I THINK MINING

    The title of this piece, El Salvador–Gold, Guns, and Choice,  is the title of a report that recently came my way.  If you are interested in the issues of social justice, mining, and death in Central America, I recommend you follow the link I provide to the full document.  It will repay your time, although it may leave you dispirited.

The report is written by a Professor Richard Steiner who is listed as a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Commission on Environmental Economic, and Social Policy.   The professor pulls no punches in reviewing plans by Pacific Rim to open a gold mine in El Salvador, the government’s ineptitude in permitting, or failing to permit, the mine, the deaths of many who opposed the mine, and the general corruption that prevails in El Salvador.  This document contains many stark facts and many hard-hitting recommendations.

    The professor starts by pointing out that El Salvador is “geographically small (about the size of New Jersey) and has a population of about 6 million people.  It is one of the most densely populated, poorest, most violent, and environmentally degraded countries in Latin America.  The country has only 3% of its original forest left, and in the past 20 years has lost approximately 20% of is subsurface water resources, 95% of the remaining surface water is reportedly contaminated with industrial chemicals and fecal wastes.  Rural villages and communities are comprised primarily of subsistence farmers who live on less than $2 per day, with low literacy and health indicators.”

    Into this volatile and ugly mess came Pacific Rim and they attempted to open a mine.   We will never know the truth, and the report makes no attempt to establish the truth, but at this point, as the report documents, there are law suites between Pacific Rim and the government of El Salvador, corpses of murdered opponents of mining, and ongoing poverty and despair. 

Pacific Rim stands accused of “attempting to buy a social license to operate through providing up to $1 million a year to various local initiatives aimed at winning local consent for the project.”   Can you blame the local mayor of a poor village from accepting money from Canadians when his constituents live on less than $2 per day?  I suppose you can if he ordered the murder of those who opposed him.  But as the professor points out, this is a violent society—it was thus long before the miners arrived. 

The report makes the obvious recommendations:

• Pacific Rim should leave the country
• The government should audit Pacific Rim and the mayors to see who paid whom and how much was paid.
• The police should investigate the murders (something they have not done to this point)
• The Director of the Office of Organized Crime should be removed from the investigation as he has conflicts of interest and has failed to undertake an impartial or thorough investigation.
• El Salvador should ban mining outright, if that is what they want.  
• El Salvador “should enhance it efforts towards reducing corruption at all levels of government.”
• Aggrieved parties should file class action law suites in the USA or Canada.

   The silliest part of this report, and yet the most optimistic is this: 

The present debate in EL Salvador regarding mining is a good platform for the country to discuss and develop an “El Salvador 2020″ plan, to chart a path toward a green, sustainable future.  The plan would direct government and international resources towards the planning horizon of year 2020 and include sustainable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, etc.) and a nationwide reforestation and environmental restoration program.  Reforestation is absolutely essential to solve the growing water crisis in the country, as well such effort could provide thousands of jobs in rural areas.  El Salvador should explore the potential for selling carbon credits to northern industries through its nationwide reforestation efforts.”

    In other words, import metals from other mining countries to build windmills and solar power plants—where the money comes from is irrelevant.  Maybe Canadian NGOs will come up with the cash.  Next put the peasants to work planting trees, and then lay them off to starve while the trees grow.  Well maybe they can grow drugs in the shade of the trees.  Then sell your reforestation credits to the nasty rich countries that you despise and seek to make poor by denying their rights to mine. 

   Do not get me wrong.  I am all for reforestation, clean water, jobs for everybody, an honest government, and nuclear power plants.  I can understand how a poor society that has over exploited its environment can degenerate to violence, corruption, poverty, and mortality.  That has happened a number of times in the past—even to the Maya if we believe the archaeologists.  The problem is that if another Maya collapse sets in as a result of an El Salvadorian deforestation and overpopulation, the call will be to Canada and the USA to help out and sustain an unsustainable situation.  No thought will be given to the sources of wealth of these countries that are supposed to help the poor, who are too poor to help themselves.

   Clearly El Salvador must act before it becomes just another of those failed states like Zimbabwe, run by a despotic old man and his henchmen and avoided by the rest of the world.

