A CANADIAN MINING COMPANY (Pacific Rim)
MAKING A KILLING
IN EL SALVADOR … AGAIN
December 23, 2009
On December 20th, Ramiro Rivera Gomez was assassinated.  He was vice-president of the Comité Ambiental de Cabañas (Environmental Committee of Cabañas).  Rights Action has funded their work in favor of community development and environmental justice, against harmful openpit, cyanide bonding gold mining (http://www.pacrim-mining.com/s/Home.asp).
BELOW, REPORTS BY:

On December 10, Rights Action published an article “International Mining & Impunity Day” (http://www.rightsaction.org/articles/mining_&_impunity_day_121009.html) about the assassinations of community leaders in Chiapas, Guatemala and El Salvador who were involved in community development and environmental justice struggles with Canadian mining companies.
See “The Real News” report on the death of Marcelo Rivera in El Salvador, an assassination linked to the struggle against the harmful interests of Pacific Rim Mining Corp: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4118
Now, another assassination, linked to a Canadian company.
EMERGENCY RELIEF FUNDS NEEDED
As in the cases of recent assassinations in Chiapas, Guatemala and El Salvador, Rights Action is again providing emergency relief funds for the family and community members of the murder and repression victims.  To make tax-deductible donations, see below.

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ANOTHER COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVIST KILLED IN EL SALVADOR
San Salvador, December 22, 2009
(ALERT from the Colectivo de Derechos Humanos “Herbert Anaya Sanabria”, outraged by the assassination of yet another community development and environmental justice activist. More information, Rosa Anaya: chaka_lindiwe@yahoo.es)
As you all know there have been several worrisome situations going on around the issue of the gold mining in El Salvador, specifically in the department of Cabañas, where the communities have been protesting against a proposed gold mining project by Pacific Rim, a Canadian mining company.
They are very concerned that cyanide used to extract gold would poison El Salvador’s largest river, the primary source of drinking water for millions in the country. Their protests were strong enough to shut down the El Dorado gold mining site.
In 2007, the Ministry of Environment denied Pacific Rim’s permit to start drilling for gold.
But Pacific Rim is not listening. Instead, the company is suing the Salvadoran government for $77 million for “lost profit” (read more about the Pacific Rim lawsuit). How can they do this?!  The U.S. Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) protects the “rights” of corporations over national laws that safeguard workers and the environment. Chapter 10 of CAFTA gives private foreign investors the “right” to sue for “profit infringement” and extort millions of dollars from governments like El Salvador.
How far can they take this? Well, we know now for sure that the lives of all these people are going to pay the price for gold. Have you ever heard of the expression “blood diamond”? Gold is no different, except that in El Salvador the resistance against mining is actually been able to get the word out about what is going on, and the response has been repression against the people.
On December 20th at 16:00 hours Ramiro Rivera Gomez was gunned down and murdered. He was the vice-president of Comité Ambiental de Cabañas (Environmental Committee of Cabañas). Hired killers assassinated this social activist in the village of Trinidad, jurisdiction of Ilobasco, Cabanas, in the presence of his 14 year old niece who was wounded but has survived.
As a witness her life is in danger.
Ramiro Rivera Gomez was one of the leaders of the peoples' resistance against Pacific Rim and has been working in outreach to educate people in the area about the effects of gold mining and was one of the first ones to get threatened and was actually shot 8 times in his back and legs on August 7 this year.
He survived that time, and was able to identify one of the people that shot him, Oscar Menjivar Velasco, who’s been associated by the people in the area as an activist for Pacific Rim and as a friend of the ARENA mayors in the area.
He was arrested and the investigations were pointing to a possibility to get to the intellectual authors of the first crime, make the link between the big fish and the killers.
This adds to the ongoing outrageous situation in Cabañas.
The killing of Ramiro Rivera is in addition to the torture and killing of Marcelo Rivera in June 2009, the attempted homicide against a priest of the area, the death threats against a group of journalists of radio Victoria, the constant harassment against family members and people around the area that are part of the anti-mining resistance.
We make the call to international solidarity to look into this case. This country has shed too much blood for its freedom, but apparently it has not been enough.
As human rights activist we feel threatened in this country and absolutely unprotected, we are okay as long as we don’t get too close to the beehive.
That is no different then what happened in the war, human rights activist are being threatened and killed in El Salvador once again. We have a government now that is in favor of the people, but what we have been saying for years is true, the death squads were never deactivated. That needs to happen now and we must pressure the government to seriously take care of this problem.
Big corporations' interests are still at stake, and when it comes down to weigh in the scale “democracy and profit”, it always goes for profit.
Remember Honduras is too close to El Salvador, in its history, in its radical rights wings, and the same training of their military. The people in Cabanas need support now.
1. We need to raise some money for the burial of Ramiro Rivera Gomez and support his family;
2. We need international presence in the area to protect people’s lives;
3. Pacific Rim needs to be pressured in to drop the lawsuit against the Salvadorian country and also to stop their intentions to mine here. The effects would be devastating for this country.
Colectivo de Derechos Humanos “Herbert Anaya Sanabria”
More information, Rosa Anaya: chaka_lindiwe@yahoo.es
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ACTIVIST RAMIRO RIVERA ASSASSINATED IN CABAÑAS; DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION AND AN END TO THE MURDERS!
www.cispes.org
EMERGENCY UPDATE AND ACTION ALERT, December 21, 2009
Ramiro Rivera Gómez, vice-president of CAC (Comité Ambiental de Cabañas/ the Environmental Committee of Cabañas) and a local leader in the community struggle against the environmentally-destructive gold mining projects proposed by Pacific Rim, was assassinated on Sunday, December 20, 2009 in the Trinidad neighborhood of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas where he lived.
Héctor Berríos reports that Ramiro Rivera was killed by hitmen carrying M-16 rifles. Ramiro’s thirteen-year old daughter who was with him on Sunday afternoon was also injured but is reportedly in stable condition.
On August 7 of this year, Ramiro Rivera was shot 8 times, but survived the vicious attack. Oscar Menjívar, previously implicated in physical attacks on anti-mining activists, was arrested and charged with Ramiro’s attempted murder. Community members report that Menjívar had previously worked for Canadian mining company Pacific Rim; Pacific Rim denies that he has ever been an employee.
Since his recovery, Mr. Rivera had been under the protection of two police officers from the Witnesses and Victims Protection Unit of the National Civilian Police. On the afternoon of December 20th, they were apparently unable to protect him.
Since June of 2009, when anti-mining and FMLN activist Marcelo Rivera (no relation to Ramiro) was found tortured and killed in Cabañas, there have been continued attacks, death threats and attempted kidnappings of community members and activists who have vehemently opposed the proposed El Dorado gold mine.
The Ministry of Environment denied mining exploitation permits to Pacific Rim, a Vancouver-based mining company, which subsequently announced a $77 million dollar lawsuit against the Salvadoran government under CAFTA, the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (watch the Real News video here).
Despite the overtly political overtones of this wave of violence, 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 but also by the inability or unwillingness of the police and the office of the Attorney General to protect community activists like Ramiro Rivera and to halt the violence.
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WHAT TO DO
WRITE TO PACIFIC RIM ASKING THEM:

