YES to life, NO to mining! – Delegation trip to and

Part 1: El Salvador from 2nd to 10th of November 2015

Before we get to meet the people of , friends from our Salvadorian partner organisation CRIPDES take us for a tour across the small Central American country – as a preparation for the plebiscite on November 8th. We get an impression of the consequences of past mining projects and on the current resistance.

A trip report by Anna Backmann and Christian Wimberger

As we step into Bernardo Belloso’s office in on November 3rd, some numbers on a whiteboard catch our attention: 99%, 98%, and 99,25%. They are the vote results of referenda against mining held in El Salvador. Three municipalities have already voted NO – and almost unanimously so. Therefore the expectations for the referendum in Arcatao are high as well,. “Of course this time we want to reach 100%”, president of CRIPDES Bernando Belloso says, as if it were obvious. CRIPDES has been a partner organization of CIR (Christian Initiative Romero) for a long time, and since the beginning of the 1980s it has worked hard for the rights of the rural population. “In the end we have put a lot of work in the sensitization of the population and the preparation of the referendum”, Bernardo says. CRIPDES has been carrying out referenda since September 2014, in order to put an early stop to potential mining projects in the region, and to convince the Members of Congress of the necessity of an anti- mining law.

The unanimity with which the people in the little farming towns in the mountains of the Department of Chalatenango resist the destructive gold mining has impressed us since the beginning of our international campaign “Stop Mad Mining”. We wanted to learn which motivations lay behind the resistance. Therefore we decided to take part in the international delegation of observers of the referendum to be held in the 2000-souls-Arcatao. Together with the American NGO Sister Cities, CRIPDES organized the trip in which volunteers from Canada, the United States, France, Denmark, Italy, and Germany were involved. Invited by CIR, journalists Oliver Ristau and Charlotte Grieser, as well as documentary-maker Lisa Backmann, accompanied us.

Participants of the delegation trip

Cyanide-containers and polluted water in San Sebastian

Before we get to meet the people of Arcatao, friends from our Salvadorian partner organisation CRIPDES take us for a tour across the small Central American country – as a preparation for the referendum on November 8th. We get an impression of the consequences of past mining projects and on the current resistance.

November 5th – We travel with our delegation to an ex gold mine, 200 km to the East of San Salvador. In the mine of San Sebastian in the Department of La Unión the US company Commerce Group mined gold until the outbreak of the armed conflict at the beginning of the 1980s. We go up a steep gravel road with our minibus. Along the road there are little houses between the corn fields. A small but torrential river flows parallel to the street. On the banks women wash, and kids bath. Behind a bridge we get off the bus and meet Gustavo Blanco, a community leader. He demands from the state and the company the removal of mining damages. “They extracted tons of gold from the ground, but the only things that were left for us were poverty and environmental destruction”, the farmer complains in the midday heat. We learn that both the river and the soil are contaminated by heavy metals, and we are therefore shocked when we are told that during the rainy seasons kids bath in the river. Six cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome have already occurred; this disease strongly attacks the nervous and immune systems. “The company has not provided the supply of clean water to the population. Instead, now we have to buy the expensive water that comes in bottles”, the 58-year-old says, who used to be employed by the company. We go even higher up the mountain, until we reach a plateau where the installations of the firm used to be located. Behind a cordoned area we see three big containers.

We squeeze through holes in the fence and we enter the site. Gustavo is convinced that the big recipients still contain the highly-toxic cyanide solution that was used in industrial processes to extract the gold from the rocks. Up to now, no one from the municipality has dared to open the containers. Neither the state nor the company seem to feel responsible for the waste disposal. The Mesa Nacional Frente la Minería Metálica (National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining), the anti- mining movement in El Salvador, always refers to San Sebastian to show the damages mining projects can leave behind, even decades they have been shut down. Companies leave, as soon as the profits have been exhausted, and they do not worry anymore about their toxic leftovers.

