[CISPES-Update] Movement Responds to Pacific Rim's Media Offensive

[CISPES National Office]

Movement Responds to Pacific Rim’s Media Offensive


 





 


CISPES <http://www.cispes.org/>  update


February 9, 2010

 

Included in this update:


 


*	First <>  Popular Consultation in Salvadoran History

 

Pacific Rim has launched a media campaign after months without public
appearances.  Representatives of the company in El Salvador spoke on several
Salvadoran TV news programs, continuing to blame the murders in Cabañas on
family quarrels unrelated to mining.  A January
<http://www.elsalvador.com/mwedh/nota/nota_completa.asp?idCat=6358&idArt=445
6937>  24th article in El Salvador´s right-wing Diario de Hoy newspaper
backed up their claims.

 

On Wednesday the 27th, the National Roundtable against Metallic Mining (the
Mesa) held a press conference denouncing the new Pacific Rim press strategy
and restating the fact that violence in Cabañas was generated by the
presence of the mining company as well as the continued context of impunity
in the region.  "The personal or family quarrels that possibly exist in the
town of Trinidad are due to the operations of Pacific Rim in the region and
the opinions in favor of or against mining adopted by the members of the
community. Cabañas -- in spite of its high level of poverty and exclusion --
was one of the least violent departments of the country but this changed
with the presence the extractive company in question," according to the
Mesa´s press statement.  You can watch a video clip
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulorNxr5snQ>  of the press conference
(courtesy of Maggie Von Vogt), or read the statement
<http://esnomineria.blogspot.com/2010/01/comunicado-de-prensa-la-mesa-nacion
al.html> .

 

The Mesa continues to call for a law banning metallic mining in El Salvador
to prevent more mining-related social conflict.  In 2008, the Mesa warned of
the possibility of such violence as a result of mining company presence in
communities.  Examples of mining companies promoting violence are present in
countries all over the world, and recent murders and threats related to the
mining conflict have been documented in Mexico
<http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/12/chiapas-a
nti-mining-organizer-murdered> , Guatemala
<http://www.oxfamamerica.org/articles/environmental-activists-receive-death-
threats> , and Peru <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2244/1/> .


-Contributions from CISPES and US-El Salvador Sister Cities

 


First Popular Consultation in Salvadoran History


 

On January 24, the municipality of Zacatecoluca, in the department of La
Paz, became the first municipality to ever carry out a popular consultation.
Citizens of Zacatecoluca were called to the polls by the mayor Francisco
Hirezi of the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) party to
cast a ballot on whether they supported a proposal to reorganize the
municipality’s historic center, relocating the local street vendors to
market stalls.  Since 1986, the nation’s “Municipal Code” has allowed for
local popular consultations and defined the legal mechanism to carry them
out.  The consultations are designed to serve primarily as opinion polls,
creating a means for the local government to solicit community feedback on
issues that will affect them.  Legally, 40% of the municipality’s voter
turnout in the previous election must be reached in order for the results to
be binding.

 

National and international organizations that observed the popular
consultation applauded the municipality’s initiative to create spaces for
participatory democracy; however, the right-wing media attempted to paint
the consultation as a first step in creating a referendum process to rewrite
the constitution.  Observers also recognized the use of residential voting
in the consultation as an excellent example of a measure they recommend for
national elections.  

 

While the consultation showed an overwhelming 97% of voters in support of
the proposed reorganization of the city’s historic center, it did not
achieve the voter turnout necessary to make the results binding.  The
Zacatecoluca municipal council now has an important gauge of popular
opinion, and can proceed with the project at its discretion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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