[HCCN] Sign-on letter: Murders and Threats Against Anti-Mining Activists in El Salvador

Mon Jan 18 23:29:14 UTC 2010

[from Meredith DeFrancesco
scrolldown to read letter for signon
replies to Meredith DeFrancesco at firmacarta at yahoo.com]
I am sorry for the shorter notice I am sending this out to you, but  
if your organization, or any organization you think would be  
interested, could sign on to the attached letter by the 22nd, that  
would be great. It looks like we will also now have a section for  
individual signatures, as well. Thank you for all your hard work and  
the things you are doing          ~ happy new year~ Meredith

            Dear friends and allies,

  We are sure that many of you heard about and were very concerned  
and outraged by the murders of Salvadoran anti-mining activists  
Ramiro Rivera and Felicita Echeverria (December 20, 2009) and Dora  
Alicia Sorto Rodriguez (December 26, 2009) and the continued threats  
against community journalists and activists in Caba ñas, El Salvador,  
the region where Pacific Rim mining company holds gold mining  
exploration concessions. Pacific Rim is a Canadian company that is  
currently suing the government of El Salvador in international court  
for not granting them gold mining permits.  Community  members and  
local organizations report that the presence of the company in the  
area has created an environment of violence and intimidation, and  
company "educators", or promotors, have been linked to creating  
social tensions in the local communities.

    International Salvadoran organizations and international  
solidarity organizations are requesting organizations to sign on to  
this letter condemning both the murders and shortfalls in the  
investigation, and calling for an improved and through investigation  
that seeks to find the 'intellectual authors' of the crimes.

    We would like to collect as many signatures as possible before 5  
pm (EST) on Friday, January 22, so they can be referenced in a San  
Salvador press  conference by the Salvadoran National Coalition  
Against Metal Mining.

   (However, we will continue collecting signatures the following week.)

   Please send sign-ons to Meredith DeFrancesco at  
firmarcarta at yahoo.com.

   For more information, see: http://esnomineria.blogspot.com,

   www.cispes.org, www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org, www.salvaide.ca/ 
mining.html,

    http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/category/4315/4318/4321/4324/4498/4762.

   Thank you.

          In solidarity

-------------------------------------------------

To:

Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena
President

Romeo Barahona
Attorney General

Rodolfo Delgado
Federal Prosecutor

Manuel Melgar
Minister of Public Security

Carlos Antonio Asencio Girón
General Director of the National Civilian Police

Oscar Humberto Luna
Human Rights Ombudsman

Herman Rosa Chávez
  Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources

THE UNDERSIGNED SALVADORAN ORGANIZATIONS IN EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, THE  
UNITED STATES, CANADA AND MEMBERS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZAIONS

GIVEN THAT:

During the last six months there have been four assassinations in the  
Department of Cabañas, the first in June of Marcelo Rivera, who was  
kidnapped, tortured and assassinated; the second on December 20 of  
Ramiro Rivera Gómez and his companion Felicita Echeverria; and the  
most recent on December 26 of Dora Alicia Sorto, whose husband José  
Santos is the spokesperson for the Environmental Committee of  
Cabañas. At the time of her assassination, Mrs. Sorto was in the  
eighth month of pregnancy and her two year old son was also wounded  
in the attack.

In addition to these crimes, resulting from systematic violence,  
death threats against journalists of Radio Victoria, the director of  
the Economic and Social Development Association of Santa Marta  
(ADES), and various other leaders of the Environmental Committee of  
Cabañas continue. There was also a sabotage of the electronic system  
of Radio Victoria, the attempted kidnapping and death threats against  
Father Luis Quintanilla, and more than three separate attempted  
murders of Santos, husband of Mrs. Sorto.

These acts have occurred within the context of a community struggle  
against mineral mining in Cabañas, a struggle against the presence,  
planning and execution of mining projects proposed by U.S. and  
Canadian corporations and the multi-million dollar lawsuits brought  
against the Salvadoran government by Pacific Rim, its subsidiaries  
and Commerce group through ICSID and the DR-CAFTA free trade agreement.

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

WE DECLARE  THAT:

  We unite our voices in condemning these assassinations and death  
threats against community organization and leaders who are fighting  
to conserve and defend the environment in El Salvador and around the  
world.  New criminal threats have been discovered circulating through  
anonymous letters, which insinuate that these assassinations and  
threats cannot be attributed to common delinquency.

