This is a matter of mining versus life. In a matter of weeks, the World Bank could decide whether the tiny Central American nation of El Salvador will have to dish out millions of dollars to mining giant OceanaGold for rejecting its proposed gold mine. 90% of El Salvador's water is contaminated already. And OceanaGold's mine would ruin the country's last remaining clean water.
“El Salvador has the right to reject the mine to protect its water and people. But now, the Canadian-Australian company is suing El Salvador for a whopping $301 million in a World Bank tribunal, under investor laws that allow corporations to shamelessly sue countries.
The World Bank tribunal is due to make a decision soon. As a public international institution, it is susceptible to public pressure. If we're going to get it to throw out this case, we need to stand together and show how deeply unpopular this case is.
Sign the petition telling the World Bank to throw out OceanaGold's case!
Allowing OceanaGold to go ahead with the mine could be disastrous. It would pollute El Salvador's last bit of clean water, something the country has been fighting tooth and nail to protect after decades of reckless industrial activity. Without clean drinking water, Salvadorians will be at risk of waterborne illness and food shortages.
Stopping OceanaGold is not just about helping El Salvador. If OceanaGold gets its way it could set a dangerous precedent, making it easier for companies to sue countries when their laws or policies hurt profits. That's why we're also working hard to kill two shady international trade deals (TTIP and TPP) that would allow companies to do what OceanaGold is doing to El Salvador.
In this campaign, hundreds of thousands of SumOfUs members have stood with El Salvador from the very beginning -- last year we delivered almost 200,000 signatures to OceanaGold together with our amazing partners. We've also pressured AMP, a huge Australian investment fund and one of the largest investors in OceanaGold to tell the company to drop the lawsuit.
If we're to win this campaign, we've got to take it to the next level. The World Bank will be making a decision imminently. We need to give one big push to make sure the tribunal stands with the people of El Salvador and throws out this ludicrous lawsuit now.
Ask the World Bank to let El Salvador protect its water from corporate exploitation.”
It may turn out that El Salvador is forced to buckle under to an inherently anti-democratic and sham legal process that makes them accept environmental destruction and the further poisoning of their water supply. A legalized equivalent to a mafia shakedown is in progress: ‘Either allow us to poison your land and water, or you’ll pay a price.’ Only a partially insane civilization would allow this to go on.
If El Salvador had a radical government, one whose primary allegiance was to human rights, public health and environmental protection, they would simply refuse to engage in this legal proceeding, and thus put a question mark over capitalist extraction of earth’s resources with little to no regard for environmental or human consequences.
Ideally we’d have a global environmental legal structure that would enable seizure of corporate assets and arrest of corporate executives who commit the kinds of environmental crimes we see in El Salvador. The CEO of OceanaGold might be dragged in front of an international environmental crimes court and face life in prison. It’s a goal worth thinking about and acting on.
In essence, the ability of corporate capitalism to threaten a country’s food and water supply, and hence its public health, has a higher standing in international law than a country’s right to say no to these assaults.
