Mining for El Salvador’s Gold—In Washington http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/41098/

Last week, however, these activists suffered a setback—not from their own government, but from an obscure tribunal in Washington, D.C. Two transnational mining companies have used rules in the “free trade” agreement between the United States and six countries in the region to sue the government of El Salvador They are demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for the denial of mining permits. The first company to file suit, Pacific Rim, has just won the first stage of the proceedings by overcoming the Salvadoran government’s effort to get the case thrown out on jurisdictional grounds.The tribunal’s decision to give the green light to this controversial case should send shudders down the spines of advocates for the environment, community rights, and democracy.