{"id":5107,"date":"2019-10-17T12:50:25","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T12:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ofmjpic.org\/?p=5107"},"modified":"2019-10-18T12:55:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T12:55:02","slug":"uisg-conducts-seminar-on-the-mining-activity-on-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofmjpic.org\/en\/uisg-conducts-seminar-on-the-mining-activity-on-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"UISG Conducts Seminar on the Mining Activity on the Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A three-day JPIC Seminar on the negative impacts of extractive industry and the response of the Catholic organizations was\u00a0convened by the\u00a0JPIC Office of the\u00a0UISG (International Union of Superiors\u00a0General) at the\u00a0Casa La Salle<\/em>\u00a0in Rome on September 25\u00a0\u2013\u00a027. May have joined\u00a0on behalf of\u00a0their\u00a0religious and\u00a0secular\u00a0organizations to share experiences and propose joint actions to the dangerous threats of mining companies.\u00a0<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

About\u00a0forty\u00a0participants\u00a0from different Continents\u00a0shared\u00a0their\u00a0achievements and challenges in the face of aggression by transnational mining companies that take advantage of situations of institutional weakness in developing\u00a0Countries and\u00a0exploit\u00a0precious\u00a0mineral\u00a0deposits in their territories. The basic methodology of the seminar was\u00a0\u201csee, judge and act,\u201d which defined the structures of the seminar and the final document.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various lectures and\u00a0panel discussions\u00a0were given with simultaneous translation: English, Spanish, French and Italian.\u00a0The Franciscan presence\u00a0was significant. One of\u00a0them was\u00a0Br. Rodrigo\u00a0P\u00e9ret,\u00a0who\u00a0stood out in the organization, coordination and moderation of\u00a0the\u00a0sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is noteworthy that countries that sponsor mining companies and have deposits of precious\u00a0minerals\u00a0put great legal\u00a0requirements\u00a0on them to exploit their territories. It\u00a0makes\u00a0easier for them to venture into legally unprotected\u00a0regions\u00a0that are\u00a0governed by\u00a0personages of\u00a0low moral quality.\u00a0It\u00a0lends\u00a0themselves to dirty businesses and\u00a0allows companies to\u00a0propose development projects to\u00a0local\u00a0communities by offering them basic services that they do not have such as work, health, education, recreation, etc.\u00a0But they are promises\u00a0that are never fulfilled\u00a0since,\u00a0at the end of the\u00a0mining\u00a0projects,\u00a0the communities\u00a0become\u00a0more impoverished\u00a0and their\u00a0environment\u00a0as\u00a0lethally poisoned\u00a0as\u00a0the localities\u00a0must be abandoned.\u00a0Once\u00a0companies\u00a0obtained juicy profits, they would\u00a0leave the\u00a0region\u00a0and disappear from the national and international legal scope so that there is no one to claim and demand reparation for damages caused. In addition to these serious damages,\u00a0mining projects\u00a0undermine\u00a0social\u00a0coherence\u00a0causing violence,\u00a0aggravating\u00a0crime against\u00a0the defenders of\u00a0human and environmental rights and\u00a0accelerating\u00a0the corruption of institutions and people. The list of defamations, persecutions and murders they have promoted is very long.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my participation,\u00a0I had the opportunity to\u00a0elaborate on\u00a0the theme \u201cThe presence of the\u00a0OFM\u00a0JPIC Office in the fight against mining in El Salvador.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0I shared\u00a0our way of accompanying the socio-environmental organizations.\u00a0For more than 10 years,\u00a0we were able to experience the progress of awareness\u00a0in\u00a0communities at the local level,\u00a0to\u00a0carry out campaigns to disseminate reality in El Salvador at the national and international level, to support vulnerable people and ask for international help\u00a0against\u00a0the companies, such as\u00a0Pacific Rim of Canada and Oceana Gold of Australia and Commers Group of USA.\u00a0At the same time, we\u00a0promoted\u00a0the creation of a national\u00a0legislation\u00a0against mining that protects the environment mainly soils and water for a decent life and coexistence. The efforts focused first on accompanying the Salvadoran State to the World Bank and its legal arm, the ICSID (International Center for\u00a0Settlement of\u00a0Investment\u00a0Disputes) where our\u00a0Country had been sued for a disproportionate amount of US $ 250 million. In the end,\u00a0the court unanimously ruled\u00a0in favor of El Salvador, forcing\u00a0the\u00a0companies to leave the national territory and pay 60% of the procedural costs that in more than 10 years already amounted to 12.2 million. It was also opportune to share in the\u00a0international\u00a0seminar, having achieved the approval of the\u00a0anti-mining legislation, which was promoted by our organizations, reflection tables and technical support,\u00a0petitions, organized\u00a0demonstrations and\u00a0strong\u00a0alliances.\u00a0We also have\u00a0created\u00a0conditions for the support of faith\u00a0groups\u00a0with forums, workshops, homilies, prayers, vigils and pilgrimages,\u00a0etc.\u00a0Particularly, in the concluding stage, the Catholic Church pressed\u00a0the government\u00a0by presenting\u00a0of\u00a0public petitions\u00a0to the Congress so that\u00a0they approve the\u00a0new legislation\u00a0they had in their hands. And it was so that on March 29, 2017,\u00a0the metal mining prohibition law in El Salvador was passed unanimously by the congressmen,\u00a0which\u00a0make\u00a0El Salvador the first country to\u00a0win\u00a0this victory in favor of life, health,\u00a0coexistence\u00a0and care\u00a0for the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both achievements were presented and applauded\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0seminar, which motivated\u00a0us\u00a0to continue working\u00a0on\u00a0the care of the environment.\u00a0There was an opportunity\u00a0to talk about the other\u00a0campaigns\u00a0for\u00a0struggle that are being waged in El Salvador, such as the promotion of a\u00a0legislation for water, support for peace\u00a0campaign, monocultures, housing projects, monitoring\u00a0over\u00a0mining companies\u00a0so that they\u00a0do not stalk communities waiting for a socio-political situation that allows them to return to the load.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u00a0would like to conclude it\u00a0by thanking the JPIC Office of the General Curia, Br. Jaime Campos and\u00a0Br.\u00a0Rufino Lim, for having been willing to include and disseminate the experience of El Salvador\u00a0in this important seminar on mining.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n