Environmental Activists killed by Mining Companies in Latin America
05.01.2010 19:00 | World
On 26th December, Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto became the third victim of a wave of violence against environmental campaigners in the Cabañas Region of El Salvador, where community members are protesting against the re-opening of a Gold Mine by Canadian Company Pacific Rim.
Dora Alicia was a member of the Cabañas Environmental Committee, and had been active in opposing the mine. She was eight months pregnant when she was shot dead, and her two year old son was also wounded in the attack.
Her murder comes six days after the fatal shooting of Ramiro Rivera Gomez, Vice President of the Cabañas Environmental Committee, who had survived being shot eight times in August this year. In June, another environmental campaigner, Gustavo Marcelo Rivera Moreno, had been tortured and killed. Many other members of the community have received death threats, including youth workers and journalists for the local community radio station Radio Victoria, and the local priest Father Luis Quintanilla narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping.
In Mexico, Mariano Abarca Roblero campaigned against the environmentally destructive open-pit Barium mine Blackfire, a World Bank project. He was shot to death on the evening of November 27, 2009, in front of his house in Chicomuselo, Chiapas.
[ full report | Amnesty International Campaign | UpsideDown World 1,2, 3 | cispes | Share - El Salvador | Waves of Change | Chiapas Anti-Mining Organiser Murdered | Germany Indymedia ]
Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
Info on Pacific Rim
05.01.2010 23:10
Solidarity
Link to Wikipedia entry
06.01.2010 09:17
It's just a stub at the moment but people might want to add more if they find out anything.
Beware of corporate PR censoring or greenwashing the article though.
anon
Disgusted
12.01.2010 21:39
Kerry
e-mail:
kerbear2@gmail.com
outrageous
13.01.2010 15:16
- Pacific Rim's mandate to its shareholders is to build a gold mining company that explores and develops gold deposits in an environmentally responsible manner. In meeting its responsibilities, a mine design for the Enterprises' El Dorado gold project located in the department of Cabañas, was submitted to the Government in its final form more than two and a half years ago. Despite strong local support and the inclusion of carefully engineered and reliable environmental protections for the proposed El Dorado Mine, the Government has not met its responsibility to issue the Enterprises the permits necessary to advance the project to the final step of full production.
"We deeply regret that we have been forced to pursue our legal rights through the initiation of a CAFTA action," states Tom Shrake, Manager of Pac Rim and President and CEO of Pacific Rim. "While we regret having to take this action, we fully intend to pursue the Company's rights vigorously. Sadly, it is not just the rights of Pac Rim that are being compromised, but the rights of all Salvadorans and future foreign investors. The people of our local communities are being denied the benefits of over 400 recently active exploration jobs, approximately 600 jobs to develop and operate the mine, and the benefits of numerous community and social programs. The country is being denied a project that will set new environmental standards within all of the Americas." -
This is in relation to an action AGAINST the government for the interests of profits and at the expense of our comrades lives.
THIS COMPANY IS SCUM.
Fran
mainstream media coverage
15.01.2010 17:07
the reason why you can not find anything about this on the mainstream media is that they would get sued their asses off by the mining companies if they wrote the article like this - the mining companies hide themselves behind paramilitaries and bribe police and state officials, too. Making a direct, proven link to the mining company is therefore difficult, although as a motive, the mining company is of course the main beneficiary of the death of the environmental activists and therefore it is logical that the mining company is - more or less directly - responsible for the deaths.
Also, most (European) mainstream media do not have correspondents anymore based in Latin America, mainly because they don't see the continent influential enough for their economy (-like Africa, too), and they get most international news now via press agencies like Reuters, AP and so on. These press agencies pick news items they can sell on to as many media outlets as possible with the highest profit, so international news are neglected anyways, they need to have pictures of the event, especially moving images of what has happened and they prioritise news in regards of how many people are affected directly by the news (like in Haiti), especially where the news is broadcast and if there is any celebrity involved.
Who looks after the toddler. I don't know, but I suppose it is the extended family. If you are really keen to know get in touch with Radio Victoria or Amnesty International.
ab
contacting pacific rim
18.01.2010 11:32
An old posting on their website but with contact details that may still be relevant?
"26-Nov-08
CORPORATE ANNOUNCEMENT Pacific Rim is moving
Dear Shareholders, As part of its cost-cutting efforts, Pacific Rim will be moving to smaller office space on November 27, 2008. Our new address is: Suite 1050, 625 Howe Street Vancouver, BC Canada V6C 2T6 Phone, fax and email contacts have not changed and remain: Tel: 604-689-1976 Fax: 604-689-1978 Toll Free: 1-888-775-7097 email:
Well, that's good that the phone isn't disrupted then, isn't it.
anon