Catholic Church in El Salvador calls on president to maintain ban on gold mining

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 3, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church in El Salvador has asked President Nayib Bukele not to repeal the 2017 law that prohibits the mining of metals, including gold, following the president’s announcement of his intention to lift the measure in order to tap into those resources.

“We hope that our authorities will reconsider and not repeal the law that prohibits mining, protecting the health and life of our people,” San Salvador Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas said in a Dec. 1 video statement.

The statement was issued after learning of Bukele’s intention to repeal the law, which the president announced in a post on X, stating: “We are the ONLY country in the world with a total ban on metal mining, something no other country has in place. Absurd! This wealth, given by God, can be used responsibly to bring unprecedented economic and social development to our people.”

In addition, Bukele said that “God placed a gigantic treasure under our feet: El Salvador potentially has gold deposits with the highest density per km² in the world.”

The Salvadoran president also noted that “studies carried out in only 4% of the potential area identified 50 million ounces of gold, valued today at $131.565 billion. This is equivalent to 380% of El Salvador’s GDP.”

The use of this wealth, Bukele said, “could transform El Salvador: create thousands of quality jobs, finance infrastructure throughout our country, drive the development of local economies. And all this with modern and sustainable mining, caring for our environment.”

‘Caring for our common home and mining’

Before reading his statement, Escobar recalled some excerpts from a message from the Secretariat of the Central American Bishops, published Nov. 29, which emphasizes the commitment of the Catholic Church to caring for creation, expressed by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Sí’.

“We urgently call on governments to adopt responsible and sustainable policies that respect the dignity of peoples and our common home, and that don’t allow exploitation by mining, since it is necessary to prioritize human life and the environment over economic interests that perpetuate social and ecological damage,” the message states.

Returning to his statement, the archbishop of San Salvador warned that El Salvador “couldn’t sustain more pillaging through mining that would increase deforestation, erosion, and loss of fertile soil.”

Escobar warned that “the most serious” harm would be “water and air pollution, causing death and illness in an irreversible manner,” especially among the poorest people.

“Our people, already vulnerable due to the victimization to which they have been subjected by large national and international capital, would now be revictimized and in the worst way, since pollution from cyanide, mercury, and other lethal toxins would worsen health problems and premature death in an irreversible manner,” the archbishop continued.

The Salvadoran prelate also charged that “if a good part of our people are already suffering from kidney failure due to water pollution caused mainly by pesticides, the suffering would be even worse due to the serious damage to other vital organs.”

In conclusion, the archbishop asked for God’s light “to find ways to economic development without harming the life and health of our people, the Salvadoran people.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.