{"id":187179,"date":"2021-06-01T15:40:22","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T15:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/humanrightsdefenders.blog\/?p=20422"},"modified":"2021-06-01T15:40:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T15:40:22","slug":"book-review-of-the-water-defenders-tells-the-story-of-environmental-defenders-in-el-salvador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/01\/book-review-of-the-water-defenders-tells-the-story-of-environmental-defenders-in-el-salvador\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review of \u201cThe Water Defenders\u201d tells the story of environmental defenders in El Salvador"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Toward Freedom<\/a> of 31 May 2021 Charlotte Dennett<\/em><\/strong> reviews the book “The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed<\/em><\/strong>“. It is a very uplifting story that teaches a lot about how to continue a sometimes hopeless-looking case <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

At a time when all caring people are seeking a new way forward out of a year of unimaginable death, destruction and rampant inequality, along comes a book that gives us hope that a better world may be possible. The book, recently published, is based on a struggle in a small section of a small country\u2014El Salvador\u2014beginning in 2002, when a group of \u201cwhite men in suits\u201d entered the province of Caba\u00f1as and tried to convince poor farmers that gold mining would be good for them. Their resistance, done at great peril and resulting in the assassinations of some of their leaders, ended up years later in a landmark case against corporate greed, garnering support from around the world. The basis of their success lies in the most fundamental of human needs: Water, for which left-right antagonisms fall apart once the deadly consequences of mining\u2019s misuse of it\u2014including causing cyanide poisoning\u2014become patently clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authors Robin Broad and John Cavanagh have brought us this amazing David versus Goliath story in their new book, The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved A Country from Corporate Greed<\/em>. Their first-hand accounts of working with front-line communities, both in El Salvador and in the United States. provide lessons along the way about how to fight an immensely powerful entity and win, whether the enemy be Big Gold, Big Oil or Big Pharma (to name a few). As they write in their introduction, \u201cYou may find yourselves surprised to find the relevance of the strategies of the water defenders in El Salvador, whether your focus is on a Walmart in Washington DC; a fracking company trying to expand in Texas or Pennsylvania, or petrochemical companies outside New Orleans.\u201d By the end of the book, they added relevant struggles in countries like Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, as well as in South Africa, South Korea, and India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with John Cavanagh, I asked if he and Robin had an inkling of the huge ramifications of their story right from the beginning, and his answer was decidedly no. In fact, when they first got involved, back in 2009, they never expected to win. They knew what they were up against and had no illusions. As they wrote about the ensuing years of twist-and-turn battles lost and won, the authors described a combination of events that made the water defenders\u2019 decades-long struggle unusual\u2026 Yet now, with lessons learned, replicable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their involvement with the water defenders began in October 2009. That month, the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a progressive organization \u201cdedicated to building a more equitable, ecologically sustainable, and peaceful society,\u201d invited a group of Salvadorian water defenders to accept IPS\u2019s annual Letelier Human Rights Award for their struggle against Pacific Rim (PacRim), a huge Canadian gold-mining company that sought permits in El Salvador. [See: https:\/\/www.trueheroesfilms.org\/thedigest\/laureates\/06351cb8-8cc0-4bdd-ac3a-2f7ee5a0b553<\/a>]That year\u2019s award was particularly poignant because one of the awardees, Marcelo Rivera,<\/strong> had been assassinated the month before. Five people still came to Washington, with Marcelo\u2019s brother, Miguel, traveling in his place. Leading the delegation was a small-statured, seemingly nervous Vidalina Morales. But when she stepped up to the podium at the National Press Club and began her acceptance speech, her voice filled the room with a sense of urgency. She described the dangers of gold mining\u2014for drinking water, for fishing and for agriculture. By the time she got to explaining the use of toxic cyanide in separating the gold from the rock, she had the audience\u2014including the authors\u2014mesmerized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Miguel
Miguel Rivera in front of anti-mining mural in his town in northern El Salvador \/ credit: John Cavanagh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another factor made this occasion different. Cavanagh, who is the director of IPS, explained that usually the awardees arrive in Washington to accept their awards and return home. But on this occasion, \u201cThey asked for our help. El Salvador had just been sued by PacRim in an international tribunal that argued that El Salvador had to allow it to mine gold or pay over $300 million in costs and \u2018foregone profits.\u2019 They also asked if we could help them with research on companies involved in gold mining.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John had previously engaged with IPS in fighting against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and had become familiar with the tribunal and the rules set by the World Bank involved in regulating a global economy. Robin Broad, for her part, had written her doctoral dissertation and first book on the World Bank, and she had worked on the bank at her job with the U.S. Treasury Department in the mid-1980s. But she was less familiar with the workings of the tribunal the World Bank had set up in 1964, \u201cThe International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).\u201d Its mission was to hear cases brought by foreign investors demanding compensation for lost profits from countries that tried to limit or regulate their activities. The couple figured they could be helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we were drawn in,\u201d John explained, while emphasizing the extraordinary role local Salvadorans played in educating local communities about the dangers of landfills and then the dangers of gold mining. It was their groundbreaking work, often under dangerous conditions, that had earned them the Letelier award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened next is a remarkable story of a growing North-South alliance that eventually went global, succeeding in two monumental victories: 1) a decision by ICSID in October 2016 that rejected PacRim\u2019s claims for damages, while ordering the corporation to pay El Salvador $8 million in costs, and 2) the world\u2019s first-ever comprehensive metals mining ban, brought by the El Salvador legislature in March 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up until 2016, Cavanagh explained, \u201cwe never thought we would win.\u201d But that did not stop the momentum of coalition building, which had begun as early as 2005 by local village defenders, human rights advocates, farmers, lawyers, Catholic organizations and Oxfam America. They united to call themselves the National Roundtable on Metallic Mining, or La Mesa Frente a la Mineria Met\u00e1lica\u2014La Mesa for short. Their ultimate goal, beyond building resistance at the local level, \u201cseemed like a pipe dream,\u201d the authors wrote. That goal? \u201cGetting the Salvadoran Congress to pass a new national law banning metal mining.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, spurred on by their quest to find out who was responsible for Marcelo\u2019s murder, the water defenders and their international allies yielded a treasure trove of insights on how to fight the Men in Suits, regardless of the outcome. Here are just a few lessons learned from their struggles described in the book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n