Mining in El Salvador

Mining in El Salvador to extract gold and other minerals from beneath the surface can be traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century but has generally been halted due to policy changes in the last two decades.

[10] ARENA came into power during this time, and in the subsequent years developed an ideology centered around economic reforms that would attract foreign investment as the country recovered from the costly war.

[1] The left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), originally a guerilla movement during and directly after the civil war, launched their presidential campaign with then-journalist Mauricio Funes as their frontrunner between November 2007 and March 2009.

The Lempa's watershed covers almost the entire country, and thus the potential contamination from mining sites placed in the territory pose a risk of long-lasting damage to environmental and human health.

[13][14] As a transboundary watershed shared with Guatemala and Honduras and on which El Salvador is located downstream, Salvadorans have also been concerned about the impacts of mining and other industrial activities performed in neighbouring countries.

[2] This issue has been highlighted by the Asociación de Desarrollo Económico y Social (ADES) organization, located in Cabañas, El Salvador, who seek to address the alleged long-term environmental impacts of metal mining.

In 2007, Archbishop Fernando Sáenz Lacalle announced that the El Salvador's Church leadership was overall anti-mining within the country, based upon the argument that environmental concerns outnumber likely economic benefits.

[5][7] This move solidified the Catholic leadership as the first organization to define environmental protection as more important than economic growth,[7] mirroring the growing social sentiment of this same vein within El Salvador.