Support Community Mobilization to Demand Justice for Anti-Mining Leaders in Cabañas

1. Overview of Violence and Intimidation of Anti-Mining Leaders in Cabañas
2. Get Involved: Support the CIS´s Campaign around the Impact of Mining and Human Rights Abuses with your donation, Contact the Salvadoran Authorities
3. Timeline of Attacks and Threats
4. Further Background
5. Learn More About the Anti-Mining Movement in Cabañas

Overview of Violence and Intimidation

In the Department of Cabañas, El Salvador, the last three months have been weighed down by violence and intimidation against community leaders in the region that have stood up to the international mining corporation Pacific Rim and its political allies on the municipal level to detain drilling activities in the El Dorado gold mine near San Isidro, Cabañas.  On June 18th, 2009, Marcelo Rivera, environmentalist, social activist and cultural promoter was disappeared after receiving threats related to his activism against the mining company and against electoral fraud in the 2009 municipal elections. His body was found twelve days later at the bottom of a well showing clear signs of torture reminiscent of the death squads of the 1970's and 1980's.    Since that date, a wave of related violence and threats has ensued (see Timeline of Attacks and Threats) with strong signals of political motives that have been ignored by the National Civilian Police and the Attorney General, who have related these crimes to local gangs without further investigation.

As we approach the one hundred day anniversary of Marcelo Rivera´s assassination, the community in Cabañas and throughout El Salvador refuses to be silenced by these acts.  They continue to mobilize against the impunity that has served to intimidate social movement leaders and repress opposition to large economic interests in their community.  They continue to demand justice and protection for the victims and their families.  In this spirit, several social organizations have coordinated a ¨Vigil for JUSTICE and AGAINST IMPUNITY¨ in the community of San Isidro.  We will be mobilizing members of the CIS Network of Communities for Cooperation and Solidarity to attend this Vigil as well as subsequent activities until these crimes are given an exhaustive investigation and the intellectual authors brought to justice.

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Get Involved

Contribute to the CIS´s Campaign around the Impact of Mining and Human Rights Abuses of Community Leaders in Cabañas!

Grassroots organizations in Cabañas have asked the CIS to accompany them in raising funds to cover the costs of the ¨Vigil for JUSTICE and AGAINST IMPUNITY¨ on Thursday, September 24th, and to mobilize our bases to this and subsequent activities. 

• $30 will cover the cost for leaflets to publicize the next mobilization.
• $100 will cover the costs of water and refreshments for 50 members of the CIS Network of Communities for Cooperation and Solidarity attending a mobilization.
• $150 will cover the transportation costs to mobilize the CIS Network of Communities to attend a mobilization.

Donations can be made out to LOS OLIVOS CIS, with the note "Cabañas Vigil¨ to:

Los Olivos CIS
PO BOX 76
Westmont, IL 60559

Please send us written confirmation of your pledge so we can reserve buses as soon as possible at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Thank you for your support!

Contact the Attorney General´s Office and the National Civilian Police in El Salvador to Demand an Exhaustive Investigation of these Crimes and their Motives!

Send a letter, fax, or email to the Acting Salvadoran Attorney General and the Director of the National Civilian Police in El Salvador with the sample text below.

Attorney General´s Office:

Licenciado Ástor Escalante Saravia
Fiscal General en funciones
Fiscalía General de la República
Final 4ª Calle Oriente y 19ª Avenida Sur
Residencial Primavera
Santa Tecla, La Libertad
Fax: (503) 2523-7170
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

National Civilian Police:

Comisionado Carlos Asencio Girón
Director de la Policía Nacional Civil
Policía Nacional Civil
6ta. Calle Oriente entre 8va y 10ma
Ave. Sur, # 42 Barrio La Vega
San Salvador, El Salvador
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please also send a copy by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so we can track the number of emails/faxes sent by CIS supporters!

Sample Email Text (see English Translation below):

Estimadas Autoridades:

Como miembro de la comunidad internacional, quiero expresar mi profunda preocupación por los recientes hechos de violencia contra líderes sociales en Cabañas: 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 de Cabañas; el sabotaje al sistema electrónico de Radio Victoria; y los intentos de asesinato de los líderes comunitarios, Padre Luis Quintanilla y Ramiro Rivera.

