news

Also in this section:

Environmentalists join forces against Petaquilla
Graciela Dixon picks up support, opposition

US-RP tensions going beyond Pedro Miguel González

Roadside campaigning in Chame - San Carlos
Panama News Briefs

The presidentially approved absolute defiance of Panama's environmental laws and Petaquilla's refusal to take even the most basic measures to control runoff from their strip mine is already silting streams and ruining the neighbors' traditional economies. This flagrant disregard for the neighbors downstream enhances fears of what's to come when Richard Fifer's company starts pouring cyanide into the environment, as gold mining operations typically do in order to separate the metal from the rocks in which it is found.  Photo by ANCON

Usually meek environmental groups unite against strip mining

by Eric Jackson

On November 12 a collection of 10 environmentalist organizations, most of which had so far hesitated to say anything the least bit critical of the Torrijos administration or its development policies, gathered at the Hotel Ejectivo for a press conference at which they requested a national moratorium on strip mining and blasted the Cerro Petaquilla gold mine that's underway despite the lack of an environmental permit or the legally required procedures to get one.

(Minera Petaquilla and its promoter, former Cocle governor Richard Fifer, went ahead with their strip mining project and sued the government in the Supreme Court to overturn the environmental laws, tying the matter up legally while they race to create a fait accompli of environmental destruction now and pay a nominal fine later. Fifer, who's facing charges that he put phantom employees on the provincial payroll and stole aid from Spain intended for the Museo de los Hermanos Arias Madrid in Penonome while governor, has President Torrijos's backing, which in turn translates into the politically compromised courts' failure to order an immediate stop to the project while the litigation proceeds.)

The National Association for the Conservation of Nature (ANCON), the Panama Audubon Society, the Panamanian Center for Social Studies and Action (CEASPA), the Environmental Intervention Center - Panama (CIAM), the International Center for Environmental Empowerment (CICA), the MarViva Foundation, the Pro Mar Foundation, the Albatross Foundation, Panama Verde and the Private Nature Reserves Network issued a press statement and unveiled an open letter to President Torrijos, the latter pleading for "a reasonable moratorium on mining activity and especially open pit metal mining, so that Panamanian society, in an open and transparent debate, can decide if the conditions under which this activity is carried out are consonant with the country's best interests."

The previous day, photographers from ANCON had taken photos on the ground and from the air of the Petaquilla gold mine project, and these were screened during the press conference. Meanwhile, various of the conference participants noted the various legal actions, civil and criminal, that had been taken against that project but which are all stalled in the courts. Most notably the National Environmental Authority (ANAM) has sued to stop the project because there were no proper environmental impact studies submitted as required by law, and much less the public hearings and other scrutiny that such a study must undergo before ANAM approval. The photos taken on the ground were done despite a company cordon with checkpoints along the roads into the area, designed to keep environmental activists out and tending to force the long-time local residents to move away. Commenting on the proofs her organization presented, ANCON's Alida Spadafora alleged "irreversible destruction, not just on land, but also at sea." In light of the investments that Panama has made to promote ecotourism, she added, strip mining is "very negative for the country's development." Spadafora also noted that there are "social, moral and ethical questions involved."

The Petaquilla mine is in the midst of the Meso-American Biological Corridor, an area that's part of an unbroken string of forest reserves running from Mexico to the Darien and that's theoretically protected by Panama's adherence to the international agreement to create it. However, this country has generally not enacted the implementing legislation to make this protection legally binding and even had it done so under the current administration there has been a concerted effort to override the legal protections afforded national parks and nature reserves. "There is more than one criminal complaint against Petaquilla," La Prensa journalist and CIAM director Lina Vega Abad noted, "but they're doing away with the rule of law in Panama." Vega promised continuing litigation but warned that "there is no guarantee what will happen."

"We look on in horror," said Audubon Society leader Rosabel Miró, referring to the social effects of the Petaquilla strip mine. The Audubon Society, which traditionally advocates for birds, is also concerned about that. "There are endangered birds in this forest," Miró pointed out. "Very few countries have these types of areas."

Architect Raisa Banfield, better known as a leader opposing inappropriate urban development projects, attacked Petaquilla and other strip mining projects from an economic point of view. The damage, she said, extends beyond the boundaries of the mines themselves to affect surface and ground water supplies. While to politicians who have more immediate motives the government's income from such projects may look attractive, she argued, "what the national government gets doesn't compensate for what the nation loses."

Petaquilla responded to the press conference in two ways. At the event itself a long-winded defender grabbed the floor to defend the project, pointing out that it will create another Atlantic-Pacific road connection. Then, a couple of days later, it was announced over the Internet that the secretary of the Torrijos administration's National Security Council, Marcel Salamín, has been hired as a director of Petaquilla's copper mining project. Salamín, a veteran apparatchik from the Torrijos - Noriega military dictatorship, submitted his resignation to the president but according to some published reports Martín Torrijos was hesitating to accept it.

Also in this section:

Environmentalists join forces against Petaquilla
Graciela Dixon picks up support, opposition

US-RP tensions going beyond Pedro Miguel González

Roadside campaigning in Chame - San Carlos
Panama News Briefs