Impunity Continues in Murders of Environmental Organizers in El Salvador http://www.narconews.com/Issue64/article4083.html

The blood from three murders has stained Salvadoran land. The murderers? They reek of gold and silver. Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, Ramiro Rivera Gómez and Dora Alicia Recinos were murdered in 2009. They were leading the opposition to metallic mining in their communities in the state of Cabañas, in northern El Salvador.On December 26, 2009, anti-mining activist Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto was murdered in the community of Trinidad, Cabañas, when she was returning home from washing clothes in a nearby river. Eight months pregnant, she was shot five times. Her husband was José Santos, spokesperson for the Cabañas Environmental Committee.

Dora Alicia’s murder occurred in the wake of the murder of Ramiro Rivera Gómez in the same community one week earlier, on December 20. Ramiro was a well-known environmental leader. Months prior to his murder, he was the victim of violent attack and was shot eight times, resulting in health problems.After the attack, Ramiro was assigned agents from the Victims and Witnesses Protection Unit of the National Police force for his personal safety. Paradoxically, when Ramiro was murdered, he was being guarded by two police agents who could not prevent the murder.This systematic wave of murders began in June 2009 with the murder of Gustavo Marcelo Rivera. Another anti-mining activist, Marcelo was also the director of the local Cultural Center in his community of San Isidro, Cabañas, and was affiliated with the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party.

Pacific Rim is a Canadian mining company that has been operating in El Salvador since 2002, with an exploration permit granted by the Ministry of Economy. During that phase, the company established the viability of extracting gold and silver in the country.“El Salvador is located in the route of the Gold Belt of Central America. This valuable belt, which extends from central El Salvador to southern Nicaragua, contains more than 10 million ounces of gold,” explains journalist Elaine Freedman in an article published on February 2, 2010, by the Latin American Information Agency (ALAI).“The most recent resource estimate for the El Dorado project [in the department of Cabañas] was announced on January 17, 2008. This resource estimate tabulated 1.4 million gold equivalent ounces in the Measured and Indicated resource categories combined and a further 0.3 million gold equivalent ounces in the Inferred category,” indicates Pacific Rim on the company website. The company also boasts several million ounces of silver in its resource estimates.

comment-also see...Anti-Mining Activists Killed in El Salvador http://i2.democracynow.org/2009/12/29/anti_mining_activists_killed_in_el  Anti-Mining activist killed in El Salvador ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ2INhAhrO8