Municipality of San Jose Las Flores declared the first territory free of mining in El Salvador
 September 21st, marked another historic day for San Jose Las Flores, a sleepy town nestled among the hills of the department of Chalatenango, as it voted to protect its natural resources against the effects of the metal mining industry and to become the first territory free of mining of El Salvador.
On September 22nd, a delegation led by Mayor José Felipe Tobar announced at a press conference in San Salvador that 67% of those community members listed in the official National Electoral Registry cast their vote; of those, 99 percent voted to ban mining in their territory. (READ MORE) |
While the future of metal mining in El Salvador is being decided by a panel of expert arbitrators who will determine whether El Salvador violated its investment law for not issuing a mineral exploitation permit to Pacific Rim Mining corporation, hundreds of thousands of people in El Salvador and around the globe took actions to denounce the close door proceedings and to demand that the company, now owned by Australian/Canadian OceanaGold, withdraw its law suit. 
El Salvador and Pacific Rim Mining, which recently was acquired by Australian company Oceana Gold, closed the final episode of litigation yesterday at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for the concession of exploitation in Salvadoran soil to which the transnational corporation claims to have the right. Salvadorans, meanwhile, argue that the concession never existed. (
More than 99 percent of the communities voted against mining projects in their territory in a consultation held on Sunday, with a participation rate of about 68 percent. Only five people voted for mining projects, while 811 voted against, with three blank votes, out of the 1,115 able to vote in the municipality.On Monday, the Council of the municipality of San Jose Las Flores, Chalatenango state, revealed the results and declared their territory the first one “free of mining” in El Salvador.