Considero que existen suficientes evidencias para presumir que el asesinato de Marcelo Rivera y los demás crimenes están relacionados y forman parte de una campaña para intimidar a las organizaciones sociales en Cabañas. Es preocupante que la Fiscalía esté adjudicando a priori estos crímenes a la violencia común, ignorando las evidencias y antecedentes presentados que indican la naturaleza política de los
eventos.

Por lo tanto como miembro de la comunidad internacional, hago un llamado para que la Fiscalía General de la República realice una investigación imparcial, exhaustiva y efectiva de todos estos casos, para dar con los autores intelectuales y materiales de estos crímenes y garantizar así la protección de los líderes sociales en la región. 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.

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 Marcelo.

Your Name

Translation of Email:

I believe there is sufficient evidence to assume that Marcelo Rivera's murder and the other crimes are linked and part of a campaign to intimidate community organizations in Cabañas. It is alarming that the Attorney General Office is attributing these crimes to common violence, ignoring the evidence and antecedents that indicate the political nature of these events.

Therefore as a member of the international community, I call on the Attorney General Office to carry out impartial, exhaustive and effective investigations of all of these crimes in order to bring to justice the intellectual and material authors of these crimes and guarantee the protection of other community leaders in the region. Leaving these crimes in a state of impunity creates a climate of fear and uncertainty for the rest of the community leaders, undermining the advances in the democratic process in El Salvador.

I thank you in advance for your efforts to speed up the investigations and I hope that there will soon be justice in these cases and that the victims' lives will be protected and Marcelo's family will be compensated for their loss.

Your Name

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Timeline of Attacks and Threats

(Information Taken from a Chronology of Attacks and Threats Sent Out by Radio Victoria)

June 18th, 2009: Marcelo Rivera, community leader from San Isidro, Cabañas, is disappeared.  He is found twelve days later at the bottom of a well near Ilobasco, Cabañas, tortured and assassinated. Marcelo was an environmental activist, founder of Amigos de San Isidro (an environmental group), member of the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining, and head of the Casa de Cultura in San Isidro. He had been victim to threats and persecution since 2005, when the community began to organize against the mining projects of Pacific Rim, but these acts had increased since the protests against electoral fraud in the municipal elections of January 2009. While there are four gang members who are considered suspects for the crime, there has been no research into the intellectual authors of the crime, who potentially hired the gang members to kill Marcelo. 

July and August, 2009: Over the span of these two months, several journalists from Radio Victoria, who had been reporting on Marcelo's case, receive intensifying death threats by letters and cellular text messages, telling them that they would "end up like Marcelo".  The expressed motives for the threats were their reporting on the damage of metallic mining, the electoral fraud of the January elections, and the disappearance of Marcelo Rivera.  Journalists from Radio Victoria had previously received threats at various times in 2006-early 2009 in response to their critical reporting on the issues of mining and electoral fraud as well.

July 27th, 2009: Father Luis Quintanilla, a priest who works with the community of Santa Marta and advocates for human rights in the region, was attacked after his weekly Christian radio show on Radio Victoria, and narrowly escaped a kidnapping and assassination attempt.  He was also a victim to an assassination attempt on July 13, and had received threats since he began his radio show.

July 28th, 2009: Brother Neftalí Ruiz and Francisco Pineda, representative of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas are threatened.  

July 29th, 2009: Walter Laíneza, community leader in Santa Marta, and Antonio Pacheco, Director of the Association for Economic and Social Development (ADES) of Santa Marta, receive death threats.  ADES is the
NGO that initiated the resistance to mining in the area.

July 31st, 2009: Day of the Salvadoran Journalist.  Death threats are made to all of the staff of Radio Victoria by email, which went off air due to an attempt on their transmission antenna in Sensuntepeque.  The messages attack the community radio station for its anti-mining position and for its criticism of members of the municipal councils in Cabañas.

August 7th, 2009: Ramiro Rivera, President of the local Community Development Association (ADESCO) in the Cantón of Nueva Trinidad, was the victim of an attempted murder.  He was shot eight times in his back and his legs, which he miraculously survived.  One of the aggressors, Oscar Menjívar, who has been accused of the attempted assassination of various antimining activists, has been detained.

