Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
San Salvador (Agenzia Fides) - The Archbishop of San Salvador, Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle, in a press conference held in San Salvador’s Cathedral on May 11, warned of the irreversible damages that may be caused by mining projects in El Salvador and asked the government to withhold authorizations of the projects. The Prelate explained that these projects would go against human life and the environment. According to the Archbishop, “if the miners are exploited in this way (with exposure to dangerous chemicals), irreversible effects of contamination are produced, especially of cyanide that produces serious health consequences and that, in light of this, the government should be forewarned not to grant authorization of these projects as such, acting in defense of the people of El Salvador.” The Archbishop of San Salvador made these statements in spite of pressures from a group of people that for some time have carried out protest demonstrations on Sundays, in front of the Cathedral and claim that because of the rejection of the Catholic hierarchy, the government is not allowing this mining.
“In the case of mining metals,” the Archbishop continued, “it is evident that there are dangers and real consequences of subsoil contamination with irreversible effects,” an affirmation that is not only shared by El Salvador’s Bishops’ Conference, but by other Bishops’ Conferences of Central America. For Archbishop Saenz Lacalle, the Bishops above all seek to safeguard the lives of the people of El Salvador who live in the area.
Regarding those who support the “green mining,” claiming that it would offer job opportunities for many people, the Archbishop said that “green mining is an idea used in propaganda, yet it has no identity, it does not correspond to a reality and therefore, it is not worth its being taken seriously.”
In May of last year, the Bishops’ Conference spoke out on this matter through a statement entitled, “Watching out for everyone’s home,” in which they recalled, among other things, that this kind of mining caused irreversible damages to the environment and to the communities in the area and that people suffer serious health consequences from the use of cyanide in large quantities in the extraction of gold and silver. Moreover, the water used in the process of this mineral extraction would surely be contaminated and would spread to the subsoil and rivers that would eventually include a large portion of the national territory and such contamination would have serious consequences on the natural life, as well. In addition, as El Salvador is a small country, the negative effect would be intensely multiplied.
With that in mind, the Bishops state that “as the life of the human person is at stake, although many economic benefits could be obtained, this mining of precious metals should not be permitted in El Salvador. No material advantage can be compared with the value of human life.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 14/5/2008; righe 33, parole 476)
