People's Anti-Mining Struggle in El Salvador Highlights The Perils of Global Trade Deals
People's Anti-Mining Struggle in El Salvador Highlights The Perils of Global Trade Deals
Thu, 6/11/2015 - by Ethan Nuss
Earlier this spring, I was part of an international delegation of election observers that traveled to the community of Nueva Trinidad in northern El Salvador to observe an act of direct democracy where the people would vote “Yes” or “No” on whether to allow metallic mining in their community. This type of popular referendum is crucial at a time when decisions that impact people's lives and communities' health are increasingly controlled by corporate boardrooms – and courtrooms – that serve only profit.
The U.S. Congress recently debated legislation to Fast Track an expansive free trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would impact a large swath of the global economy. If approved, Fast Track means that the sweeping trade deal, which has been negotiated in secrecy over the last six years, could be approved without amendments or public input.
The TPP would outsource millions of American jobs, strip consumer protections and accelerate climate change through the expansion of fossil fuel development. One of the most frightening provisions of the TPP would expand transnational corporations' ability to sue governments for any regulatory protections that might hinder access to corporate profit – a point that brings us back to El Salvador, where the Canadian mining corporation Pacific Rim, now a subsidiary of OceanaGold, is using provisions under existing free trade agreements to sue the government of El Salvador for $300 million, claiming it lost profits due to its revoked permit to mine.
With numerous cases like this pending in international investor courts, and other secret trade deals hanging in the balance, it raises the question: Who should be making mining decisions for these communities? Seeking insight to this question and others, our international delegation of observers traveling to El Salvador included representatives from mining-impacted communities in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as observers from the U.S., Canada and England. The week-long journey took us through the past, present and future realities of metallic mining in El Salvador.
See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/peoples-anti-mining-struggle-el-salvador-highlights-perils-global-trade-deals?utm_source=Website+%27Join+Us%27&utm_campaign=b2f2d8d677-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_77fe4a462d-b2f2d8d677-73717741#sthash.CVomXAx3.dpuf
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