El Salvador's gold fight goes international

[Ancapagency]

Looks like the message is clear: It's not safe to invest money in El Salvador. I guess I'll be making sure from now on that my micro-investments are in other countries in which I stand to get my money back.

[28guillotine]

just get the point leave el salvador pinches gringos siguen jodiendo el salvador queriendose hacer ricos de los paises pobres y la necesidad de la pobre gente leave leave u dont understand why are this things happening even right now  .......

[CuscaKid]

All Pacific Rim cares about is exploiting our resources and earning huge profits. They don't bring opportunities to my country! They bring misery! Low wage jobs under bad conditions. Along with a handful of engineers who will most definitely be foreigners. Sue the gov, I hope they show up with this innocent, simple and humbled woman who will stand up for her people and demand equality and will fight the destruction of our land.

[CuscaKid]

You know what. I wish E.S. went commie! We would've kicked out every single crooked, selfish, imperialistic sob back to the US like Cuba did. And then we would not have this widespread poverty, high crime, poor healthcare, exploitation of our natural resources and we wouldn't be bullied like this. Pacific Rim does not care about the environment, they have proven that time and time again. They dont care about our people and their quality of life as well as the limited water supply we have.

[iem12]

We the people of el salvador, are people with full commitment to defend our land to the point to give our lives, don't push us in to decitions that eventualy will bring a war, which will only bring, certain sad conscuences that have for resoult only, death among poor people, because of the interst of some powerfull staburn people.

Minig is no eccepted by salvadoreans, leave somewhere else.

[JulioV48]

Lovin the Salvadoran spanish accents :)

[hahahaword1]

Muerte al ejo de puta

[Manongrondines]

I am Canadian on my passport but a strong Quebec separatist. It is a shame that this conservative government have killed what Canada used to be progressive, Human right defensor. Shame on Canada ! Viva El Salvador ! Viva FMLN !

[Overdoseplus]

I can't believe a corporation can bully a country like this.

What a sad world we live in.

[xtrademolition]

PACIFIC RIM BASTARDS GO LOOK FOR GOLD IN CANADA FUCKING CRIMINALS!!

[Kaasko]

Wau, this kapitalist RATS, have an acount one MURDER...

When they't stop?

in hell?

fmlm

frente mesianico para la liberacion mundial

[elmeromero1111]

Stop Raping our country Tom Shrake! your name should be the Shark instead! How would you like if El Salvador did the same to your country and minded Vancouver??? why dont you go and mine our own country and reck it? or is it because it is an ice dump?

[gringapolska]

how disappointing to see canada behaving like the worst of imperialists.Viva El Savador

[Ballplayer300th]

FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU CANADA!!!

[esckms]

Get out of my country you people, Canada is bigger them el Salvador u can do that at your own country y el Salvador ????????

[skippersplaya01]

Fuck you Imperialist Canadians all you want is to get rich from stuff that does not belong to you.

[22bryant]

olimpic metals are not made of gold since the 40'

no kidding

fuck this companies

get them out of our country

[SALVOLOGY]

One thing about El Salvador is that they know every trick in the book..lol. They won't be pulling the wool over their eyes.

[28nefta]

Is not possible for large negosiable are passing on the laws of peoples and sovereign and independent countries which do not pollute natural resources Decean by probechos economicos.en take the case of El Salvador ARENA government allowed this right by his ambition susediera make money and corruption of those who do not care about the welfare of the population.

[28nefta]

Now is time to stop this with the new leftist government FMLN. and no access to a senseless and corrupt demand by these irresponsible company. Which see opportunities to exploit land regardless of the consequences

[alfredoguerrero]

IMPERIALISM at its best...

[777AMAYA]

greedy bastards....all they care about is gold that is not theirs to begin with... i hope everyone at pacific rim and anyone who supports them go to hell.

[tornillo20003]

PACIFIC RIM KILLERS

[MysTerrier]

Pacific Rim Mining has a website fully loaded with address and contact info.

[MysTerrier]

This wouldn't be Gold used for Olympic medals would it?

[LosAngelesPanorama]

"Screw you RIM, El Salvador can denied whatever they dont want in "THEIR LAND" just like USA or any other country can denied worker o work or people to have a permit to work if they believe they "DO NO QUALIFY" for a permit.! Look some place else. How about Canada!"

[solimiansky]

Funes is another Obama, we need action in El Salvador, the Police are killing protestors!

[jeannecitta]

NO MORE MINING!!!!!

