Researchers, non-profit organizations and the Public Service Alliance of Canada denounce the silence of Canada and the United States in the face of arbitrary arrests and attacks on democracy in El Salvador. In a report published Thursday, they implore these governments to take an interest in the fate of five environmental activists opposed to the mining industry in this Central American country.
“The arrest of these “water defenders,” who have been leading figures in one of the most successful social movements in all of Latin America, sends a clear message of intimidation to civil society. Those who stand up to defend human rights risk being criminalized under the state of exception still in force,” said Alejandro Artiga-Purcell, professor of environmental communications at San José State University, during a virtual press conference organized by Mines Alert Canada on Thursday.
Mr. Artiga-Purcell is part of a group of eight delegates from the United States and Canada who held 19 meetings in October in El Salvador with various members of civil society and elected officials. In their report entitled State of Disappointment. Fact finding Report on the Detained El Salvador Water Defender, Mining, and the State of Human Rights under the Bukele Administrationthey point out that President Nayib Bukele has taken steps to suspend civil liberties and the rule of law, in addition to reducing judicial independence, under the cover of his fight against criminal gangs.
Among the 70,000 additional people incarcerated since the introduction of the “state of exception” in March 2022, there are tens of thousands of innocent people, estimate the authors of the report. Among them are five members of the Economic and Social Development Association (ADES) who played a key role in the mobilization that led to the ban on metal mining in the country in 2017, one of the most important goals important is the protection of water resources. At the time, the Australian-Canadian company OceanaGold wanted to operate a mine there.
These activists are now accused of the murder of a woman in 1989, during the civil war, while participating in the rebellion against the ruling regime. The authors of the report believe that these accusations are unfounded. After spending time in prison “without access to health care, legal support or family visits,” the five men were placed under house arrest.
A revival of mining activity?
There are several signs that President Bukele wants to revive mining activity, according to the authors. His government notably joined the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining subsidized by the Canadian government, created a Hydrocarbons, Energy and Mines Directorate and allocated $4.5 million to modernize mining and mining laws. ‘energy. All this while the price of gold, present in Salvadoran soil, is reaching new heights. If the country opens up again to this exploitation, mining companies, the largest of which are Canadian and Australian, will rush there, believes John Cavanagh, senior advisor at the Institute for Policy Studies, based in Washington.
“El Salvador is the worst place in the world to do mining,” Mr. Cavanagh said. The water basically comes from one big river, there are earthquakes, there’s a lot of biodiversity in the area where the minerals are. All this has led experts to conclude that the entire country should be banned from mining. »
The report’s authors call on the Canadian and American governments to call for charges against the Santa Marta Five to be dropped and to attend their trials as international observers. They also recommend publicly calling for the return of democracy and the separation of powers to El Salvador, as well as the cancellation of the state of exception. Finally, they urge these governments to refuse Nayib Bukele’s request for a $1.3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Remember that El Salvador is the first country to adopt bitcoin as its official currency in 2021.
The office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mélanie Joly, did not respond to our request for reaction.