THURSDAY, MAY 27, 4:00 PM

@ Westlake Plaza – 4th Ave. between Pine & Pike, downtown Seattle. We will march to Rep. McDermott’s office (7th Ave. between Stewart and Olive) for a demonstration and street theater.

Click here for more info on the Day of Action:

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Tell Pacific Rim Mining to drop its lawsuit against the Salvadoran government!

After community organizing efforts successfully persuaded the Salvadoran government to block Pacific Rim’s gold mining permits, the company filed a lawsuit against the government under the rules of CAFTA, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Legal proceedings in the case are set to begin in the coming weeks.

El Salvador’s environmental movement has called for international pressure on Pacific Rim Mining, demanding that the company drop its lawsuit and respect the sovereign right of El Salvador to protect its own environment and public health by putting the brakes on metallic mining.

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TAKE ACTION TODAY!
Call Barbara Henderson, Vice President of Investor Relations at Pacific Rim Mining in Vancouver, Canada.
To call from the U.S., dial 1-888-775-7097, then press 1.
DEMAND THAT PACIFIC RIM DROP THE LAWSUIT. CALL SCRIPT IS BELOW.

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In addition to the financial threat Pacific Rim’s lawsuit poses to the Salvadoran people, the controversy surrounding the company’s continued presence in the country is provoking violent repression of those who oppose mining in the Department of Cabañas. 2009 was marked by a steady stream of attacks, death threats, attempted assassinations and kidnappings against community leaders and anti-mining activists. Just before the New Year, two more community leaders were murdered within a week, bringing the death toll of anti-mining activists in Cabañas to three in 2009:

• December 26: Dora “Alicia” Sorto Recinos was murdered by gunfire. She was eight months pregnant and carrying her two-year old child, who was also injured. Sorto Recinos was a member of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas.
• December 20: Ramiro Rivera, vice-president of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas, was gunned down in front of his daughter. His neighbor Felicíta Echeverría was also killed in the attack.
• June 30: Anti-mining and FMLN party activist Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found tortured and murdered in an empty well in Cabañas after his disappearance eleven days prior.

This recent wave of violence has been specifically targeted at those who oppose Pacific Rim’s El Dorado mine. The community and the government have rejected the company’s plans as environmentally, socially and economically inviable. On Tuesday January 12, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes stated “my government will not authorize any mining exploitation project.” Yet Pacific Rim remains in El Salvador – why?

It’s time for Pacific Rim to heed the message of the Salvadoran people and the international solidarity movement: Drop the lawsuit and withdraw from Cabañas!

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To call from the U.S., dial 1-888-775-7097, then press 1.
SAMPLE SCRIPT:

“Hello. I have been following Pacific Rim’s El Dorado mine and am extremely disturbed by the recent news of assassinated community members. These individuals were part of local organizations that have been actively opposing the El Dorado mine since 2004. I call on CEO and President Thomas Shrake and Pacific Rim’s board of directors to recognize the social conflict the mine is causing and to make the moral decision to:

1. Immediately withdraw from Cabañas 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 Cabañas.
2. 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.
3. Cooperate fully with the official investigations surrounding the murders of Alicia Sorto Recinos, Ramiro Rivera and Marcelo Rivera. Violence is tearing apart Cabañas, and Pacific Rim has every obligation to offer its full support to bring to justice the perpetrators of these murdered community members, all of whom have openly opposed the El Dorado mine.

Thank you.”

Ramiro Rivera Gómez, vice-president of CAC (Comité Ambiental de Cabañas/ the Environmental Committee of Cabañas) and a local leader in the community struggle against the environmentally-destructive gold mining projects proposed by the North American mining company Pacific Rim, was assassinated on Sunday, December 20, in the Trinidad neighborhood of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas where he lived.

Héctor Berríos reports that Ramiro Rivera was killed by hitmen carrying M-16 rifles. Ramiro’s thirteen-year old daughter who was with him on Sunday afternoon was also injured but is reportedly in stable condition.

On August 7 of this year, Ramiro Rivera was shot 8 times, but survived the vicious attack. Oscar Menjívar, previously implicated in physical attacks on anti-mining activists, was arrested and charged with Ramiro’s attempted murder. Community members report that Menjívar had previously worked for Canadian mining company Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim denies that he has ever been an employee.

Since his recovery, Mr. Rivera had been under the protection of two police officers from the Witnesses and Victims Protection Unit of the National Civilian Police. On the afternoon of December 20th, they were apparently unable to protect him.

