Pacific Rim are a Canadian multinational firm seeking to exploit the "El Dorado" gold deposits in El Salvador's rural north.
In a July 22 Dissent Magazine article, Michael Busch said the corporation began operations at the invitation of the neoliberal Arena party government, which issued exploration permits in 2002.
Since 2005, the Cabañas community have organised against Pacific Rim because of the concerns about water and soil pollution from the mining operations.
Busch said: "Miners use cyanide-laced water to extract gold from subterranean rock, which, experts contend, makes its way back to reserves tapped for drinking."
Community efforts successfully blocked Pacific Rim's from obtaining mining permits. The government led by Mauricio Funes, who came to power last year, has said it will not allow the mines to proceed.
Pacific Rim has responded by filing a lawsuit with the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) against the Salvadoran government.
Busch reported that Pacific Rim allege violations of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Busch said that because "Canada is not a signatory to CAFTA, Pacific Rim is not technically entitled to protections as it claims. Nevertheless, the corporation routed the lawsuit through a backdoor: its American-based subsidiary Pacific Rim Cayman LLC."
El Salvador is a very small, poor country. If the arbitration board rules in Pacific Rim's favour, El Salvador would be crippled by the US$100 million settlement payout asked by Pacific Rim.
Bush said: "[P]erhaps more troubling still, the verdict would send a signal to other multinationals in Central America that the law sides with corporate interests over the protection of local populations."
A January 13 statement from the US-based Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador published at Cispes.org said that "in recent months, it has proven especially dangerous to oppose mining in Cabañas, with a steady stream of attacks, death threats and attempted assassinations and kidnappings against community leaders and anti-mining activists".
The attorney-general, a member of Arena, maintains these are the result of common crime, despite one victim's murder being preceded by a separate attack he barely survived.
The rhetoric of "common crime" is frequently used to avoid the political implications of organised death-squad activity linked to Arena.
CISPES said: "Pacific Rim remains impassive, insensitive and wholly unaccountable for violence perpetrated against community members who've actively opposed the mine, completely denying any connection between the recent assassinations of anti-mining activists and its proposed mining projects."
CISPES has called on Pacific Rim to:
• Immediately withdraw from Cabanas and cease all efforts to mine gold from the El Dorado site. The company applied for mining permits and was rejected by the Salvadoran people and government. Pacific Rim has no business remaining in Cabanas.
• Immediately withdraw its lawsuit against the government of El Salvador. It is absolutely disgraceful for a company to sue a poor nation like El Salvador, especially when the Salvadoran people and government have every right to prevent cyanide gold extraction from destroying their lands and their communities.
• Cooperate fully with the official investigations surrounding the murders and other violations of human rights.
CISPES said: "It is time for Pacific Rim to heed the message of the Salvadoran and international communities: drop the lawsuit and withdraw from Cabanas!"
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