PACIFIC RIM
Toll Free: 1-888-775-7097
Tel: (604) 689-1976
E-mail: general@pacrim-mining.com
#1050 - 625 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 2T6
END IMPUNITY FOR CANADIAN COMPANIES
SEND COPIES TO YOUR OWN POLITICIANS, ASKING THEM:
Why the Canadian government fully supports the expansion of Canadian mining companies across the globe, often contributing to repression, death, human rights violations and environmental harm?
Why the Canadian government opposes the passing of any legislation whatsoever so that Canadian companies and investors can be held criminally and civilly accountable in Canadian courts for repression, human rights violations and environmental harms caused in other countries.
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HUMANITARIAN RELIEF FUNDS
To donate tax-deductible funds to family members of the victims of mining-related violence and repression and to community organizations in mining affected regions, make tax deductible donations to “rights action” and mail to:
UNITED STATES:  Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA:  552-351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS:  http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm
Upon request, Rights Action can provide a proposal of which community organizations resisting the harms and violations caused by mining in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador we are working with and channeling your funds to.
HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATION TO HONDURAS
January 24-31, 2010
Since the June 28th oligarchic-military coup against the government of President Zelaya, Rights Action – along with other North American activist and solidarity groups – has been working hard to support the extraordinary anti-coup, pro-democracy movement.
Now that the November 29th “elections” are over, this delegation will overlap with the January 27th “formal transfer of power” from President Zelaya to the incoming President-elect Pepe Lobo.  Anyone following the situation in Honduras knows ‘free and fair’ elections were not held on November 29th, President Zelaya is still effectively jailed inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa (capital city), and the “transfer of power” looms as another key date in this long-term struggle against the oligarchic-military regime.
More than an educational delegation (anyone who comes will learn a huge amount about the background context that led to the military coup, about the courage and spirit of Honduras’ peaceful pro-democracy movement and about the nature and repression of the oligarchic-military regime), this will be a human rights accompaniment and observation delegation.
We will have serious discussions with interested persons about the nature and goals of this delegation, before people decide to join or not. If you are considering joining this delegation, we urge you to read through our series of Honduras Coup Alerts, found at www.rightsaction.org.  To join: info@rightsaction.org
FOR INTERVIEW & MORE INFORMATION
Annie Bird, annie@rightsaction.org, 1-202-680-3002; Grahame Russell, info@rightsaction.org, 1-860-352-2448

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