Pressure Mounts on El Salvadoran Legislature to Ban Metal Mining
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- Published: Monday, 13 February 2017 16:52
By Sebastian Rosemont - Photo: Genia Yatsenko
Pressure continues to mount on Salvadoran legislators to ban metal mining in El Salvador. On February 7th, mayors from the Department of Chalatenango, accompanied by leaders of the Association for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES), arrived in the capital to deliver a letter to the Legislative Assembly calling for lawmakers to pass a comprehensive ban on metal mining in the country. Their trip to Assembly reflects the growing grassroots support for a national law banning metal mining in El Salvador.
Bernardo Belloso, the president of CRIPDES (a Salvadoran NGO that is part of the National Roundtable Against Mining in El Salvador) said, “For the past several years, CRIPDES has accompanied Salvadoran communities that have taken the initiative to organize municipal referendums to ban metal mining.”
The movement against destructive mining activity in El Salvador received a boost Monday as leaders of the Catholic church in the Central American country presented a bill in Congress aimed at blocking mining and protecting citizens from “serious contamination.”
Members of the National Roundtable Against Mining met with the Legislative Assembly to present a letter demanding the return to the study and adoption of the bill that bans metal mining operations in the country.
“Efforts to have a legislative decree that prohibits mining operations and all of its forms have sprung since the year 2006. As a political party we can say that there are already 31 votes in order to comply with this demand from the population, social organizations, and the Catholic Church,” said FMLN legislator Guillermo Mata during the presentation of an official letter(requesting prohibition) in the Legislative Assembly.