On Saturday, thirty-two-year-old Dora “Alicia” Recinos Sorto was shot dead near her home. She was eight months pregnant, carrying her two-year-old son. Sorto and her husband were both active members of the Cabañas Environment Committee, which has campaigned against the reopening of a gold mine owned by the Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Company.

Last week, Ramiro Rivera Gomez, the vice president of the Cabañas Environment Committee, was shot dead by heavily armed men despite having been under twenty-four-hour police protection. Another anti-gold-mining activist, Marcelo Rivera, from a nearby town was kidnapped and murdered in June.

 According to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), violence against local  activists has risen sharply since residents successfully blocked mining permits sought by Pacific Rim. The company claims that denying its permit violates the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement and is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the Salvadoran Government.

Community members are calling for a full investigation into what many believe is politically motivated, systemic violence against local environmental activists. Currently, the Attorney General of El Salvador is treating each case as an unrelated act of crime.

On the CISPES website there is a detailed call to action, including sample email messages that people are urged to send to Rodolfo Delgado, the head of the Organized Crime unit of the Attorney General's Office of El Salvador (radelgado@fgr.gob.sv). Any messages should urge the Attorney General's Office to 1) Create a special team with the National Civilian Police to investigate these murders and threats against environmental activists and 2) investigate these cases exhaustively and impartially and bring all those responsible for these crimes to justice.

Please keep this community, especially the family and friends of the deceased, in your prayers.