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Further Background

In the Department of Cabañas, El Salvador, contradictions reign.  It is the poorest department of a poor country, with very high indices of illiteracy.  Yet, the land of Cabañas contains gold.  Gold brought the Spaniards to their conquest here and gold continues to bring those who would exploit the land and people for profits.    In Cabañas today, the Pacific Rim mining corporation, based in Canada, has begun mining for gold with its El Dorado gold mine, near San Isidro. Pacific Rim has revealed in its market reports that it expects the El Dorado mine to produce 350,000 ounces of gold, worth about $347,500,00 (from a board of directors press release, signed by Thomas Shrake, president, "ABOUT EL DORADO - 7-3-2002, July 3, 2002").

The rush for gold seems always to consume lives of the people who have had the misfortune to live over or near the gold itself.  The people who live in the region of El Dorado are horrified at the prospect of a modern mining operation using cyanide extraction methods near their homes.    It will poison the water, contaminate the land and provide little for the people of Cabañas or for the country of El Salvador.  On August 5, three of us from San Salvador went to Sensuntepeque to meet with people of the region and talk about some recent developments surrounding their struggle to maintain the environment and integrity of the region in the face of the exploitation.

The community has organized strongly, non-violently and from the grassroots against the mine.  They have faced organized political opposition, specifically from the mayor of San Isidro, Ignacio Bautista.  He has been an agent and promoter of the Pacific Rim mining operation.  His influence was solidified with his tarnished victory in the January 2009 elections, which occurred despite a popular uprising on Election Day that suspended the elections due to the importation of voters who did not live in San Isidro.

On the 18th of June, the civil conflict over the rights of Pacific Rim turned very ugly, when community activist Marcelo Rivera was kidnapped.  The community organized search parties, but failed to find him until 12 days later, when his body was discovered in a well.  He had been tortured before his death.  We were told by several people that the crime was "in the style of the death squads of the 80`s". While the police claim it was a crime of gang members, it is widely believed in the region that it is a political crime, since Marcelo had been receiving threats, and many activists still working on the issues in Cabañas continue to receive threats. 

Marcelo led the fight against the electoral fraud in San Isidro, was the Director of the Cultural Center in San Isidro, was a member of the National Table against Mining and was a member of the FMLN in the Department.  He had been targeted and now he is dead, victim of a murder foretold.  The police and the Attorney General have been ineffective in investigating and solving this crime and others perpetrated against several antimining activists in Cabañas.

Something must be done to gain accountability for this crime, and protection for those who continue to nonviolently and legally oppose the mining operation.  The Salvadoran government has a responsibility to protect its civilian population in the face of such threats.  This reappearance of death squad tactics is an assault against democracy in El Salvador, and the Americas.    Let us take note, mobilize and offer and deliver our support to the civilian population being oppressed by a profit-seeking operation that will destroy the environment and poison the hope that has arisen in El Salvador.

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Learn More About the Anti-Mining Movement in Cabañas

• Watch "The Mysterious Death of Marcelo Rivera," a seven-minute documentary by Philadelphia filmmaker Jamie Moffett. The video will give you the background and the circumstances around Marcelo's death.
• Read "Another Anti-mining Activist Shot in Cabañas El Salvador, Hitman Tied to Pacific Rim is Detained" regarding the shooting of Ramiro Rivera
• Watch Jesse Freeston´s video report "Gold, impunity, violence in El Salvador" for more context.
• Read "Pacific Rim Silent in Wake of Violence Against Anti-Mining Protesters in Cabañas, El Salvador." This article outlines the recent series of violence in Cabañas and gives background on the presence of Pacific Rim and the resistance to the company in El Salvador.
• Watch "Persecuciones políticas a líderes sociales en Cabañas, El Salvador," (Spanish Only) produced by the National Roudtable against Metallic Mining, which documents the intimidation, death threats, and violence that community members in Cabañas continue to face, including the Radio Victoria journalists, Father Luis Quintanilla, and Ramiro Rivera, and visit the blogspot of the National Roundtable against Metallic Mining.