PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Pacific Rim Mining: Drop the lawsuit and stop the violence in El Salvador!
  1. Signatures
    870 out of 1,500
    Petitioning
    1. Vice President of Investor Relations at Pacific Rim Mining (Barbara Henderson)
  2. Created By
    Gabriel Zucker
    New Haven, CT
About this Petition Petition Letter

In response to community pressure and the efforts of organizations throughout the country, the government of El Salvador has refused to grant mining extraction permits to the Pacific Rim Mining Corporation. The government and civil society groups cite threats to public health, the environment, and the water supply posed by Pacific Rim's proposed gold mining projects in the Cabañas region of El Salvador. Rather than leave the country, Pacific Rim - based in Vancouver, B.C. - argues that El Salvador does not have the right to protect its own environment and the health of its own citizens. The company has filed a lawsuit against El Salvador for hundreds of millions of dollars under the provisions of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

At the same time, three prominent anti-mining activists in Cabañas have been assassinated over the past year. Several other opponents of Pacific Rim's projects have received death threats and survived kidnapping and murder attempts. It is time for Pacific Rim to leave El Salvador and bring an end to the violence generated by its presence in the region. Pacific Rim must also respect the sovereign right of El Salvador's government to protect its environment and public health by denying mining permits. Pacific Rim: Drop the lawsuit and get out of El Salvador!

Recent Signatures

Condemn the violence in Cabañas

To Whom It May Concern,

I have been following Pacific Rim's El Dorado mine in Cabañas, El Salvador, and am extremely disturbed by the wave of violence against community activists who have opposed your company's presence in the region. I am also disturbed that your company has refused to respect the Salvadoran government's sovereign decision to deny mining extraction permits - a decision based on local community opposition and concerns about threats to the environmental and public health. Pacific Rim's lawsuit against El Salvador, filed through a recently-created subsidiary in Nevada, is an unconscionable attack on a cash-strapped government's commitment to protecting the environment and its own people.

I call on CEO and President Thomas Shrake and Pacific Rim’s board of directors to recognize the social conflict the El Dorado mine is causing in Cabañas and to make the decision to:

* Cooperate fully with the official investigations of the murders of Alicia Sorto Recinos, Ramiro Rivera and Marcelo Rivera.
* Immediately withdraw from Cabañas and cease all efforts to mine gold at the El Dorado site.
* Immediately withdraw the CAFTA lawsuit against the government of El Salvador.

Violence is tearing apart Cabañas, and the company has every obligation to offer its full support to bring to justice the perpetrators of the recent murders and threats. Whether or not Pacific Rim agrees with these protesters, the company must recognize that it should be the right of every citizen in a democracy to peacefully voice his or her opinions. Your mining operations have demolished this right for the citizens of Cabañas, and the socially responsible action would be to recognize that and leave the country.

[Your name]

Press Inquiries