pacific rim

The third assassination of anti-mining/environmental organizers in the state of Cabañas claimed the life of Dora “Alicia” Recinos Sorto on Dec. 26, 2009. This comes on the heels of the second assassination no more than a week ago in the same state of Cabañas in El Salvador. Both of these victims were involved in the Environmental Committee of Cabañas. This organization has been on the forefront of the anti-mining struggle and has been the target of intimidation and multiple assassinations in the last year.

For years Pacific Rim, a mining company based in Vancouver, Canada, has been pushing to reopen the El Doardo mine in El Salvador against the will of the people and their government. Now the company is suing the Salvadoran government for $77 million.
On October 21st, the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (cispes) hosted Miguel Rivera, an activist from El Salvador, who spoke about the struggle to assert the rights of the people over those of the corporation. Rivera is the founder and current vice president of the Association of Friends of San Isidro (asic).

Rivera is from the town of San Isidro in the region called the Cabañas, where Pacific Rim acquired the El Dorado mine site in 2002 and began an intrusive exploration process to determine the amount of gold and silver in the hills.

In 2004, the company applied to the Salvadoran government to have their exploration license converted to an exploitation license (yes, it’s actually called an exploitation license) but was denied because of widespread opposition to the mining project.