[marrytto]

I bet tat all the haters here live in the usa,thats why i allways say get your a*^*s ove here in el salvador and insted of being surprissed and saying"live el salvador" work ove here so we can show them that we dont need them or u think like u said a humble poor litle farmer will understand a f**#*ing word of all of this? lets do what others cant and i think it will be the only way to see our country become independent from any other opressive country.

[Jwgaray]

the needs of the people of El salvador are not listened by their goverment therefore the corruption leads the way in the social lives of it's people, The gold belongs to salvadoreans their voice must be heard, the repudy of the international community is deaf and mute as has always been in latin america. make the case of San Isidro the example for other communities and the beginning of social conciuosness of the people of El salvador WAKE UP.

[MASTERZION911]

No Salvadorean is or has been benefited from mining and as Salvadorean, I am against  mining!

[friendsofbrookpark]

and stop the Merida Initiative, which is the funding mechanism USA is trying to use to militarize the region even more, under the pretext of the "war on drugs".

[frontera2004]

canadian go to hell, let El Salvador be a real country, that gold boloms to the people, not to canada

[pipe360ful]

Never saw this in CNN or Fox News, I wonder why... How dare the Pacifi Rim company is to sue my country. They can go over the National Sovereignty or the will of the people. This is El Salvador not Canada MTF go and sue your own people not ours.

[loverboy930]

my parents are from el salvador i was born n raised in new york ... i think el salvador has every right to deny mining coporation, el salvador is a country full of poverty n the water supply is truly contaminated when i go to visit i always by filterd water from a company similar to polar spring. this just shows that bigger n stronger countries like to pick on the weak countries.

[amaruIII]

i fear the government of el salvador banning mining and sending the message that if corporations like pacific rim can't mine the way they do, then no one can.

[msglace]

Shrake is full of crap. Name me one mining company that has ever held a board room meeting where their primary reason for continuing with a mining venture is "to give most of the money back to the community from whence it mined from" BULLSHIT! load of crap. Shrake you are lousy liar. GET OUT OF EL SALVADOR

[msglace]

El Salvador must reject CAFTA-DR immediately and so must all the other countries that had been effectively held to ransom in order to sign it. We must STOP allowing the USA to exploit, dictate these countries' laws in order for them to suck the life out of these countries and leave them as discarded food scraps already chewed up and spat out.

[mirandamcl]

"robbing the country of its gold?" .. Shrake would still only believe this is all they're being 'robbed' of. What about human rights and environmental security and human security?!

Mahatma Gandhi? Really?

Thanks to TheRealNews and Jesse Freeston for your hard work and passion.

[jayc20091]

Digg/Twitter/Physically speak about what was brought up here. This is important stuff. That man is fooling no one when he claims not to be a conquistador. 100 billion dollars? For not cooperating with one corporation? This is over TWO TIMES their entire gdp. Everyone knows El Salvador can never come up with ANYWHERE near this amount. Google the news story "El Salvadors Debt Rating Lowered by Moodys to Junk" from a day ago. El Salvador's economy is being sabotaged.

[restlys]

i think this is better for our environment than what ive heard comming from copenhagen :P

[blackiron60]

Stopping this mining company was a victory for the people but there must be many more victories like it before there can be real peace and real justice.

[demerc]

If the government was opposed to the mining and the people for it as Shrake says, the government would have found a way to turn back the free trade laws the anterior governments advanced. Instead, the opposition is by the people who are now finding it difficult to turn back the free trade laws but are making their opposition heard. Shrake is a liar, and his plea that his companies characterization as the cliched pillager is patently ridiculous, IS PATENTLY RIDICULOUS.

[demerc]

BTW, another great report REAL NEWS.

[alloypony02]

Emanate Domain is the answer !

[seyoumeye]

this is clear evidence how the corporate is dismantling OUR PLANET fragile ECOSYSTEM...

[0PsycoDad0]

Water is the "new" ressource to become capitalized on.

[VannyARTS]

Well it already is,, here in Colorado. We pay triple for our water even when we have more than plenty.

[Plum369]

These people have the right to make their own laws, even if they don't benefit the US. Imagine that.

[DenisRancourt]

Let's see. We have a poll from the company and a poll from the Jesuit University. Which one are we gonna believe? Let's get a statistician expert from the government to evaluate the two polls... That should revolve this difficult problem? duhhhh.

[soccerkills]

my poor dumb people they don't keep their gold, there are ways of getting gold with out contaminating water.

