The Transnational Nature of Mining-Related Conflicts in El Salvador

• In Event: The Governance and Management of Mineral Resources in Latin America

Abstract

This paper will discuss why a study of the conflicts over metallic mining in El Salvador requires a transnational approach. Although in 2008 El Salvador’s government established a moratorium on all requests for exploration and exploitation mining permits within its territory, conflicts over the activities of the metallic mining industry in El Salvador and beyond have proliferated in this country. Based on fieldwork conducted in 2014 in El Salvador, the paper draws on two current mining-related conflicts that concern a variety of stakeholders. The first conflict, over the El Dorado mining project located in the northern Salvadoran region of Cabañas, is currently the subject of a legal dispute between the Canadian Pacific Rim Corp. and the Salvadoran state. The second conflict, over the Cerro Blanco mining project located in a Guatemalan region bordering El Salvador, involves protests by Salvadoran activists against the Guatemalan government. The paper will argue that in order to understand the origins of the disputes over metal extraction, the rhetoric and legal mechanisms employed by relevant actors, and the short- and long-term impacts of the disputes, we need to approach these “resource wars” as phenomena that occur irrespective of national borders and institutions.

Author

• Ainhoa Montoya, University of London