As a matter of record, here is what Pacific Rim post on their website about the accusations:

Pacific Rim Mining Corp. and its subsidiaries (collectively, “PacRim”) are environmentally and socially responsible gold mining and development companies with significant assets in El Salvador.

PacRim has recently been the target of false accusations made by certain anti-mining groups, which wrongfully suggest PacRim’s involvement in a series of murders in the area of Trinidad, El Salvador. PacRim unequivocally denies these accusations.
PacRim has no knowledge in relation to the Trinidad murders other than what has appeared in the mainstream Salvadoran press, which reports that these tragic incidents are apparently related to a longstanding feud between two local families.

More broadly, the same anti-mining groups that have wrongfully implicated PacRim in the murders have portrayed the incidents as the result of an allegedly hostile conflict related to the debate over mining in El Salvador. However, there is no evidence indicating these violent acts bear any relation whatsoever to the debate over mining in the country. PacRim encourages all parties affected by the recent violence in Trinidad to rely on the appropriate legal processes to determine the true facts of these cases.

PacRim takes this opportunity to reiterate its support for open dialogue in relation to all events affecting the communities in which it operates, and to unequivocally condemn the use of violence and threats of violence as part of such dialogue. Furthermore, PacRim condemns attempts to incite violence through the deliberate dissemination of misinformation about PacRim and its activities in El Salvador

For the sake of completeness and balance, here is the press release that accompanied the report to my inbox. 

February 22, 2010—A new report released today by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) concludes that the region of Cabañas, El Salvador is facing “a strategic campaign of domestic terrorism targeting mining opponents.”  The report El Salvador: Gold, Guns, and Choice states that police investigation into the recent rash of attacks, murders, and threats in Cabañas has been ineffective, and the lack of security in the region is unacceptable.  The report further indicates that Pacific Rim Mining Corporation shares responsibility for the situation in having failed to conduct business consistent with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, specifically those guidelines regarding transparency and bribery of foreign officials.

 Pacific Rim Mining Corporation has come under fire in El Salvador and internationally since a wave of violence, abductions, assassinations, and death threats escalated against community leaders, mine opponents, and local journalists last summer.  The international media has directly or indirectly linked these acts to Pacific Rim’s presence in the region.  Local residents insist that Pacific Rim be included in as-yet unfinished police investigations for each of the crimes.

 The new report is based on meetings in January with Cabañas residents, Salvadoran attorneys, representatives from several ministries of the Salvadoran Executive and the Legislative Assembly, and top officials at the United States Embassy in San Salvador.  “The current security situation for mine opponents in Cabañas is unacceptable.  The report provides an overview of the situation, and makes several recommendations for resolving the conflict,” said the report’s author, Prof. Rick Steiner.  “A full investigation by Salvadoran authorities into these crimes is imperative, and the international community awaits its outcome.” 

 “From a general perspective, it is entirely irresponsible for Pacific Rim to operate in flagrant disregard for the OECD guidelines, and without intervention or reprimand by the U.S. or Canadian governments for these reported violations,” continued Steiner.

 The report also comments on the impacts gold mining would have in Cabañas, specifically on shortcomings in Pacific Rim’s Environmental Impact Assessment for the El Dorado project, and on the classification of the El Dorado tailings dam as “high risk”.  

 This report is the latest of several independent investigations that include criticism of Pacific Rim’s comportment in El Salvador.  A 2005 report by U.S. hydrologist Robert Moran reviewed Pacific Rim’s Environmental Impact Assessment for the El Dorado project and determined that it “would not be acceptable to regulatory agencies in most developed countries.” 

 “It’s been crucial to have independent reviews of Pacific Rim’s activities in El Salvador,” said Emily Carpenter, director of U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities.  “We see just how much is missing from the company’s public disclosure.  The “Gold, Guns, and Choice” report should be taken seriously by government officials and industry leaders.”

 Following the Salvadoran government declining to grant the company mining exploitation permits for the El Dorado project, Pacific Rim filed a lawsuit under the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), suing the government of El Salvador for the amount of their investment in the country as well as lost future profits, seeking “hundreds of millions of dollars.”