Since June 2009, when anti-mining activist Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found tortured and killed in Cabañas, there have been continued attacks, death threats and attempted kidnappings of community members and activists who have vehemently opposed the proposed El Dorado gold mine. The Ministry of Environment denied mining exploitation permits to Pacific Rim, a Vancouver-based mining company, which subsequently announced a lawsuit amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars against the Salvadoran government under CAFTA, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (watch the Real News video here).

Despite the overtly political overtones of this wave of violence, local police authorities and the Attorney General’s office have classified these cases as common crimes. Salvadorans are fearful and outraged by the continued violence, but also by the inability or unwillingness of the police and the office of the Attorney General to protect community activists like Ramiro Rivera and to halt the violence.

Join the international response to this repression of anti-mining organizers in Cabañas TODAY. Call on the Salvadoran authorities to carry out an exhaustive investigation of these crimes and their motives.

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TAKE ACTION:

1) E-mail Rodolfo Delgado, head of the Organized Crime unit of the Attorney General’s Office (Sample e-mail text at the end of this alert) radelgado@fgr.gob.sv. Please copy Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna to your email, via his front desk: heidybrizuela@pddh.gob.sv

2) Please forward a copy of your sent email to cispes@cispes.org

SAMPLE E-MAIL (English translation below):

Estimado Señor Rodolfo Delgado:

Como miembro de la comunidad internacional, quiero expresar mi profunda preocupación por lo más reciente hecho de violencia contra un líder social en Cabañas, el asesinato de Ramiro Rivera Gómez. Después de que él fue baleado ocho veces en agosto del 2009, fue bajo la protección de la Unidad de Protección de Víctimas y Testigos de la Policía Nacional Civil.

El asesinato de Ramiro Rivera parece otro hecho de violencia sistemático que ha traspasado en Cabañas desde el junio de este año: el secuestro y brutal asesinato del activista Gustavo Marcelo Rivera; las amenazas de muerte a periodistas de Radio Victoria, al director de la Asociación de DesarrolloEconómico y Social Santa Marta (ADES) y a varios líderes comunitarios de Cabañas; el sabotaje al sistema electrónico de Radio Victoria; y los intentos de asesinato de los líderes comunitarios, Padre Luis Quintanilla y Ramiro Rivera.

Considero que existen suficientes evidencias para presumir que el asesinato de Ramiro Rivera y los demás crímenes están relacionados y forman parte de una campaña para intimidar a las organizaciones sociales en Cabañas. Es preocupante que la Fiscalía, bajo la dirección de Ástor Escalante, adjudicó a priori estos crímenes a la violencia común, ignorando las evidencias y antecedentes presentados que indican la naturaleza política de los eventos.

Por lo tanto como miembro de la comunidad internacional, hago un llamado para que ahora bajo la dirección del nuevo Fiscal General de la República Romeo Barahona, la Fiscalía realice una investigación imparcial, exhaustiva y efectiva en el caso del asesinato de Ramiro Rivera y de todos estos casos, para dar a conocer a los autores intelectuales y materiales de estos crímenes y garantizar así la protección de los líderes sociales en la región de forma verdadera.

Después del asesinato de Marcelo Rivera en junio, más de cien organizaciones de los Estados Unidos y Canadá mandaron una carta a la Fiscalía expresando su preocupación grave con los atropellos a los derechos humanos. También el Congresista Jim McGovern de los Estados Unidos expresó la misma preocupación en reuniones con el Señor Fiscal General, Romeo Barahona, y representantes de la Administración del Señor Presidente Mauricio Funes, durante su visita reciente a El Salvador.

También le estoy mandando una copia de este mensaje al señor Procurador para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, licenciado Oscar Humberto Luna, quien ha mostrado un compromiso fuerte para proteger la seguridad y los derechos humanos de los líderes sociales en Cabañas.

De quedar estos eventos en la impunidad, se estaría generando un clima de temor e incertidumbre para los demás líderes comunitarios, contrarrestando así los avances logrados en el proceso de democratización del país.

Agradezco de antemano sus gestiones para agilizar las investigaciones y espero que pronto se haga justicia en estos casos y se brinde protección a las víctimas y reparación a los familiares de Ramiro.

[Tu nombre/ Your name]

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Translation of Email:

As a member of the international community, I want to express my profound concern about the most recent act of violence toward a community leader in Cabañas: the assassination of Ramiro Rivera Gómez. After being shot eight times in August, Mr. Rivera was under the protection of the Victims and Witnesses Protection Unit of the National Civilian Police.

