[News] Activists killed in El Salvador
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Dec 29 13:49:23 EST 2009
<http://www.cispes.org>www.cispes.org | 202 521-2510
Action Alert
December 29, 2009
Second Cabañas Community Activist Slain in a Week
Demand justice for the murdered activists and an end to impunity!
* Watch the
<http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/29/anti_mining_activists_killed_in_el>Democracy
Now! interview with CISPES executive director Alexis Stoumbelis
* Read our updated
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=654&Itemid=98>press
release about the murders and distribute it to your media contacts
* Take Action! Email Salvadoran Attorney
General and call Pacific Rim (see below)
On December 26, Dora “Alicia” Sorto Recinos was
murdered in El Salvador—the second anti-mining
activist killed in less than a week in the small
community of Trinidad in the department of
Cabañas. Sorto Recinos was eight months pregnant
and carrying her two-year old child when shot
after doing laundry at a nearby river. The child,
who was also shot in the leg is currently
receiving medical attention. Sorto Recinos and
her life partner, José Santos Rodríguez, were
outspoken opponents of the El Dorado gold mine,
which Pacific Rim, a Vancouver, B.C.-based
company, is desperate to open despite widespread
community and governmental opposition.
The death toll for Cabañas anti-mining activists
has risen to 3 in the past week:
• Alicia Sorto Recinos was a member of the
Environmental Committee of Cabañas, which has
been extremely active in educating and mobilizing
the local community against Pacific Rim’s El
Dorado gold mine; her life partner José Rodríguez
is a current board member of the committee and
has personally received a number of recent death
threats and survived three separate attempts against his life.
• Last week, the committee’s vice-president,
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=648&Itemid=27>Ramiro
Rivera, was gunned down
• The first murder occurred last June, when
anti-mining and FMLN
<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=610&Itemid=28>activist
Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found
tortured and killed in Cabañas.
in front of his daughter, despite his 24-hour
police protection since being shot eight times in
August. His neighbor Felicíta Echeverría was also killed in the attack.
A common thread among the two most recent
slayings is Oscar Menjívar. Currently awaiting
trial for shooting Ramiro Rivera 8 times in
August, he was previously arrested for attacking
José Rodríguez with a machete. Menjívar’s
neighbors report that he was one of Pacific Rim
Mining’s paid “promoters,” though Pacific Rim
denies that he has ever been on payroll.
Violence has become a harsh reality for Cabañas
residents since the arrival of Pacific
Rim. After community organizing efforts
successfully blocked Pacific Rim’s attempts to
obtain gold mining permits, the company filed a
lawsuit against the Salvadoran government under
CAFTA, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade
Agreement for hundreds of millions of dollars in
damages
(<http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=637&Itemid=1>watch
the Real News video here). In recent months, it
has proven especially dangerous to oppose mining
in Cabañas, with a steady stream of attacks,
death threats and attempted assassinations and
kidnappings against community leaders and anti-mining activists.
Despite the overtly political overtones of these
violent acts, whose frequency is only increasing,
local police authorities and the former Attorney
General's office have classified these cases as
“common crimes”. Salvadorans are fearful and
outraged by the continued violence and by the
inability or unwillingness of the police and the
office of the Attorney General to protect
community activists like Alicia Sorto Recinos,
Ramiro Rivera and Marcelo Rivera.
Community members believe that until these cases
are thoroughly investigated for political motives
and the perpetrators brought to justice, impunity
against the mining resistance movement in Cabañas
will continue, sending a message to the
intellectual authors of these crimes that they
can continue their wave of violence and murders without punishment.
Act now and call on the Salvadoran Attorney
General to carry out an exhaustive investigation
of these murders and their motives AND demand
that Pacific Rim recognize the social conflict
surrounding the El Dorado mine and stop trying to mine in Cabañas!
------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
TAKE ACTION!
1) E-mail Rodolfo Delgado
(<mailto:radelgado at fgr.gob.sv>radelgado at fgr.gob.sv),
head of the Organized Crime unit of the Attorney
General’s Office and demand that the Attorney General’s office:
• Complete the recommendation of the Ombudsman
in Defense of Human Rights Oscar Luna to create a
special team with the National Civilian Police to
investigate these murders and threats against environmental activists.
• Investigate the cases exhaustively and
impartially and bring the intellectual and
material authors of the crimes to justice.
[See sample e-mail text at the end of this
alert.] Please copy Human Rights Ombudsman Oscar
Luna to your email, via his front desk:
<mailto:heidybrizuela at pddh.gob.sv>heidybrizuela at pddh.gob.sv
and forward a copy of your sent email to
<mailto:cispes at cispes.org>cispes at cispes.org.
2) Call Barbara Henderson, Vice President of
Investor Relations at Pacific Rim Mining, using
the talking points below. To call from the U.S.
dial 1- (888) 775-7097, or from Canada (604) 689-1976, and 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 two community members who were
murdered this past week. 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:
* Immediately withdraw from Cabañas and cease
all efforts to mine gold from the El Dorado site.
* 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.
* Cooperate fully with the official
investigations surrounding the murders of Alicia
Sorto Recinos, Ramiro Rivera and Marcelo Rivera,
providing full disclosure on all the people the
company has contracted in the region and any
other monetary transactions it has conducted
among community members, organizations and local
government officials. Violence is tearing apart
Cabañas, and the company 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.”