Ex gold mine. Photo: CIR

Gustavo Blanco demands that the state and companies repair the environmental damages. Photo: CIR

After the closing of the mine in the 80s the San Sebastian river continues to be highly contaminated. Photo: CIR

The company Commerce Group did not undertake any efforts to repair the environmental damages. It didn't even remove the old cyanide containers. Photo: CIR

OceanaGold in Cabañas: terror and favours

At the moment there is no running mining project in El Salvador. And most communities do not expect that under the left FMLN-government a mining license will be granted. But what if the right, economic liberal ARENA party comes to power again? Over many communities hangs a sword of Damocles. As in La Maraña, in the Department of Cabanas. For years the Australian company OceanaGold, previously Pacific Rim with headquarters in Canada, has exerted pressure on the people of the community. And on the government. OceanaGold tries through all means to obtain a mining license. After the company failed to comply with environmental regulations, the government refused to grant a final exploitation license. As a result, in 2009 the firm sued El Salvador before the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes of the World Bank for 301 million dollars on damages and compensation for lost profits. Even though the final hearings took place last year, the court has still not any verdict made public.

The local population is under even more pressure from OceanaGold than the central government. We get an impression of this when we visit La Maraña, on November 6th. This is the place where the successor of Pacific Rim wants to mine. We meet with the representatives of the environmental movement on a covered terrace that has a view of the reservoir of the Lempa River. Activist Don Alejandro explains to us which strategy the company follows: “It is a Modus Operandi of the firm to go to the communities in which people do not know their rights. They take advantage of the ignorance of the population”.

Pacific Rim, or rather OceanaGold, has bought public officials and politicians, Alejandro tells us. In those places where resistance emerged, terror was the answer. “They killed three of our activists”. One of these is Marcelo Rivera, murdered in 2009. At the organization ADES we meet Miguel Rivera for an interview; he is the brother of the victim. Marcelo had stood up against mining projects in many different ways, for example through education projects and theatrical performances. His brother assures us that the perpetrators have been apprehended, but not the masterminds behind the murder: “The mining firms operate here, as in the rest of Latin America, like regular secret services. They are like theater directors, controlling their actors”. Many in the anti-mining movement suspect Rodrigo Chávez, the ex-vice-president of Pacific Rim, to be behind the murders. Chávez is known in El Salvador as “the Ripper”. In September 2014 he personally killed a municipal employee, and then he dismembered his body. For the social movements, the fact that at the end of November the convicted murderer was released from custody is “a terrible sign of immunity from criminal prosecution”. In March 2015 Chávez was initially condemned to eleven years of imprisonment, after the charge and the sentence had been reduced. The release of Rodrigo Chávez makes the already absurd case of the mining-related murders even more outrageous.

After these narrations of terror we naturally expect the whole population to disapprove of the company. But we had to be convinced of the opposite. In Cabañas we notice with regret that the firm has managed to divide the population. OceanaGold has created the El Dorado foundation, through which it supposedly behaves as a benefactor and it buys the population with pseudo-CSR-measures. So the foundation distributes free “gifts” to the community, such as free doctor’s visits. Afterwards it forces families to pose for photographs with the foundation’s workers. But organizations like ADES continue to do a good job in awareness raising efforts. Vidalina Morales from ADES has been coordinating the resistance in the region for years. Even young people participate in the movement, like Beatriz from La Maraña. She informs the population about the real intentions and interests of the company.

The environmental activists from La Maraña. On the left: Don Alejandro, 3rd on the left: Beatriz. Photo: CIR.

Miguel Rivera demands the full investigation of the murder of his brother Marcelo. Photo: CIR

Vidalina Morales is one of the most important representatives from the anti-mining movement in El Salvador. Photo: CIR

Consequences of mining. Photo: CIR

Referendum in Arcatao: 100% missed by a whisker!

