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Published: Wednesday, 03 February 2016 16:36
Anna Backmann and Christian Wimberger: CIR
People taking part in the delegation from the United States, Canada, France, and Germany together with workers of the organization ADES.
El Salvador, November 2nd to 10th, 2015
As we step into Bernardo Belloso’s office in San Salvador on November 3rd, the numbers on a whiteboard catch our attention: 99%, 98%, and 99,25%. They are the results of referenda against mining held in El Salvador. Three municipalities have already voted NO – and almost unanimously so. Therefore the expectations for the referendum in Arcatao are high from the beginning. “Of course this time we want to reach 100%”, president of CRIPDES Bernando Belloso says, as if it were obvious.
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Published: Sunday, 03 January 2016 12:20
*Oliver Ristau: Frankfurter Rundschau / Translation: Marina Bonetti
“No to mining. Yes to life”: after the mass, the priest stands above an anti-mining mural together with church servants and believers, waving.
El Salvador is worried about environmental damages, and therefore bans the mining of raw materials. A Canadian company files a lawsuit before an international court of arbitration in Washington due to lost profits
Water is not supposed to be orange, not even in El Salvador. But, in the town of San Sebastian, in the Eastern part of the small Central American country, it is. Gustavo Blanco uses a stick to stir the water up the stream that has dyed in red the originally gray pebbles. It splashes idyllically, and that is all of nature's romance. The stream flows from an old gold mine, where Blanco’s father once worked – uphill, a few meters beyond the stream grow dense rows of corn.
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Published: Saturday, 02 January 2016 23:44
By Carmen Rodriguez: Cipamericas
Since 2014, organized farmers from several municipalities of the department of Chalatenango, located in the north of the country, have expressed their full rejection to a mining operation in the area. In November this struggle has represented an important precedent and has compelled the local government to start the process of passing a municipal law that will prohibit companies from exploiting gold and other metals from the mountains.
The four referenda that have taken place in potential mining areas of the country have vindicated the villagers’ position, showing that more than 80% oppose mining. Thanks to popular opposition, the mayor of the municipality of San José Las Flores has begun drafting a municipal order that will prohibit all types of metal extraction in the mountains and forests bordering the municipality.
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Published: Saturday, 02 January 2016 17:34
Oliver Ristau*: Deutsche Welle / Translation: Marina Bonetti
El Salvador wants to protect its environment and therefore bans mining. The population supports the plan, on the other hand, a Canadian company files a lawsuit before an arbitration tribunal. From El Salvador, Oliver Ristau.
A vote could hardly be any clearer. 99% of the voters in Arcatao, a Municipality in northern El Salvador, said No. There cannot be a gold mine in their region. This is the 4th referendum within the last few months to take place in the smallest Central American country, through which its people have expressed their opposition to gold mining projects.
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