Commerce Group lawsuit update

The Commerce Group is one of two gold mining companies which sued the government of El Salvador under CAFTA.   The international arbitration claim brought by the Commerce Group was dismissed earlier this year for failure to comply with procedural requirements of CAFTA.   The Commerce Group has appealed in what is called an "annulment procedure."  Last week, the Commerce Group announced to the arbitration tribunal that it could not make a $150,000 advance payment of costs which the tribunal had requested.   The appeal could be suspended for that reason.

The Commerce Group is a barely publicly traded company located in Waukesha, Wisconsin and controlled by the Machulak family.   On Monday, John Machulak who is a lawyer and has been representing the company in the lawsuit gave a rare interview about the company's position to radio station WUWM, Milwaukee public radio.   You can listen to that interview at this link.

Update:
The group US-El Salvador Sister Cities, which has actively supported the anti-mining movement in El Salvador has posted a response to the comments of Machulak.   You can read that response here.

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