Cielo Azul Fund and Cielo Azul Study Trips: Day 6 in El Salvador [Gold Mining]

We spent day six being educated about the struggle to keep gold mining out of El Salvador. Our time was spent in San Isidro where the Canadian based mining company, Pacific Rim went in without permission and began exploring for gold after the 1992 Peace Accords. They successfully found the precious metal at a value around 200 million US dollars. The organization we were able to sit with is called ADES which stands for, The Association for Economical Development.

It is important to understand how the end of the armed struggle after the signing of the Peace Accords benefited the mining companies. Essentially the companies are allowed to enter communities without their permission, this means that they can walk right onto private property, and begin drilling. The owners of the land have the opportunity to kick them off but as you will read later, the mining companies are pretty smart and tell lies about how they have the government’s permission to be there. Once the company succeeds in its exploration of precious metals, it can then sue the government if they are not allowed to make back the money they invested in the exploration mining. Currently Pacific Rim is engaged in a lawsuit with the government of El Salvador and as of 2010 was suing for 77 million US dollars or the right to continue mining. You may not know it, but El Salvador does not have that kind of money. The Peace Accords work in favor of these multi-national companies and they are able to twist the arms of communities and governments in the name of capitalism and greed.

Around 1998 the community became very vocal about stopping the mining work because they found that their animals were dying and people were developing allergies that had not occurred before. The community complained to the mining company who told them that they should speak with their government. In that time the government was being secretive about everything. Our educator, Antonio Pacheko, who is the executive director of ADES described that the people were completely illiterate in regards to mining. He told us that if you understood the laws surrounding mining, that you would be horrified.

Antonio told us that if the mining continued then the Lempa River, which provides 60% of the water to the area, then the river would be completely contaminated and would not be drinkable. Many servants and farmers grow food with that water and many fish there. After the mining exploration had been completed samples were collected by ADES and sent to different labs. Some of the labs came back saying the water was fine, and one lab, that didn’t have all of it’s certifications, found arsenic and other toxins in the water. A member of our team pointed out that it is very common for labs to have mixed findings. The people of this community want a decent quality of life. If the water was to be contaminated it would impact everyone and everything!

Fighting the mining company has been a very slow and difficult battle that has even resulted in the loss of life. Marcelo Rivera was found lifeless with evidence of torture in a well after the conflict had reached a particular amount of tension. It is very common for governments and politicians to use intimidation as a means of getting their way. Just this week (May 10th 2011) there have been a number of death threats against Radio Victoria which is a station committed to sharing political information in a timely manner.

Our group enjoyed lunch at a local co-op run by women which served us some incredible food! The chickens and other ingredients were all grown in the area. Our money is then used to help develop the area. I am always impressed by the co-op business model.

The rest of our day was spent visiting one woman whose livelihood is in jeopardy after the exploration drilling. She told us how her father had built the home where we were meeting and that she grew up raising pigs. She told us how there always used to be enough water but that these days everything is drying up. We were told how if a neighbor has their water running that her water barely runs. It is possible that this is isolated from the exploration drilling but it is also entirely possible that the drilling interrupted and changed the underground streams of water. As the water dries up more and more this woman risks losing everything that she has had her entire life. It is very difficult to imagine being in her circumstance but we are reminded how the suffering of many often benefits the few.