My awesome friend Amanda arrived last night, but unfortunately her luggage did not arrive. Alexis, a friend of Julie´s from her church got here yesterday afternoon (with her luggage). Another young lady, Hannah, will arrive tonight after being stuck in Miami for a whole day after her flight yesterday was canceled. The five us us young ladies will spend the next 8 days together doing all sorts of cool stuff. And then I have to go home, but I´m not dealing with that thought yet...
Today we went with Bishop Gomez to a remembrance celebration for an anti-mining environmental activist that was assassinated one year ago. In El Salvador the first year anniversary of a death is a big deal that is usually remembered with a church service. And for this activist, Marcelo Rivera, the anniversary of his death is an even bigger deal in the context of the continuing battle being fought against mining. We went to the town of San Isidro in the department of Cabañas which was about an hour and a half drive from the capital.
The issue gold mining in Cabañas is complex and there is already a lot of good information out there (Democracy Now, UpsideDown World, Tim´s Blog), but here are the basic details... The Pacific Rim Mining Corporation is a Canadian mining company based in Vancouver. They have been in El Salvador for several years now trying to mine gold. The Salvadoran government granted permits for Pacific Rim to explore the area to see how much gold is there, but thus far the government has said that it will not give them permits to actually begin extracting gold. The government is refusing to give extraction permits in response to the efforts of people in community organizations and environmental groups that have clearly expressed that they do not want Pacific Rim to be mining in the area where they live.
There are a number of problems that come with mining for precious metals like gold. The main problem is that mining destroys the environment. The water supply gets used up and the water and soil are contaminated with chemicals that come from extracting gold from the earth. For the Salvadorans who depend heavily on the land to survive, these environmental problems become problems of life and death. Pacific Rim conducted an environmental study and claims that they can mine without the environment problems, but no other mining company has been able to do what Pacific Rim claims they will be able to do. Pacific Rim also claims that they will be bringing development and progress to El Salvador by providing jobs, and while it is true they will provide jobs these will be dangerous and low paying jobs. The real benefits of the gold mining will go to Pacific Rim not the people of El Salvador. When the Salvadoran government said they would not give permits for mining, Pacific Rim was understandably upset because of the investment they had already made. So Pacific Rim sued the Salvadoran government through the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). This is where Pacific Rim got real sneaky. Canada is not a part of CAFTA, so what they did was they acquired a subsidiary in Nevada and through this subsidiary they were able to use CAFTA to their advantage. Proceedings for the CAFTA suit began in the beginning of June and we´ll see what happens...
In all this mess, three leaders in the anti-mining campaign have been assassinated. Last June, Marcelo Rivera disappeared, and 11 days later his body was found at the bottom of a well with signs that he had been tortured. Then in December, Ramiro Rivera Gomez and Dora Alicia Sorto were assassinated a few days apart. Both were also leaders in the anti-mining campaign. Dora Alicia Recinos was 8 months pregnant and this baby was killed as well.
Pacific Rim claims that these murders are simply gang violence or violence between feuding families. However, these murders are clearly a systemic attempt to intimidate and eliminate the leaders of the anti-mining movement in Cabañas. No one can deny that there was violence in Cabañas before Pacific Rim began exploration of the mine, but the fact is that the violence has increased significantly as a result of the presence of Pacific Rim. Other people who have been active in the fight against Pacific Rim have received death threats.
There is hope for the people of Cabañas though. Government leaders have called for a full investigation into the murders to find the authors of these horrific crimes. The Salvadoran president, Mauricio Funes, has said that he will not give a permit to any company to mine in El Salvador. A group has even called on Salvadoran law makers to create legislation that would prohibit any mining of any precious metals. Local groups opposed to the mining have been very successful in preventing Pacific Rim from opening their mines. The recent violence has served as a spark that has generated even more support and awareness of the environmental groups opposing the mining.
However, it seems as if Pacific Rim will allow the violence to continue and escalate as long as there is a possibility that they will be able to make some money off their investment. Whether or not Pacific Rim has had a direct role in the violence, it is clear that their continued presence has brought on and intensified the violence. Pacific Rim must recognize the role they have played in the violence and must do whatever they can to stop the violence even if that means they have to leave the country.
The responsibility for this violence does not fall solely on Pacific Rim though. Our very own free trade agreements have a significant roll in this violence. We usually hear nothing but good things about free trade, but the truth is that there are many bad things about free trade that we don´t hear about. Free trade agreements like CAFTA and NAFTA give so much power to large corporations. The corporations even have more power than governments like the government of El Salvador who in this case is trying to protect its citizens. Clearly we need to take a second look at our free trade agreements and determine what the costs and benefits are. There are some very huge costs.
As we drove into town today we met the procession that had already started. Bishop Gomez, a few other pastors, and the rest of our random group joined in the procession. We marched to the beat of the drummers to the town square. There a tent was set up for the church service. This was an ecumenical celebration- Lutheran, Anglican, and Catholic leaders joined together in this remembrance of Marcelo. There were probably at least 300 people there, probably more.
The pastors and priests spoke of Marcelo Rivera and the others who had been assassinated as martyrs. The martyrs were compared to Jesus. Just like Jesus, Marcelo was killed for speaking out against the status quo of injustice. He was killed for speaking the truth. He died fighting for peace and life for all. He was assassinated for trying to protect God´s creation and especially for trying to protect the humans that God created in God´s own image.
Just as Jesus´ death wasn´t the end of the story, Marcelo´s death was the the end of this story. Rather his death urged others to continue on with the work that Marcelo was killed for doing. Today we were encouraged to continue to fight for life and for dignity for all people despite the power that death seems to have.
I was reminded once again today that the violence continues in El Salvador. The war was over 18 years ago yet this violence is far too similar to the disappearances, assassinations, and torture that occurred during the war.
The good news in all his is that Christians of all denominations continue to speak out against violence in all its forms in El Salvador. I was amazed by how beautiful it was for these leaders of different denominations to join together to show their solidarity and common hope that one day there might be peace, truth, and justice. We prayed for peace, for justice, and for life. I sure hope God answers this prayer soon.
