Mining in El Salvador: violations of democracy and national sovereignty

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
26th session
June 2014

[Exerpt of the declaration]

Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining, recently acquired by the Australian-Canadian firm OceanaGold3, has been trying to access gold deposits in northern El Salvador for close to a decade. In 2009, Pacific Rim launched a multimillion dollar lawsuit against El Salvador at a World Bank arbitration tribunal for not having granted the company the permit to put its El Dorado mine project into operation. OceanaGold, having bailed out Pacific Rim from near bankruptcy in November 2013, aims to strike a deal with the Salvadoran government or to continue with the lawsuit. However, OceanaGold is hedging its bets based on shaky grounds. Pacific Rim never fulfilled the necessary requirements established in El Salvador’s mining law to obtain its exploitation permit. Furthermore, communities in the surrounding department of Cabañas – and most Salvadorans – do not want mining in their country. As the smallest and most densely populated country in Latin America with already stressed water supplies, Salvadorans are unwilling to face the risks industrial metal mining represents. The company’s lawsuit aims at undermining the public debate and at limiting democratic public policy-making.

Read the CETIM’ written statement in Spanish