[CISPES-Alert] Special Call-In Day: Celebrate Romero Day with a call for justice!

Wed Mar 24 10:05:11 EDT 2010

ACTION ALERT

Special Call-In Day TODAY 

National Monseñor Romero Day: March 24, 2010

Accompany El Salvador’s mining resistance and tell Pacific Rim Mining to get
out of Cabañas!  

Today is National Romero Day in El Salvador, the very first official
government recognition of the pueblo’s revered martyr for social justice –
Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the archbishop of El Salvador.  While
conducting mass on March 24, 1980, he was assassinated by State-linked
paramilitary forces for openly denouncing and defying the U.S.-sponsored
Salvadoran government’s bloody war on the poor.  Monseñor Romero believed,
“If they kill me, I will be reborn in the Salvadoran of the people.”
Thirty years later, Romero continues to live on in the fighting spirit of
the Salvadoran people, who have advanced the cause of social justice in the
face of U.S. intervention and destructive economic policies, like the
U.S.-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) imposed by the Washington
Consensus and El Salvador’s right wing. 

Today, transnational companies are clamoring to extract El Salvador’s gold,
which would bring severe environmental, social and economic consequences for
rural communities. 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.   In response to
this effective resistance, death threats, kidnapping attempts and
assassinations against activists who oppose mining continue.  Moreover,
Pacific Rim has retaliated by filing a $77 million dollar lawsuit against El
Salvador for denying gold mining permits, using CAFTA’s investor protections
provisions.  The present-day struggle against mining addresses the very same
issues – human rights, land and self-determination – as the popular struggle
that drew violent repression from the Salvadoran State during the Civil War
from 1980-1992,  which robbed the lives of Monseñor Romero and 70,000
Salvadorans.

Take Action Today! 

In honor of National Romero Day, call Thomas Shrake, President and CEO of
Pacific Rim Mining and tell him that the company has the moral
responsibility to leave Cabañas immediately.   

To speak with Mr. Shrake at the Reno, NV office, dial 1-(775) 852-5888.
(Sample script below)

Background: On 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 being under
24-hour police protection. On 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.  Both were leaders in the
Environmental Committee of Cabañas, which has been extremely active in
educating and mobilizing the local community against gold mining. In June,
anti-mining 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 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 <http://www.pacrim-mining.com/s/Announcements.asp?ReportID=378925>
feud.  According to 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.”  

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 Thomas Shrake, President and CEO of Pacific Rim Mining
TODAY (see sample script below).  Dial 1-(775) 852-5888 and ask to speak
with Mr. Shrake.

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, all of whom were part of local groups organizing against mining
since 2005.  Today, El Salvador is celebrating National Monseñor Romero Day
to commemorate the life of this human rights martyr.   Just as Monseñor
Romero gave his life to the struggle for land and self-determination in El
Salvador, Marcelo Rivera, Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos have
also given their lives to this struggle.  In the name of these martyrs for
social and economic justice, I call on you, as the CEO and President, and on
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.”

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

*         Watch the Real
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=637&Itemid=
1>  News Network video here on Pacific Rim’s multi-million dollar CAFTA suit

*         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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