Local environmental activist Juan Francisco DurĂĄn Ayala of El Salvadorâs Cabañas department was found dead June 16, in an open field in the Lamatepec district of Soyapango municipality, outside San Salvador. DurĂĄn Ayala went missing on June 3âa day after hanging up posters and distributing flyers in his hometown of Ilobasco opposed to a gold mine operated by the Canadian Pacific Rim corporation. (See map.) He had continued his public opposition to the mine despite having received numerous threats. Activists are expressing outrage that his body was promptly buried by authorities in a “common grave” in the capital’s Bermeja cemetery. The Environmental Committee of Cabañas (CAC), the National Board Against Metal Mining and the local Radio Victoriaâwhose operators have also recently received threatsâare demanding that the national authorities reveal what they know in the case and launch an aggressive investigation. DurĂĄn is the fourth Pacific Rim opponent killed in El Salvador in the last two years. (Mining Watch, June 20; LaPĂĄgina, San Salvador, June 18; FSRN, Diario CoLatino, San Salvador, CAC statement, June 16)
See our last posts on El Salvador, Central America, and the mineral cartel in Latin America.
Please leave a tip or answer the Exit Poll.