In the neighboring Department of Chalatenango the situation is completely different. There the population is almost unanimously against mining. This has been shown in an impressive way in the three previous referenda. In the region, local resistance in the form of guerrilla- movements was very strong during the armed conflict of the 1980s. The population paid for their fight against the military dictatorship with many lives. In the Sumpul massacre alone, which happened near the village of Arcatao, the military and the paramilitary killed over 300 farmers. The political legacy of the resistance is to be seen on murals all over the village. Even the archbishop Oscar Romero, assassinated in 1980, appears to be still present in the typical paintings, as elsewhere in El Salvador. The collective memory of the persecution of social movements, which represented a threat to “national security”, plays an important role for the anti-mining resistance.

“During the Civil War, people were closed off from any opportunity of political participation”, Rodolfo Rivera López explains to us. “Now the tool of the referendum has become a habit to resist mining”. Rodolfo shows us the wonderful landscape of Chalatenango. After a 30-minute- hike we have climbed the Patacón mountain, and we enjoy the view.

Here, the company Au Martinique wants to mine gold and other metals such as uranium. The government had given an exploration permit to the Canadian mining company, which today goes under the name of Aura Silver Resources, without consulting the population first. “Life here would become very difficult, if mining projects were to happen”, Rodolfo says. Many families here live self-sufficiently on agriculture, some sell part of their production. Even some of the families who house delegation participants produce almost everything they need to support themselves: corn for the tortillas, beans for soup and millet for the animals. Maximina, one of the village inhabitants, even makes her own soap with her daughters : they produce it from a fruit that her husband cultivates in the field. People are proud of their self-sufficient lives and they do not want to sell off their land to the company, no matter the price. They are glad to see us take part in the referendum process, and host us with pleasure in their homes.

The referendum day, November 8th, begins for us vote observers at five in the morning. After meticulous preparations of the young voting-helpers, the first village inhabitants can cast their vote in one of the nine different polling stations. And all this happens under the sizzling sunshine. Some voters, especially elders, need help to read the ballot paper. After the mass, people crowd in front of the ballot-boxes. During the sermon, the village priest has encouraged the citizens to vote NO. When the mass is over, he builds a human chain together with the village inhabitants. They stand on a mural that was decorated by young artists with a mural against mining. In this very moment we took one of the most beautiful photos of our trip.

Back in front of the town hall we spot José Serrano even from far away, proudly holding his ballot paper in the air from behind the ballot box, as to clearly show the crossed NO on the paper. “I have held up my vote to show the world the community’s effort to keep transnational companies away”, he says afterwards. In the midday press conference, besides members of the Mesa Nacional Frente la Minería Metálica, El Salvador’s Ombudsman for Human Rights Yanira Cortez Estévez takes the floor too. In her opinion, the government has violated the right of the citizens, when it granted an exploration permit to the mining company Au Martinique without consulting the population first.

Impressions of the referendum. Photo: CIR

Photo: CIR

Human chain against mining. Photo: CIR

Photo: CIR

After the vote, still a long way to go

Soon after the closure of the polling stations, given the impressive outcome and a referendum without incidents, the mayor can declare his community a “Mining-Free Territory”: 99,6% of the voters said NO! However for CRIPDES the work is not over, even if the consultation is. “The local council now has to adopt a bylaw against mining. Therefore we have to hold the commitment of the population straight”, Bernardo from CRIPDES says. The organization wants to carry out other referenda in the next years, in order to accomplish a coherent mining-free region. The fact that the company will not accept the population’s rejection so easily is made clear by a visit by the former US-president Bill Clinton to San Salvador, on the same day. He was accompanied for his lobby meeting by Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining tycoon who in the past has been linked to questionable mining deals in Colombia and Kazakhstan. Part 2: Guatemala from 11th to 17th of November 2015

After the delegation trip to El Salvador, the documentary filmmaker Lisa Backmann and Christian Wimberger from CIR travel to Guatemala. In contrast to El Salvador, here mining projects are actively taking place. They are leading to social conflicts like violence and harm the environment e.g. by contaminating water sources. Mainly gold and silver are extracted but also other metals like Nickel and rare earth metals. According to the Guatemalan ministry of economics, in 2014 alone Guatemala exported Nickel to the European Union valued at US-Dollar 46 million. We visit the country to have a closer look at the effects of the mining industry.

