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In Guatemala, last Sunday, nine out of 10 voters in the town of Asunción Mita rejected the Cerro Blanco project by a Canadian mining company that seeks to extract gold and silver in that area, which borders El Salvador.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM) did not take long to ignore the initiative, calling it “illegal”. he stated in a statement that “he is unable to recognize the validity of the results of the process”, considering that the mining issue is exclusive to the central government and that the consultation was carried out despite a court order that prevented it.
“Extractivist interest”
“The Municipal Code refers to the fact that citizens can request the Municipality to carry out a consultation process within the framework of the effects that could be developed on a project. It refers to the fact that, if 20% of the registered population is reached in the consultation that is carried out, it will be of a binding nature for the municipality. And the municipality has the power to grant or not grant construction licenses,” explains Omar Flores, representative of the National Roundtable Against Metal Mining, an association from El Salvador.
According to him, the words of the MEM reveal “the extractivist interest that the government wants to defend, referring to some assertions covered by supposed legality. For example, they speak of a process that began and that this process determined the suspension of the citizen consultation, when the Municipal Council was never notified of this supposed suspension. And so far the Municipal Council has not received any notification.”
“Main source of drinking water”
El Salvador was the first country to ban this type of extraction five years ago. “Cerro Blanco itself could seriously and aggressively contaminate the waters of our main source of drinking water supply, which is the Lempa River basin, which runs through, let’s say, almost all of El Salvador. But we are water dependent, because these waters are generated in our neighboring countries of Honduras and Guatemala. It helps us to supply water to more than a million and a half people and to the rest of the communities that are outside the banks of the Lempa River, because it is a great concern,” emphasizes Omar Flores.
In Guatemala, there is a long history of social conflicts around extractivism. A year ago, President Alejandro Giammattei imposed a state of siege in the municipality of El Estor to put an end to the protests against a Swiss mining company.
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