The assassination of Ramiro Rivera appears to be another systematic act of violence that has occurred in Cabañas since June of this year: the kidnapping and brutal assassination of the activist Gustavo Marcelo Rivera; the death threats against journalists at Radio Victoria, the director of the Association for Social and Economic Development (ADES) and other community leaders in Cabañas; the sabotage of the broadcasting equipment at Radio Victoria; and the assassination attempt against the community leaders Father Luis Quintanilla and Ramiro Rivera.

I believe there is sufficient evidence to assume that Ramiro Rivera’s murder and the other crimes are linked and part of a campaign to intimidate community organizations in Cabañas. It is alarming that the Attorney General’s Office under the direction of former acting Attorney General Ástor Escalante attributed these crimes to common violence, ignoring the evidence and antecedents that indicate the political nature of these events.

Therefore as a member of the international community, I now call on the Attorney General’s Office under the leadership of new Attorney General Romeo Barahona to carry out impartial, exhaustive and effective investigations of the assassination of Ramiro Rivera and all of these crimes in order to bring to justice the intellectual and material authors of these crimes and guarantee the protection of other community leaders in the region.

After the assassination of Marcelo Rivera in June, over 100 organizations in the U.S. and Canada sent a letter to the Attorney General’s office expressing their serious concern about the human rights abuses. Representative Jim McGovern of the U.S. Congress expressed the same concern in his meetings with Mr. Attorney General Romeo Barahona and with representatives of the administration of Mr. President Mauricio Funes during his recent visit to El Salvador.

I am sending a copy of this message to the Human Rights Ombudsman, Mr. Oscar Luna, who has shown a strong commitment to protect the security and human rights of social movement leaders in Cabañas.

Leaving these crimes in a state of impunity creates a climate of fear and uncertainty for the rest of the community leaders, undermining the advances in the democratic process in El Salvador.

I thank you in advance for your efforts to speed up the investigations and I hope that there will soon be justice in these cases and that the victims’ lives will be protected and Ramiro’s family will be compensated for their loss.

[Your name]

Hurricane Ida hit El Salvador on Saturday, November 7, devastating the country, especially the capital of San Salvador and the departments of San Vicente and Cuscatlán. Though 13,000 families were evacuated, there are already 150 deaths reported as a result of landslides and massive flooding. Hundreds of homes have been completely destroyed and thousands more damaged.

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes has called on the international community to support the rescue and disaster relief efforts. Brazil and Guatemala have been the first to respond, followed by Cuba, Japan, Panama, and Venezuela, as well as the European Union and the United Nations.

Hugo Martinez, Minster of Foreign Relations, stated, “The Salvadoran people are not alone. We have had the voice of solidarity from various countries in the world … and this help will be immediately channeled.”

Please help by making a donation today!

CISPES will send donations to community organizations working on relief and reconstruction efforts in El Salvador. ¡Muchas gracias!

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1:00 P.M.
King County Courthouse – 516 3rd Ave, 10th floor, Seattle (between James & Jefferson)

More from the Washington Immigrant Rights Action Coalition, of which Seattle CISPES is a proud member:

On Monday, November 9th, the King County Council will finally hear and vote upon Ordinance 2009-0393, which will extend access to necessary services and benefits, and grant fair and equal access for all residents, regardless of citizenship, nationality, or legal resident status.

After two and half years of organizing with your individual and organizational support, we will finally have the floor. We will be able to show the tremendous amount of support and offer public testimony to ensure that this proposed ordinance becomes law. You’ve been with us throughout this campaign, and now we are requesting your participation in the hearing on Monday, November 9th.

Please join at 9:00am as the Committee of the Whole entertains this legislation. Additionally, or if you are unable to join us in the morning, please join us at 1:00pm, as the King County Council will hear the testimony of the community, and then, hopefully, will proceed to a vote. With your support we can ensure that the Committee votes on the ordinance! While any amount of support is appreciated, we encourage you to join us for the entirety of Monday’s session.

Now more than ever, it is important that we codify these policies into law. The protection of an individual’s citizenship and immigration status is crucial to creating the trust and cooperation necessary between law enforcement officials and communities to heighten crime prevention and public safety.

Please contact the Washington Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (washingtonIRAC@gmail.com) with any questions about Monday’s hearing, and let us now how many members of your organization will be attending. Our goal is to bring 150 members of the community to the courthouse.

Thank you for your ongoing support.