A trip report by Christian Wimberger

Crater of mine of Marlín. Photo: CIR

Toxic sludge in a lake, man-made by Goldcorp. Photo: CIR November 11th – we drive seven hours from Guatemala City to the north-western situated high plain. We want to reach San Marcos, capital of the province with the same name. In this area the oldest mining project of Guatemala is located. The roadside is littered with election advertising. Presidential elections took place just in September, because ex-president Otto Pérez Molina together with his vice chairwoman and a whole string of political companions were arrested for corruption.

On his election posters, the new president Jimmy Morales promises “neither to be corrupt nor to be a thief”. Large parts of the population have high hopes for the new head of state who was a professional comedian in the past. “But he is supported by the same soldiers and economic elite” says our driver Eddy. Also the economic impact direction will not change. On top of the agenda are large-scale projects such as cement factories, dams and mining projects. Mines operated by North American groups have been provoking social conflict for more than ten years. State and private security forces repress any resistance brutally. Ex-president Pérez declared the mining conflicts to a threat to national security.

Divide and rule!

In San Marcos we visit our partner organization MTC (Movimiento de Trabajadores Campesinos – movement of rural workers). MTC is an umbrella association of different basic movements that wants to strengthen employment and the human rights situation of the indigenous population in the high plain. After meeting the organization team MTC-activist Don Justo is driving with us to the mine of Marlín, high through the mountainous and foggy landscape.

“The Canadian company Goldcorp told lies right from start. It wanted to make the community of San Miguel Ixtahuacán believe that it is a company that produces flowers to export and promotes biodiversity” says Don Justo. In 2005, Goldcorp began mining gold, silver, tin, lead, iron and copper. However, the company had to attract the support of regional elites before. Goldcorp presented the mayors of surrounding villages with money and land. With similar strategies it had split complete families. On its website Goldcorp Guatemala advertises with “the human side of mining” (“el lado humano de mina”) and jobs for local population. But the reality is different: “The company destroyed social relations within the community. It had specifically incited sons who work for Goldcorp against fathers who defend their land” says Don Justo. According to the activist, “Apocalyptic monster” is the best way to describe the company.

With the pickup truck we approach the mine. But first we visit Olegario Velásquez. He lives in a small settlement nearby the mine. After blowing up tunnels, his land subsided two meters and is not anymore usable for agriculture. One year has passed since the livelihood of this old man was taken away. Something of that kind never happened before. “The mine wastes vast amounts of water so that the groundwater level has declined radically” says the 74 years old man. Already on the evening before, Don Justo told us that people “like in Africa must fetch their drinking water from afar“ – in a region with no supply problems as yet. Olegario Velásquez publicly accuses the mine operators not only because of his personal damage. He is generally concerned about effects on municipalities. Therefore he participates in protest actions in other Central American countries.

Some of his relatives accompany us on our tour through the mine. After a few minutes, in a distance of several kilometers, we see the open crater of surface mining the first time. The gigantic hole is remarkably green. “The mine operators partially covered the mine with non- endemic grass that spreads invasively. Under the grass is the spoil that is contaminated with cyanide and heavy metals” says Don Justo. Our companions are telling us that Goldcorp is about to terminate surface mining and continue mining underground. Actually, the permit for the mining project will expire soon. But there are rumours that they are hoping to prolong it by decades.

Olegario Velásquez lost his livelihood: After blowing up tunnels, his land subsided two meters and is no longer fit for agriculture. Photo: Lisa Backmann

Poverty and contamination

When we drive round the mine we pass through small villages. In between there are modest houses. We drive past women who carry firewood on their backs. Don Justo rebels again and again: “Is this the development the company promised us?” Like most Maya municipalities in the region, the indigenous people of San Miguel Ixtahuacán get very little state aid. The consequences are poverty and malnutrition. Therefore, several villagers welcome food aid donation from the company. Goldcorp also finances some social projects, such as a small school. Its windows look like the company logo. In their education, the pupils shall be convinced of the benefits of the mine. We hardly have time to take photos of the school. As soon as the inhabitants find us, we have to go back to our car immediately and drive on. Don Justo explains: “The mine operates like a traditional coffee finca. The patrons settle the people right around the mine and use them as guardians.”

