Benigno Orellana, the community's representative to the Municipal Council in Nueva Trinidad, says, "Right now, the permission is for exploration, later it will be for exploitation." He's worried:
"If the mining companies come in, it will be worse than the twelve years of war. This is a project of death for our communities and a project of wealth for those who exploit us. They will leave behind a desert where we can't sustain our crops, can't feed our animals, and can't get water to drink."
That’s a fate people in Carasque aren't willing to accept – after surviving decades of violence and repression, they are not about to allow a mining company to force them off their land.
Earlier this year, the Salvadoran government granted two Canadian companies – Au Martinique Silver and Intrepid Minerals – licenses for gold exploration in the department of Chalatenango, near the Honduran border. Au Martinique’s website promises investors that "El Salvador has the lowest risk profile for investment in all of Central America." But what they haven't taken into account is the region's strong history of community organizing, and the lengths its people are willing to go to defend their land and their livelihood.
