Bill C-300 and the death of Marcelo Rivera

Since 2002, Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Corporation has been exploring for gold and silver throughout El Salvador. In 2008, the company was denied a mining permit for the El Dorado mine in San Isidro Cabañas, due to increased opposition from local anti-mining and environmentalist organizations, residents, and Catholic Church leaders. The company is now suing El Salvador for 77 million dollars in protest. 
According to a 2009 study from Oxfam, a group of non-governmental organizations working worldwide to fight poverty and injustice, metallic mining in Central America uses extreme amounts of water, drying up wells and contaminating ground water with cyanide and heavy metals. Mining in El Salvador has also led to the death and infertility of livestock as well as sickness among children.

Marcelo Rivera was an environmental activist who co-founded the Friends of San Isidro Cabañas, which is an organization dedicated to anti-mining initiatives in the community of San Isidro. June 18, 2009 was the last day that he was seen alive. Twelve days later, his tortured body was found at the bottom of a sixty-foot well, with wounds showing he had been beaten and strangled to death. 
“Allegedly, the national civil police and the attorney general have received evidence connecting Pacific Rims business interests with the assassination of Marcelo Rivera. However, they have publicly discarded this line of investigation, attributing the crime to common delinquency,” explains Jamie Moffett, a Philadelphia-based filmmaker.

Moffett was in El Salvador shortly after Marcelo was murdered. He is now preparing to release a documentary entitled El Salvador: Portraits of a Revolution, which includes the story of 'The Mysterious Death of Marcelo Rivera.' Moffet continues, “In order to execute the mining at El Dorado, Pacific Rim needs the support (or silence) of the local population in San Isidro, as well as shareholders in the United States. Marcelo Rivera refused to be silent.” Since his death, two more anti-mining activists have been killed: Dora Recinos Sorto, 32 and eight months pregnant, and Ramiro Rivera, vice-president of the Environmental Committee of Cabanas.

Fortunately, some Canadian politicians have seen the trend in human rights abuses by Canadian mining corporations and have decided to take a stand against the injustice. “You can go through Mexico, Guatemala, Chile, Honduras, Argentina, Columbia, over to a number of African countries, in to the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, and there is an enormous number of complaints about the activities of Canadian mining companies,” says Ontario MP John McKay. Because of this reason, McKay proposed Bill C-300, a bill dedicated to keeping Canadian mining, gas, and oil corporations accountable for maintaining human rights standards around the globe.

He explains, “What we are asking for is in the event that a Canadian company is outside of compliance with recognized corporate social responsibility standards, that the minister be empowered to investigate that, and if the they discover a negative finding then the Canadian government would withdraw its financing and the pensioners of Canada would be asked to withdraw any investments.”

On April 22, 2009 the bill passed second reading in the House of Commons with a vote sending it to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development for further study. The results were 137 Yeas and 133 Nays; 132 Nays were attributed to the Conservative party, who are critical that the bill will have a negative effect on the economy. In accordance with the House of Commons Standing Orders, once the House resumes sitting in March 2010, Bill C-300 will be returned to the Standing Committee for further review.

To learn more about Jamie Moffett's film on El Salvador and the story of Marcelo Rivera's death visit Returntoelsalvador.com.

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