We are now near by the tunnels and halls where metals are separated from rock. The noise of the mills and the trucks is deafening. Through a piece of woodland we look directly at a runway for private jets. Behind it, there is a huge lake of sludge where the toxic slag is deposited. The workers can approach the sludge containing cyanide only with breathing masks. Neighboring municipalities do not have this modest privilege. The organization E-Tech International confirmed the air pollution in a report. According to Don Justo, community members sometimes witnessed how Goldcorp discharges toxic sludge in the river early in the morning. “If you drink it, you are a dead man!” Don Justo states clearly. The pollution of the rivers Quivichil and Tzalá with the metals arsenic, copper, aluminum and magnesium was documented in an environmental study of Comisión Pastoral Paz y Ecología (COPAE). Both rivers flow to Chiapas in Mexico.

Activist Esperanza sensitizes the population for the impacts of mining (photo: CIR)

Prostitution and violence

We outpace the last, already sealed tunnel of the mine and leave the mining area. At the next stop, we interview Esperanza Lidia Esperanza and the 18-year-old Jaime from Sicapaca. They talk about the social problems the mines involved. Prostitution has increased sharply. Even the Maras, the youth gangs, that are jointly responsible for the extremely high rate of murder in , established in the region. In some cases they even threatened environmental activists. For Esperanza and Don Justo, the connection between Maras and Goldcorp are obvious. “We are still poor. Actually it is worse, because several men earned a lot of money and thereupon left their wives” says Esperanza who comes from the village Sipacapa near by the mine. Like a lot of other environmental activists, she does educational work on the effects of mining in this region. Neither Esperanza nor Don Justo will ever give up. “Sometimes, we think we are crazy because we think we have no chance against the company. But then we see that other communities elsewhere are fighting too. And then we figure out: we are not crazy” says Don Justo, smiling.

Environmental activists are the new targets of criminalization

The social movements that oppose the mining project in Guatemala are criminalized and pursued by the state security forces in many cases. In 2008, eight women were arrested in San Miguel Ixtuacán because of damage to property. They removed power lines off their own land which were illegally attached to the mine of Marlín. The increasing militarization affects enormously the scope of action by the environmental activists around the four huge running mining projects in Guatemala. We want to learn more about the role of state actors and of companies in the repression against social movement and return to the capital. There we speak with Yuri Melini of the organisation CALAS that especially provides legal assistance to activists and communities. She explains that Guatemala is not a traditional mining country like Chile, Bolivia or Mexico. But after the peace agreement of 1996, the economic development needed a new boost. “The Canadian and US cooperation as well as the Guatemalan elites imposed the extractive model on us. No one set up a cost-benefit analysis that contrasts the profits with ecological and social damages” explains the human right activist.

„Mining industries, Guatemala is watching you“ – a campaign by the organization CALAS. Photo: CIR

Yuri Melini from organisation CALAS does not stop fighting against mining after surviving an assassination attempt. Photo: CIR

The company Tahoe Resources established the “Foundation against the Terrorism” to defame activists. Photo: CIR The parallel states of mining companies: the mine of El Escobal

During the armed conflict (1960-1996), especially unionists and land rights activists were targets of criminalization and state or para-state persecution; after signing the peace agreement, activists who demanded a treatment process of crimes during the civil war became the new targets. Today, representatives of social movements who fight against large-scale projects such as farming of monocultures, dams or mines live in very dangerous conditions. In recent years, there were hundreds of attacks on these groups. Within the short timeframe of early 2014 until August 2015, fourteen activists have died. Yuri Melini of CALAS himself barely survived an assassination attempt in 2008. A still unknown perpetrator shot him eight times. The attempt was shortly after CALAS together with other organizations reached a partial success in constitutional court against the mining code. “This attempt was painful for me. But I realized quickly that I keep on fighting” says Melini decidedly.

