Pacific Rim/OceanaGold

Bill Clinton Leads Sinister Business Alliance in El Salvador

Republished from: CISPES

On Monday, November 9, El Salvador was host to an unusual meeting of some of the continent’s wealthiest and most influential players: former US President Bill Clinton, notorious Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim, and Canadian businessman Frank Giustra, who has made a career out of major investments worldwide in mining, from gold and diamonds to uranium, among other industries.

The visit was ostensibly to promote a local project of the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (CGEP), which both Giustra and Slim finance with $100 million donations. In El Salvador, the CGEP supports the so-called sustainable development work of a key local figure: Carlos Callejas, owner of the Super Selectos grocery store chain who is widely rumored to be pursuing the 2019 presidential nomination for the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party. Clinton, Slim and Guistra’s visit to El Salvador was effectively an early campaign boost for Callejas, providing enormous publicity for the Callejas Foundation, a recipient of CGEP funding, and the Super Selectos chain, while bolstering Callejas’ image for a 2019 presidential bid. 

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Women in Resistance Against the World Bank

Antonia Recinos - ADES/Radio Victoria

On Thursday October 22, the National Roundtable against Metallic Mining-MNFM and representatives of various communities and social organizations gathered outside the offices of the World Bank in San Salvador  to express their firm opposition to metallic mining projects and to send a message to the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, ICSID which is part of the World Bank and where el Salvador is being sued for $301 million for not granting a mining licence. The law suit was launched by Pacific Rim, now OceanaGold, in 2009. In October 2014, the final arguments were heard by the panel but to date the final decision is unknown.

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Statement in support of El Salvador from Amianan Salakniban in the Philippines (2)

LEARN FROM EL SALVADOR WHO KICKED OCEANAGOLD OUT

Press Release

Amianan Salakniban, the broadest network of environmental organizations and advocates in North Luzon, Philippines, expresses their support for El Salvador’s Day of Action against OceanaGold last October 22.

“The victory of the people of El Salvador to protect their water and their environment against a mining giant should be defended vigorously. We are one with the Salvadorans in this plight as our indigenous people in Nueva Vizcaya also suffer from the wrath of OceanaGold,” said Fernando Mangili, spokesperson of Amianan Salakniban.

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Salvadoran Civil Society Confronts World Bank on Pending Lawsuit on Mining

By Marina Bonetti

Communities and organizations gathered in front of the World Bank in San Salvador to demand a fair verdict on the lawsuit of Pacific Rim vs El Salvador.

wtcAfter days of uninterrupted rain, on Thursday October 22nd the sun came back to shine on hundreds of community members and organizations as they gathered for a protest in front of the World Trade Center in the elite Colonia Escalòn of San Salvador, where the office of the World Bank are located.

The protest was organized by La Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minería Metálica de El Salvador, an umbrella organization that groups different associations, NGOs, religious and academic groups with the common objective of achieving the prohibition of metallic mining in El Salvador.  

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El Salvador presents new motion prior to the relasing of the verdict on the Pacific Rim case.

El Diario de Hoy - Translation: Marina Bonetti

A diplomatic document shows that Pacific Rim lied to the tribunal about the time in which it decided to initiate the lawsuit against El Salvador before the World Bank. The ICSID tribunal could re-open the case, after having already taken an interim decision

An official US government document, sent by the then American Ambassador in El Salvador Charles Glazer, and referred to the Department of State in December 2007, constitutes new evidence for the defense of the Republic, which is in conflict with Pacific Rim mining company before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, ICSID. The defense wants the tribunal of the World Bank to re-consider the interim verdict that it reached in June 2012.

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The lawsuit that could put El Salvador in check

By: Alejandra Martins - BBC Mundo / Translation: Marina Bonetti and Sigrun Pallesen

In an office in Washington, three arbitrators are about to decide on the lawsuit filed by the multinational mining company OceanaGold against El Salvador.

According to the government of the Central American country, what is at stake is nothing less than the health of its inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the mining company insists on the importance of the judicial security that investors anticipate in order to defend their interests.

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