MINING

February 16 – 17, CAMEXPA, CARITAS for the Central America, Mexico, and Panama region, held a forum on mining in San Salvador. Fr. Efraín asked me to go as the Santa Rosa CARITAS representative. The meeting was very informative, with representatives from all five Central American countries, as well as representatives from CARITAS Spain, Catholic Relief Services, and the Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros.

Though I doubt much has been heard of the mining issue in the US, all five Central American countries as well as several countries in South America and Africa have experienced serious conflicts over mining of metals, especially gold and silver.

Each country at the forum presented one of the conflicts, emphasizing the church’s role in helping the people respond to the danger proposed by the mining industries.

The problems are many and distinct in each country, and even in different parts of a single country. But the first major concern is the damaging effect of mining on the local environment.

Much of the gold mining uses open pit mining and most use a cyanide leaching process which uses cyanide to separate the gold from the crushed rock. Not only does this uses an incredible amount of water but there is the danger of contamination of water and the land with cyanide as well as other toxic chemicals used in the process. In our region a mine released cyanide into a stream a few years ago; many fish were killed and the drinking water for Santa Rosa de Copán was contaminated. Near another mine in Honduras in the Valle de Siria near Tegucigalpa there have been major health problems, including serious skin rashes and lesions.

Another concern is that the companies get their concessions from the national governments, almost always without the consent of the local population. Also, in Honduras and El Salvador the mining companies only pay 2% tax.

How do they get away with this? A major cause is probably the rampant corruption in the region, where there is more than a little greasing of the palms of politicians.

The lack of information easily available is one problem. The meeting suggested putting information on the regional CARITAS CAMEXPA website and also the preparation of materials in a popular style which will make the information available to the people most affected, many of whom have had limited educational opportunities.

The lack of organization of local people is a major factor. But CARITAS groups throughout Central America have been working with local people in many places to pressure local and national government bodies to change laws and regulations and to have careful monitoring of any mining activities.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done in this area, but it is encouraging to see that CARITAS and the church here in Central America – and throughout the world – is struggling at the side of the people affected.

It gives me great joy to be a part of this.