Today, he supports the resistance against the mine of El Escobal in San Rafael in the southeast of the country. It was well organized right from the start when the Canadian company Tahoe Resources started with its work in 2012. At that time, the company did not havethe necessary permit; the communities took action with several peaceful roadblocks. Thereupon, the government militarized the whole region. In May 2013, it even imposed the state of emergency in order to massively restrict the fundamental rights of the population. At the same time, the Canadian company built their own parallel state and therefore Peruvian ex-soldiersm who are experienced in fighting against rebellion, came. . The company accused mayors of arson attack but according to Yuri Melini, the company started the fires. Thereupon activists were randomly arrested and spent several months in jail. However, they could not prove anything against them. At the same time, Tahoe Resources started a campaign of defamation by establishing the “foundation against terrorism” that denies the genocide of indigenous and farming population during the armed conflict and calls environmental activists criminals.

Referendum as an instrument of resistance

Despite the terror, communities managed to uphold resistance. The movement carried out several referendums in surrounding villages. “We established a new model of plebiscite: the people can vote as citizens under local law and no longer as indigenous people according to ILO convention 169” says Yuri Melini. Actually, the local council and the constitutional court acknowledged the referendum in Mataquescuintla as a first binding plebiscite. However, this decision does not clarify the legal situation because the central state like in other Latin American countries is the owner of subsoil. The company will exploit this ambiguity to carry on mining regardless of the consequences.

The company does not have a permit but nevertheless, it recently built a new basin for the toxic sludge. Photo: CIR

Disregarding the judgement: the work in the mine of El Tambor is ongoing. Photo: CIR

Everyday life in the protest camp. Photo: CIR

Police tent in the middle of the protest camp. In the front: a banner displaying the environmental impacts of mining. Photo: CIR

For nearly four years, the community has been keeping vigils in the camp. Photo: CIR

Members of the municipalities show us the mine. Photo: Lisa Backmann

Impressive resistance in La Puya

Our trip ends with a visit in La Puya, the municipality that caused the most international sensation due to resistance against the mining project. Together with a colleague of our partner organization Tzununija we drive from the capital to La Puya. We pass by a provisionally built police station where fifteen policemen keep watch. The protest camp of La Puya is just a few meters away. The villagers built provisional huts on both sides of the street. In the middle of the camp, there is a tent of the national police. The activists give us a friendly welcome and show us their protest banners. Some display the effects of mining: dead animals that drank water out of the sludge basins. Some ask the state to act: “We want the government to stop repression, criminalization and persecution of our peoples!” The entrance of the mining area is just a few meters away at the next junction.

Some campesinos want to climb the hill with us to show some parts of the mining project from afar. We are wondering: “Is the mine still in operation?” In particular, in July, a court decision caused a sensation demanding that the mine operators close the installation. “Yes, the work still goes on” says an older man. We crawl under the barbed wire fence and see hundreds of meters in front of us a newly built basin for the heavy metal sludge. The truck drivers close to the basin cannot see us. A few kilometers away, we see the diggers continuing with mining activities. We can clearly see: instead of stopping the work, the company has extended the installation. Neither a security guard behind the barrier of the mining area nor the police in front of the protest camp are willing to talk to us.

Ana resists peacefully in La Puya. Photo: Lisa Backmann

In this case, it is a US-American company behind the project. But the strategies of the group KCA are the same: they butter up local politicians and community members and oppress the resistance. In a group interview, some community members describe the history of their protest. “We blocked the entry into the mine, because we did not believe the lies of the company” says Ana Rubena, a young activist from a neighboring municipality. Several times, the police tried to terminate the protest camp forcibly. Ana assured us: “It was always important for us to resist the police violence peacefully.” Neither the company nor the state security forces managed to break the protest. For more than three and a half years, the community has been keeping vigils in its camp. The members alternate in shift work, so that about twenty people always hold the fort. The impressive endurance makes clear what is at stake: the people subsist on agriculture. Their basis of existence is massively threatened by highly toxic gold mining.

Christliche Initiative Romero