[bbburton]

Thank Bill Clinton and G.W. Bush for signing into law NAFTA and CAFTA.

[NicosNicosNicosNicos]

Yes, and then corporate news channels call the Alba countries "anti-American" for wanting out of this kind of economic and political straight-jacket.

[LLCoolPass]

After 4 hundreds of years, the Whiteman on Horse still wants to take their Gold.

[fatpius]

Canada/US/GB = same exact thing. exploitation

worldwide.

[0PsycoDad0]

I bet they recogize Fort Knox is empty ( all least away). Now they desperately rush to every oportunity...

[endlessnameless16]

@fatpius You missed Israel there, which controls those 3 nations.

[WellIAMScottish]

Western reign has brought many advancements and also much suffering to the world. As the Western Empire collapses, others will rise to take reign. Only, it won't be one empire, it will be a co-op of peoples. It's going to be tough ride, but in the end humanity and nature will be grateful. That's what I believe. Where do you come in? You help lay the path humanity treads, starting right now.

[marniespeaks]

make the people along with their families who own the company live next to the operation

[zthustra]

The capitalists always have clean hands and believe in the rule of law. Someone else always does their dirty work and their money buys the law. I seriously believe that the corporate spokeman was sincere in everything he said. I doubt they let themselves see how bad they are.

[JasonMelancon]

Incredibly good reporting from this correspondent. If it were up to me, he'd be up for a Peabody or something.

[BankofSpirit]

idiots destroy earth & essentials of life to sell wax apples & grave markers to fools & mine land to plant man. in-dust-trees poison natures plants & factories. aren't plants but plant man in earth. Those who sacrifice time/life to agendas of Corp(se) are living dead & know not that their work, that poisons the life experience of all, insures 'em a 6ft Tall-Mud-Hut for all eternity, 6ft tall underground. Those making a living by putting price tags on things get mud huts & a toe tag in return.

[darktoadthesticky]

A Canadian Mining Company murdered a man? Why am I not surprised.

[javy926]

Thanks "theRealNews" for this information otherwise we will never know how this huge corporations violate human rights in order to make profits using tax payers money from our government in this so called FTA's no wonder people hate America so much.

our politicians show us a much different and unreal side of this deals.

[notscooter952]

canada. not the states.

[javy926]

The transnational is based in Canada (Pacific Rim)but used a subsidiary Commerce Group based in Nevada to brin the law sue; that's why this case is so special. Pacific Rim owns 60 % of gold minnig around the world but they are not part of CAFTA so they used an American subsidiary to use CAFTA central american free trade agreement.

Is like you separate from your wife but your sister in law is suing you for damages.

[theresponderful]

Commerce Group is the name of another US corporation that is suing El Salvador in a similar suit. The subsidiary of Pacific Rim is called "Pacific Rim Cayman", which was originally in the Cayman Islands and then moved to the US in 2007 (presumably in advance for filing the CAFTA claim contingency plan).

[mangotwiss]

I hope what you are doing to this vulnerable ppl in EL SALVADOR comes TO YOUR SHOULDERS. IT IS CALLED KARMA.

SUE THE COUNTRY FOR MILLS OF DOLARS FOR NOT GIVING YOU THE MINING Licenses because THEY ARE EXPERIMENTING RIGHT NOW WITH DISEASES.

GET OUT OF THERE, LEAVE SALVADOREAN ALONE. THEY ARE BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOUR SUPPOSED "HELP"

YOU BASTARDS!

[AAAAkuuuu]

Damn devils only understand aggression. How dare a company sue the country for refusing it?! Destroy their machines.

[flyhead2]

This was surreal rhetoric from Shrake.

Screw these corrupt free-trade agreements and the World Bank.

[bishop102]

free trade is getting fucked

[xandras1111]

at $1,100 / oz and rising, nobody will give a fuck about environmental issues or human rights

[javy926]

seems like some humble farmers in "El Salvador" really care about the enviroment and the well being of their community.

[vict1019]

Thank you for this. It's information I would have never heard.

[radiantfluxify]

the laws protect the land from destuction but we all need money and they can dig it up to get rich and produce still nothing its nuts the effects money can have in all it;s forms all money is the same this is why history repeats it;s self over and over trying to build an empire with same old ideas money is god now aday s gold wont help thier country what will is learn to work the land for the peoples of elsavador the right way farm garden repsect you land!!!

[TheBigHo111]

The people do not want you there, leave.

[navtel]

piss off tom, i hope you lose your case.