  It alarms us that the Attorney General’s office under the direction  
of Ástor Escalante judged a priori that some of these crimes were a  
result of common violence, ignoring the evidence and antecedents that  
were presented indicating the political nature of the events.  The  
Attorney Generals’s Office, now under the direction of Romero  
Barahona has the opportunity to put an end to this impunity.

  We send out our condolences and solidarity to the families of the  
victims, to all the people of the communities affected by these  
assassinations, along with our complete support to the environmental  
organizations in these communities.

  We oppose the existence of armed groups that anonymously claim to  
be financed to continue with these kinds of crimes. We believe that  
these armed groups are motivated by the community resistance against  
the presence of Pacific Rim.

  We observe with indignation as Pacific Rim, without reason or legal  
standing, continues to pressure the communities affected until they  
give in.  Pacific Rim has disrespected the will of these communities  
and the decision of the government by imposing a multi-million suit  
against the Salvadoran State, without caring about the fragile  
financial situation of the country and the economic effects that such  
a suit could cause on the precarious economy of Salvadoran families.

  We adamantly declare ourselves against the inefficiency,  
disinterest and the negligence demonstrated by Romeo Barahona, the  
Attorney General of the Republic, to deepen the investigations,  
clarify the identity of the material and intellectual culprits of  
these crimes and bring them to justice under the full weight of the law.

  We adamantly condemn these acts of violence that ignore and violate  
human rights, the right to organize and the freedom of expression of  
the citizens of the communities of Cabañas in their peaceful  
resistance to defend their quality of life and the environment.

  We demand:

That the Attorney’s General’s office and the National Civilian police  
designate all necessary resources in order to determine the  
whereabouts, then arrest, imprison and prosecute the material and  
intellectual authors of all of these crimes, whomever those  
responsible may be.
  That the investigations are also directed at the leadership and  
members of the National Civilian Police in Cabañas. That police force  
has received many complaints and up until now there has not been a  
disciplinary file opened about their conduct nor has there been  
personnel changes. Should any of these officials be involved, they  
should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

That the criminal and civil responsibility of Pacific Rim Mining in  
these acts be investigated, and if evidence is forthcoming, that they  
be tried in the appropriate national or international courts.

That the investigations include public officials, mayors and all  
persons connected to mining companies that have material and economic  
resources that could be involved in the protection and financing of  
hit men or hired assassins.

That the Attorney General’s Office complies with the recommendations  
of the Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar Luna to create a special  
commission with the National Civilian Police (PNC) to investigate the  
attempted murders and death threats against environmental activists.

That, due to the fact that the PNC has the responsibility to protect  
the lives and physical safety of the people in Cabañas who continue  
to receive death threats and that the current delegation of police in  
Cabañas has proven itself incapable of this, a delegation of new  
police agents with clean records be immediately installed in Cabañas  
for the protection of all those who are receiving death threats. A  
thorough investigation into the authors of these threats should also  
be carried out.

That the Attorney General Romeo Barahona name a new director of the  
Elite Division of Organized Crime. The current director, Rodolfo  
Delgado, has proven himself to be incapable of investigating these  
crimes to the fullest extent and exploring the political motivation  
behind them. We demand that Barahona name a new and capable director  
who has a clean record.

That the Attorney General accepts the petition to provide evidence  
presented by lawyer Luis Francisco Lopez Guzman in the cases of Mr.  
Gustavo Marcelo Rivera, Mr. Ramiro Rivera Gómez, and Mrs. Dora Alicia  
Sorto Rodríguez.

That the Honorable Mauricio Funes make available all resources and  
trained personnel to carry out an investigation that guarantees that  
those responsible are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Allowing these events to remain in impunity would generate a climate  
of fear and doubt for other community leaders and thus undermine the  
advances in the process of democratization that El Salvador has  
achieved. Furthermore, it would send a message to the intellectual  
authors that they can continue their wave of violence and  
assassinations with no consequences whatsoever.

In advance, we thank you for your efforts to speed up the  
investigations and we hope that justice will soon be reached in these  
cases, as well as that protection to the victims and reparations to  
the family members of those assassinated will be provided.

Respectfully, the undersigned organizations:

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