The mining company takes the NO TO THE MINE to Court
Esquel, Chubut – 10/22/06. The mining company Minera El Desquite S.A., subsidiary of the Canadian company Meridian Gold Inc.1, started a legal action against 6 neighbors of this city arguing that they had disseminated the information related to the mining plans about “changing the will of Esquel”. The action has been submitted to a Court in Buenos Aires, in charge of Judge Luis Schelgel.
Two of the neighbors that have been target of the legal actions work as journalists in FM Station. They had aired the recording that the neighbors had denounced during a press conference. The recording shows a meeting among advisors and heads of Meridian in September 2003 where they strategized to conspire against this community and to twist the population’s decision that had clearly rejected the mining activities based on the hist and the pollution mining produces.
During that meeting, they inform about their connections with the different candidates running for Governor of Chubut Province for the coming elections in 2003; they also mentioned their contacts with Ministers and other representatives of the national government as well. They also talk about using their employees and their families to influence local neighbors meetings, among other measures aimed to get what they call “social license to operate”. But the perversity of what the neighbors had denounced is reflected in one of the sentences one of the heads literally say: “in Esquel, none should know that we will twist the people’s will”.
Due to all this new events, the neighbors organized a well attended Assembly this weekend where they started to discuss the strategies to reject and make public this conspiracy against the community, coming from the mining sector. Among other decisions, people ratified their commitments to the rallies organized every 4th of each month and other local and national actions.
A respectful conspiracy
After the referendum where 81% of the population voted against the mining project, Meridian Gold issued a press release where they said they would “respect the will of the population of Esquel”.
However, a few months after the referendum, in the above mentioned meeting in September 2003, the mining company planned how they would change the popular rejection to the exploitations of a silver and gold mine. Local and US authorities, together with the US consulting firm Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)2 and the local Braga Menéndez y Asociados3 where part of the meeting.
If they go against one, they are going against all
The persecution to half a dozen of neighbors is read in Esquel as an attack to the community as a whole that goes to the streets every 4th of the month in rallies against the mine4.
This way, the decision of going to courts and persecuting neighbors that oppose extractive projects, is made clear. And whatsmore, they are decided to ignore Esquel people's sovereign will against mining projects.
The demand ratifies the total veracity of the decisions taken in that meeting in 2003 and clearly shows there’s a conspiracy to execute the mining project regardless to the fact that it would use open pit mining and cyanide lixiviation methods that had been banned by law in the province of Chubut5.
First legal attack against the neighbors
While tens of communities throughout the country organize non-violently against mining projects, this demand is the first one of a legal attack against neighbors of a mining project.
This persecution has its ideological roots in the argentinean mining laws themselves, that puts mining interests above all community or regional interest. Those laws prioritize fiscal, tariff and currency exchange benefits for national and foreign mining companies.
In this regard, the official mining policy, supported by provincial governments and sponsored by the mining sector, produces all types of harassing to the communities that resist and defend sustainable production and natural goods as water and soil.
——————————————————————————–
1 In the text of the legal action to the neighbors, the company declares that among its shareholders there's a group called Meridian Gold Holdings (Cayman) Ltd., which could suggest a potential headquarter in the Cayman Islands, a well known fiscal paradise and financial center for money laundry.
2 BSR is based in San Francisco and specializes in “responsible social practice” advising companies that face or anticipate conflicts as a result of their activities. Among their clients it is possible to find American Express Company, The Coca-Cola Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric Corporation, General Motors Corporation, IBM, Shell International, Sony Corporation and great mining companies Newmont Mining Corporation, Placer Dome Inc., Rio Tinto plc, among others.
3 This consulting firm advises companies, governments and people in the national and provincial political arena, and they designed the electoral campaign for the actual President Nestor Kirchner.
4 It is worth remembering that the mining company remains in Esquel, with offices and storage site. The government has not withdrawn its “outsourcing” of the deposit, nor its commercial permits and the mining representatives produce permanent conspiracies to be able to explote the mine.
5 The Provincial Law 5001 establishes in Article 1 that metal mining activities are banned in Chubut Province using open pit mining and cyanide leaching in mining production.
ASAMBLEA DE VECINOS AUTOCONVOCADOS DE ESQUEL
sosesquel@yahoo.com.ar www.noalamina.org
Contacts: Matilde Lenzano +54-02945-453713 – Pablo Quintana +54-02945_696341 – Andres Campos +54-02945_502363 – Lino Pizzolon +54-02945_453679 – Silvia Perez +54-02945-454811– Chuni Botto +54-02945-452521.
——————————————————————————–
1 In the text of the legal action to the neighbors, the company declares that among its shareholders there's a group called Meridian Gold Holdings (Cayman) Ltd., which could suggest a potential headquarter in the Cayman Islands, a well known fiscal paradise and financial center for money laundry.
2 BSR is based in San Francisco and specializes in “responsible social practice” advising companies that face or anticipate conflicts as a result of their activities. Among their clients it is possible to find American Express Company, The Coca-Cola Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric Corporation, General Motors Corporation, IBM, Shell International, Sony Corporation and great mining companies Newmont Mining Corporation, Placer Dome Inc., Rio Tinto plc, among others.
3 This consulting firm advises companies, governments and people in the national and provincial political arena, and they designed the electoral campaign for the actual President Nestor Kirchner.
4 It is worth remembering that the mining company remains in Esquel, with offices and storage site. The government has not withdrawn its “outsourcing” of the deposit, nor its commercial permits and the mining representatives produce permanent conspiracies to be able to explote the mine.
5 The Provincial Law 5001 establishes in Article 1 that metal mining activities are banned in Chubut Province using open pit mining and cyanide leaching in mining production.