SAMPLE E-MAIL (English translation below):
Jefe de la División Élite contra el Crimen Organizado
Fiscalía General de la Republica de El Salvador
Fiscal Rodolfo Delgado
Presente.
Estimado Señor Rodolfo Delgado:
Como un miembro de la comunidad internacional
pro-derechos humanos, quiero expresar mi profunda
preocupación por lo más reciente hecho de
violencia contra la comunidad ambientalista en
Cabañas, el asesinato de Dora Alicia Sorto
Recinos. Además, quiero expresar la indignación
de la comunidad internacional pro-derechos
humanos por la falta de justicia en los casos de
asesinato y violencia política contra las
comunidades opuestas al proyecto minero El Dorado
de la empresa canadiense Pacific Rim.
Hago un llamado para que la Fiscalía tome los
siguientes pasos para terminar con el ambiente de
impunidad que permite estos asesinatos y intentos:
1) Cumplir la recomendación del Procurador
para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (PDDH)
Oscar Luna para formar una comisión de trabajo
especial con la Policía Nacional Civil (PNC) para
investigar los atentados y amenazas en contra de defensores ambientales.
2) Investigar los casos de una manera
exhaustiva e imparcial y llevar justicia a los
autores intelectuales y materiales del crimen.
El asesinato de Sorto Recinos parece otro hecho
de violencia sistemática 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
Desarrollo Económico y Social Santa Marta (ADES)
y a varios líderes comunitarios del Comité
Ambiental de Cabañas; el sabotaje al sistema
electrónico de Radio Victoria; el intento de
secuestro del Padre Luis Quintanilla; el
asesinato de Ramiro Rivera la semana pasada; y,
los más de tres intentos de quitarle la vida a
Santos Rodriguez, compañero de vida de la señora Sorto Recinos.
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. La
Fiscalía, ahora bajo la dirección del Lic. Romeo
Barahona, tiene la oportunidad de terminar con esta impunidad.
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, Lic. Oscar Humberto Luna,
quien ha mostrado un compromiso fuerte para
proteger la seguridad y los derechos humanos de
los líderes sociales en Cabañas, además de
manifestar en su más reciente comunicado de
prensa que existen evidencias suficientes para
descartar que estas muertes sean producto de la delincuencia común.
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. Además, mandaría un mensaje a los autores
intelectuales que pueden seguir su ola de
violencia y asesinatos sin ningún castigo.
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 los asesinados.
[Tu nombre y lugar de residencia/ Your name and place of residence]
------------------
Chief of the Elite Division Against Organized Crime (DECO)
Office of the Attorney General of El Salvador
Attorney Rodolfo Delgado
Presente.
Dear Mr. Rodolfo Delgado:
As a member of the international community in
support of human rights, I want to express my
profound concern over the most recent act of
violence against the environmentalist community
in Cabanas, the murder of Dora Alicia Sorto
Recinos. Furthermore, I want to express the
indignation of the international community in
support of human rights for the lack of justice
in the cases of murders and political violence
against the communities opposed to the Canadian
company Pacific Rim's mining project El Dorado.
I call on the Attorney General's office to take
the following measures to put an end to the
environment of impunity that has permitted these assassinations:
1) Complete the recommendation of the
Ombudsman in Defense of Human Rights Oscar Luna
to create a special team with the National
Civilian Police to investigate these murders and
threats against environmental activists.
2) Investigate the cases exhaustively and
impartially and bring the intellectual and
material authors of the crimes to justice.
The murder of Sorto Recinos appears to be the
most recent act of the systematic violence that
has been taking place in Cabañas since June of
this year: the kidnapping and brutal murder of
activist Gustavo Marcelo Rivera; the death
threats against journalists from Radio Victoria,
the director of the Association for the Economic
and Social Development of Santa Marta (ADES), and
other community leaders in Cabañas; the sabotage
of Radio Victoria’s electronic equipment; the
murder of Ramiro Rivera last week; and more than
three attempts against the life of José Santos
Rodríguez, Sorto Recino´s life partner.
It is worrisome that the Attorney General's
office, under the direction of Astor Escalante,
attributed these cases a priori to common crime,
ignoring presented evidence that indicates the
political nature of these events. The Attorney
General, now under the direction of Lic. Romeo
Barahona, has the opportunity to end this impunity.
After the assassination of Marcelo Rivera in
June, over 100 U.S. and Canadian social
organizations sent a letter to the Attorney
General's office expressing their deep concern
over the human rights violations. U.S.
Congressional Representative James McGovern also
expressed the same concern in meetings with the
Attorney General and with representatives of
President Mauricio Funes' administration during
his recent visit to El Salvador.
I am also sending a copy of this letter to the
Ombudsman in Defense of Human Rights Oscar Luna,
who has shown a strong commitment to protecting
the security and the human rights of social
leaders in Cabanas in addition to expressing in
his most recent press release that their exists
sufficient evidence to demonstrate that these
cases were not the product of common crime.
If these events remain in impunity, it will
generate an environment of fear and uncertainty
for the other community leaders, undoing the many
advances achieved in the process of democratizing
the country. Furthermore, it will send a message
to the intellectual authors that they can
continue their wave of violence and murders without facing punishment.
I thank you in advance for your efforts to
facilitate the investigations and I expect
justice is quickly brought to these cases and
that protection is provided for the victims and
reparations for the families of those murdered.
[Your name and place of residence]
<mailto:cispes at cispes.org>cispes at cispes.org
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977
www.Freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20091229/6dbcd8a3/attachment.htm>
More information about the News
mailing list