[CISPES-Alert] Call-In Day: Tell Pacific Rim to recognize the social conflict surrounding the El Dorado mine and to get out of Cabañas!

Wed Jan 13 09:44:59 EST 2010

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ACTION ALERT

Monthly Call-In Day TODAY

January 13, 2009

Tell Pacific Rim to recognize the social conflict surrounding the El Dorado
mine and to get out of Cabañas!  

Even as death threats and assassinations in Cabañas continue to rise,
Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Corporation remains impassive,
insensitive and wholly unaccountable for violence perpetrated against
community members who’ve actively opposed the mine.

After community organizing efforts successfully blocked Pacific Rim’s
attempts to obtain gold mining permits, the company filed a lawsuit against
the Salvadoran government under CAFTA, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade
Agreement for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages (watch the Real
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=637&Itemid=
1>  News video here). 

According to local residents, violence has become a harsh reality for
Cabañas residents since the arrival of the gold mining company Pacific Rim.
In recent months, it has proven especially dangerous to oppose mining in
Cabañas, with a steady stream of attacks, death threats and attempted
assassinations and kidnappings against community leaders and anti-mining
activists.  Just before the New Year, two more community activists and
leaders were murdered within a week, bringing the death toll for Cabañas
anti-mining activists to three in 2009:  

*         December 26: Dora
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=654&Itemid=
1>  “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 also injured.  Sorto Recinos was a member of the
Environmental Committee of Cabañas, which has been extremely active in
educating and mobilizing the local community against gold mining; her life
partner José Rodríguez is a current board member of the committee and has
personally received a number of recent death threats and survived at least
two separate attempts against his life.  

*         December 20: Vice-president of the Environmental Committee of
Cabañas, Ramiro
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=648&Itemid=
27>  Rivera, was gunned down in front of his daughter, despite his 24-hour
police protection since being shot eight times in August.  His neighbor
Felicíta Echeverría was also killed in the attack.

*         June 30: Anti-mining and FMLN activist Marcelo
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=610&Itemid=
28>  Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found tortured and murdered in an
empty well in Cabañas, after his disappearance eleven days prior.

One common thread in the two most recent slayings is Oscar Menjívar.
Menjivar is currently awaiting trial for the attempted assassination of
Ramiro Rivera in August and according to Upside Down World
<http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1584/74/> , attacked José
Rodríguez with a machete in May 2008. Menjívar’s neighbors report that he
was one of Pacific Rim Mining’s paid “promoters,” though Pacific Rim denies
that he has ever been on payroll.  

Just as it responded to the murder of Marcelo Rivera, Pacific Rim has
completely denied any connection between the recent assassinations of
anti-mining activists and its proposed mining projects.  According to
Pacific Rim, the Salvadoran mainstream news is reporting that December’s
murders are the result of a “family
<http://www.pacrim-mining.com/s/Announcements.asp?ReportID=378925>  feud”.
In fact, many articles in mainstream press like La
<http://www.laprensagrafica.com/el-salvador/social/82562-comunidad-condena-e
l-asesinato-de-dora-alicia.html>  Prensa Gráfica, quote government officials
discussing the attacks within the context of opposition to mining.

According to local residents, this wave of violence began when Pacific Rim
came into Cabañas.  The community and the country have rejected the El
Dorado gold mine as environmentally, socially and economically unviable.  On
Friday January 8, a vigil was held in Trinidad for Alicia Sorto Recinos.
People from across the country mobilized to the community to pay their
respects and to demonstrate enduring, unstoppable strength of the movement
against mining.  Yet Pacific Rim remains in El Salvador – why?

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 (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 recent news of assassinated community
members in Trinidad.  These individuals were part of local organizations
that have been actively opposing mining since 2004.  I call on CEO and
President Thomas Shrake and Pacific Rim’s board of directors to recognize
the social conflict the mine is causing and 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 absolutely disgraceful for a company to sue a poor 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.”

For more information on the recent assassinations:

*	Visit the CISPES website <http://www.cispes.org/>  for the latest
news and information

*	Watch the Democracy
<http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/29/anti_mining_activists_killed_in_el>
Now! interview with CISPES Executive Director, Alexis Stoumbelis

*	Check out recent articles by Jason Wallach and Hector Berríos on
Upside <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/category/5/36/74/>  Down
World

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© 2008 CISPES - The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
CISPES National Office | ph. 202-521-2510 | 1525 Newton St. NW, Wash. DC
20010| cispes at cispes.org

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