This week, a World Bank tribunal decided to allow a Milwaukee gold mining company’s shameful $100 million lawsuit against the government of El Salvador to  move forward. Commerce Group has owned the San Sebastian mine, once Central America’s most productive, for more than 40 years. However, in 2006, El Salvador revoked Commerce Group’s mining permits for failure to comply with the country’s mining law, including failure to meet the requirements for an environmental permit.

In response, the company is suing for $100 million for alleged "lost profits" and the right to resume normal mining activities. Citing corporate protections outlined in the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), the company claims the Salvadoran government violated its right to conduct mining operations on Salvadoran soil. However, according to SEC filings, Commerce Group had already ceased mining activity in El Salvador years earlier in December 1999, after decades of legal and financial troubles, including bankruptcy.

Salvadoran environmental activists also believe that community members living near the mine should instead be suing Commerce Group for its severe contamination of the local environment. A 2006 study of the local waterways surrounding the San Sebastian river revealed elevated levels of cyanide and heavy metals, for example, an aluminum level 1800 times higher than even the World Bank’s own recommended limit.