[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 12, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S4515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          VIOLENCE AGAINST ANTIMINING ACTIVISTS IN EL SALVADOR

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I want to speak briefly about some 
troubling developments in El Salvador, which should concern us all.
  On June 14, 2011, the body of Juan Francisco Duran Ayala was found 
with a gunshot wound to the head in the Soyapango Municipality of San 
Salvador. He was reportedly last seen alive on June 2 in Ilobasco, 
Cabanas, posting flyers critical of gold mining in that area, the day 
before he disappeared. In addition to studying at the Technological 
University in San Salvador, Mr. Duran had volunteered for the 
Environmental Committee of Cabanas in Defense of Water and Culture. His 
death is one of a shocking number of instances of violence against 
antimining activists in Cabanas.
  In 2009, Gustavo Marcelo Rivera went missing for nearly 2 weeks 
before his body was found on June 30 in a well with signs of torture. 
Mr. Rivera was the cofounder of the Asociacion Amigos de San Isidro 
Cabanas, and was a vocal leader in the anti-mining campaign in San 
Isidro, Cabanas. Since Mr. Rivera's death, at least eight other members 
of the antimining community in Cabanas have reportedly been killed, 
including Mr. Duran, and yet it is still unclear who is behind this 
pattern of deadly violence.
  There have also been recurrent threats against the lives of 
journalists at Radio Victoria, which broadcasts in that area.
  Cabanas is located in the north central part of El Salvador and has a 
long history of gold mining. Pacific Rim Mining, a Canadian company 
that acquired a large mine named El Dorado, was the subject of Mr. 
Rivera's and Mr. Duran's protests. Now that their voices have been 
silenced, people in that community are demanding thorough, credible 
investigations of these crimes, both to obtain justice for their 
families and in order that future activists can exercise their right to 
speak out peacefully without losing their lives.
  Unfortunately, El Salvador is a country where criminal investigations 
rarely result in arrests, and those that do almost never result in 
convictions. Impunity and corruption within the police are common, as 
in many other countries of the region. Some accuse local police and 
municipal officials of complicity in the harassment and threats against 
antimine activists and the radio station, and point to the fact that no 
one has been punished for these crimes.
  To compound the problem, judicial independence, already fragile, is 
under threat in El Salvador. On June 2 the Salvadoran Legislative 
Assembly approved a decree which requires the five members of the 
Constitutional Court to rule unanimously instead of with the previous 
four person majority. The law was approved with the support of a broad 
spectrum of political parties.
  The vote was reportedly in response to a number of unpopular 
decisions by the Court over the past 2 years. The passage of the decree 
threatens judicial independence in a country where the Court has only 
recently demonstrated a willingness to act as a check on executive and 
legislative power. That is the role of the judiciary in a democracy, 
and the outcome of this impasse will have profound implications for the 
country.
  El Salvador has been through a difficult history. The 1980s civil war 
polarized the country and those who suffered most, the rural poor, are 
still struggling to recover. The country's democratic institutions are 
weak, particularly the judiciary. The country is coping with rampant 
violent crime, and the infiltration of well financed criminal gangs 
into all sectors of society.
  In the midst of this, the brutal slayings of people like Juan 
Francisco Duran Ayala and Gustavo Marcelo Rivera might be regarded as 
little more than a grim statistic, soon to be forgotten. But we have 
not forgotten them. All indications are that they did nothing more than 
act as the voices of people in their communities who are concerned that 
their way of life, and the land they depend on, is being destroyed.
  We know the Funes Government is coping with many problems. We are 
helping, by providing tens of millions of dollars to support programs 
in health, education, economic development, and to strengthen law 
enforcement. We provided additional funding to help the country rebuild 
from the devastating floods in November 2009. But there is no more 
important responsibility of government than upholding the rule of law. 
The urgent necessity of the message that would be sent to all the 
people of El Salvador by bringing the perpetrators of these crimes to 
justice cannot be overstated.

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