El Salvador Perspectives

A guest post by Danielle Mackey and Theodora Simon. Violence and intimidation continue in El Salvador against environmental activists and defenders of human rights who have publically opposed metallic mining. The latest round of threats was focused against a Salvadoran Catholic priest, Father Neftalí Ruiz, and a community radio station, Radio Victoria. Fr. Ruiz, the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Cabañas Environmental Committee and a member of the National Working Group against Metallic Mining (“The Mesa,”) was attacked on January 20th, when he opened his home to a group of supposed university students who had expressed interest in his work. The two young people then tied him up at gunpoint and proceeded to search the files on his computer. They left the home with the computer and media storage devices, but did not take anything else of value. The young men stated numerous times during the assault that they were looking for information and made several calls to a thi...

There has once again been an unexplained murder of an environmental activist the department of Cabañas where conflict over proposed gold mining continues. The conflict has already claimed several lives . The following is from the staff of Radio Victoria, a progressive community radio station in Cabañas: On June 2, in the city of Ilobasco, Cabañas, thirty year-old Juan Francisco Duran Ayala was putting up flyers and banners that asked for the approval of a law against metal mining and for the Canadian mining company Pacific Rim to leave Cabañas as part of a Cabañas Environmental Committee (CAC) campaign. The CAC reports that the mayor of Ilobasco, José Maria Dimas Castellano, ordered members of the municipal police to remove the banners and intimidate the activists that were hanging them. The next day Juan Francisco left for his classes at the Technological University in San Salvador and was not heard from again. Yesterday we received word that Juan Francisco Duran Ayala's body...

There has been a troubling resurgence of violence and threats of violence in the Cabañas region of El Salvador, where gold mining companies want to open mines. Those mining plans have been blocked by the Salvadoran government and a strong environmental movement. In 2009, three anti-mining activists were murdered in Cabañas. The police eventually arrested and convicted several people for the crimes, blaming the killings on gangs and a family feud. The victims' role as leaders of the anti-mining movement has been discounted by the authorities as a motive. But members of the activist community have continued to call on the police and prosecutors to pursue the intellectual authors of the crimes. During 2010, the violence appeared to have subsided somewhat, but the anti-mining movement reports a new wave of murders and threats with possible links to their struggle: In the middle of the night on January 11, a written death threat was pushed under the front door of community rad...

Our friends at the Voices from El Salvador Blog are citing reports today that 8 suspects have been arrested for six murders of environmentalists in Trinidad, Cabañas last year. The murders have been widely linked to the conflict over gold mining in that region and the efforts to block it. Details about the suspects' links to the victims or to gold mining were not immediately available.

Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes has made it clear that, notwithstanding multi-million dollar arbitration claims by gold-mining companies, the current Salvadoran government is not going to grant mining permits. From CISPES : SENSUNTEPEQUE, EL SALVADOR – Speaking at a ceremony marking the start of the school year on Tuesday, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes made his most explicit statement yet against the mining of precious metals in El Salvador, declaring “There can be no misunderstanding: my government will not authorize any mining extraction projects.” Funes cited environmental and health concerns in reaffirming the government's refusal to grant extraction permits for various projects around the country, including the proposed El Dorado mine, owned by Vancouver, B.C.-based Pacific Rim Mining. “No one has convinced us that there are ways to extract minerals and metals, especially metals, without contaminating the environment and affecting public health,” Funes stated. “We a...

Another environmental leader, active in anti-mining protests and other issues, has been killed in the department of Cabañas. From the Latin American Herald Tribune : Prominent environmental activist Ramiro Rivera, who survived an attempt on his life in August, was killed last weekend in the central Salvadoran province of Cabañas, a colleague said. “It was an ambush,” Francisco Pineda, coordinator of the environmental committee in Cabañas, told Efe. Rivera was fatally shot Sunday while driving to his home in the city of Ilobasco. Also killed was a 57-year-old woman traveling in the same vehicle, while a girl of 13 was wounded. The attack happened even though Rivera “traveled with security” since the failed assassination attempt of Aug. 7, Pineda said. He said Rivera played a leading role in battles against proposed mining projects in the region. “We see that the fundamental cause (of the murder) can only be his being against those projects and in defense of the lives of present and fu...

The murder of Marcelo Rivera, and other recent incidents of threats and intimidation against journalists and activists in Cabañas, are troubling. Unknown persons or groups are waging a campaign of intimidation against environmental activists and reporters in the region. More than 100 international organizations signed a letter to El Salvador's acting attorney general demanding that a more thorough investigation of the Marcelo Rivera murder and its possible political motives be conducted. The letter concludes: As members of the international community in solidarity with the people of El Salvador, we are calling on the Office of the Attorney General to carry out an impartial, exhaustive, and effective investigation in order to bring to justice the intellectual and material authors of this horrendous crime. If Marcelo’s murder is left in a state of impunity, it will generate a climate of intimidation and uncertainty for social leaders and activists, undermining the advances in the...

Numerous civil society organizations in El Salvador are rejecting the hypothesis of the police that Marcelo Rivera was murdered by gang members he knew after talking and drinking with them. Rivera was a prominent activist who had denounced election fraud and protested the possibility of gold mining in the country. The civil society groups are complaining that the police have completely discounted any link between enemies made by Rivera's activism and his violent death. The website World War 4 Report states: The victim's brother, Miguel Rivera, dismissed the gang violence explanation. "Saying that my brother died at the hands of gang members is an unbelievable story and becomes a mockery for my family. My brother was tortured. He was alive for nine days after his disappearance. His trachea was broken by a nylon cord that strangled him, pushing his arm up to his face. This is not an act of gang members. It is torture." Rivera was director of the Casa de Cultura in ...