

Since 2005, community organizing efforts have successfully blocked Pacific
Rim Mining Corporation’s application for gold mining permits in the
department of Cabañas, El Salvador. This effective resistance has been met
with death threats, kidnapping attempts and assassinations against activists
who oppose mining. Two more community leaders were murdered just before the
New Year. In early January, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes explicitly
sided with the environmental movement, declaring “My government will not
authorize any mining extraction projects.” However, Pacific Rim refuses to
pack up and leave, despite that conflicts and violence that its presence has
generated.

 

TAKE ACTION! Call Barbara Henderson, Vice President of Investor Relations at
Pacific Rim Mining, and tell her that the company has the moral
responsibility to leave Cabañas immediately.

 

To call from the U.S. dial 1- (888) 775-7097, or from Canada (604) 689-1976,
and then press ‘1’. (See sample script below)

 

Background: On December 20, Ramiro Rivera was gunned down in front of his
daughter despite being under 24-hour police protection. On December 26, Dora
“Alicia” Sorto Recinos was shot to death as she was walking home from the
river. She was eight months pregnant and carrying her two-year old child,
who was injured.  Both were leaders in the Environmental Committee of
Cabañas, which has been active in educating and mobilizing the local
community against gold mining. In June, anti-mining and FMLN activist
Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found tortured and murdered in an
empty well in San Isidro, Cabañas, after his disappearance eleven days
prior. 

 

Pacific Rim has denied any connection between its proposed mining projects
and the recent assassinations, chalking the violence up to common crimes or
a family feud. But leading government officials, including President Funes,
have discussed the attacks within the context of mining. In a January speech
in Cabañas, President Funes declared, “We are not going to authorize any
mining exploration project
 Nor are we going to allow systematic
disappearances and threats against members of the environmental movement.”

 

According to a recent declaration by over 30 community organizations and
churches in El Salvador, “Crimes like this did not happen in Cabañas before
the arrival of Pacific Rim, but rather arose when this transnational
corporation began a strategy of buying people off, dividing communities and
promoting violent acts against community leaders, environmental activists
and religious representatives who rejected their extractive projects.”

 

The international community joins with these communities in denouncing
Pacific Rim’s lawsuit against the Salvadoran government under CAFTA, the
U.S. - Central America Free Trade Agreement, for hundreds of millions of
dollars. By pursuing the lawsuit, Pacific Rim has continued its presence in
El Salvador despite the decision of the community and the government not to
allow mining. 

 

It’s time for Pacific Rim to heed the message of the Salvadoran and
international communities:

Drop the lawsuit and withdraw from Cabañas!

 




TAKE ACTION! Call Barbara Henderson, Vice President of Investor Relations at
Pacific Rim Mining TODAY (see sample script below).

 

To call from the U.S. dial 1- (888) 775-7097, or from Canada (604) 689-1976,
and then press ‘1’.

 

SAMPLE SCRIPT:
 
“Hello. I have been following Pacific Rim’s proposed mines in El Salvador
and am extremely disturbed by the news of assassinated community members in
Trinidad.  These individuals were part of local organizations that have been
actively opposing mining since 2005.  I call on CEO and President Thomas
Shrake and Pacific Rim’s Board of Directors to make the moral decision to:
 
1.    Immediately withdraw from Cabañas and cease all efforts to mine gold
from the El Dorado site.   The company applied for mining permits and was
rejected by the Salvadoran people and government.  Pacific Rim has no
business remaining in Cabañas.
 
2.    Immediately withdraw its lawsuit against the government of El
Salvador.  It is disgraceful for a company to sue an impoverished nation
like El Salvador, especially when the Salvadoran people and government have
every right to prevent cyanide gold extraction from destroying their lands
and their communities.
 
3.    Cooperate fully with the official investigations surrounding the
murders of Alicia Sorto Recinos, Ramiro Rivera and Marcelo Rivera, providing
full disclosure on all the people the company has contracted in the region
and any other monetary transactions it has conducted among community
members, organizations and local government officials.  Violence is tearing
apart Cabañas, and Pacific Rim has every obligation to offer its full
support to bring to justice the perpetrators of these murdered community
members, all of whom have openly opposed gold mining in the area. 
 
Thank you.”

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