The five detainees include leaders of the campaign that won the world’s first metals mining ban in 2017 — a ban the cash-strapped government may be moving to overturn.
The New Era of Extractivism — And How to Defeat It
El Salvador had to fight a multinational mining firm to protect its own water. It’s a sign of struggles to come — but also an inspiring example of how to win them.
Water Is Life. Can We Protect It?
Americans will have to fight hard to protect their water from corporate greed. They can learn a lot from El Salvador.
Abusive North American Companies Pay Off Latin American Police to Harass Critics
In countries like Peru, extractive industries contract police to suppress Indigenous protesters and detain international observers — including me.
How Mining Companies Use Excessive Legal Powers to Gamble with Latin American Lives
In more than two-thirds of the mining-related lawsuits against governments in the region, communities have been actively organizing against the mining activities.
How Local, Grassroots Organizing Drove El Salvador’s Mining Ban
U.S. environmentalists take note: El Salvador’s activists proved that a national consensus on environmentalism can be forged one town at a time.
A Huge Mining Conglomerate Wanted to Poison This Country’s Water. After a Long Fight, They’ve Finally Lost.
After a long struggle, El Salvador just proved that with enough civil society support, even a very poor country can stand up to powerful global mining firms.
In the Keystone Suit, It’s Big Oil vs. Democracy
A Canadian oil conglomerate is suing the U.S. over its actions to protect the climate. It’s a small taste of what could come under the TPP.
What “Free Trade” Has Done to Central America
Warnings about the human and environmental costs of “free trade” went unheeded. Now the most vulnerable Central Americans are paying the price.
The Fight to Keep Toxic Mining—and the World Bank—Out of El Salvador
Hundreds of protesters recently gathered at the World Bank to shame a gold mining firm’s shakedown of one of Central America’s poorest countries.