NO MINING LINK IN CABANAS MURDERS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 000009

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/01/08
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM ES
SUBJECT: NO MINING LINK IN CABANAS MURDERS

REF: 09 SAN SALVADOR 712; 09 SAN SALVADOR 790

CLASSIFIED BY: RBlau, CDA, DOS; REASON: 1.4(D)


1. (C) Summary: Embassy has looked into a controversial set of
murders in Cabanas department, many of which are the subject of
intense NGO scrutiny in the United States. On January 5, PolOff
traveled to Cabanas to discuss the murders of local environmental
activists with local government officials, police chiefs, a GOES
human rights ombudsman, and anti-mining groups. The anti-mining
activists, closely linked with the left-wing Farabundo Marti
National Liberation Front (FMLN),told PolOff they believe that
these murders are an organized campaign to silence
environmentalists. The activists and NGOs that support them claim
that the Pacific Rim mining company is behind the killings. These
assertions ignore two related murders of a pro-mining couple in the
same small town of Trinidad. While questions remain about the
brutal murder in June of Marcelo Rivera, we believe the Trinidad
murders are unrelated to Marcelo's killing and rather are linked to
family and political rivalries in the town. End Summary.



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The News Story: Anti-Mining Activists Killed

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2. (SBU) On June 19, 2009, Marcelo Rivera, an anti-mining activist,
was kidnapped and murdered in San Isidro, Cabanas (see reftels A
and B). An autopsy revealed he had been held in captivity and
tortured for several days prior to his death. On December 20,
anti-mining activist Ramiro Rivera (no relation to Marcelo) was
shot and killed in the rural town of Trinidad, Cabanas. Six days
later, Dora Santos Rodriguez, wife of Santos Rodriguez, a close
friend of Ramiro's and a witness to his murder, was also shot to
death in Trinidad. Local media coverage focused on these victims'
ties to the anti-mining movement in Cabanas, which since 2006 led
an aggressive and ultimately successful campaign to block the
establishment of a gold mine by the Pacific Rim mining company. On
December 29, the FMLN published full page ads in local papers
decrying the "campaign of terror" against environmentalists and
implicitly linked local authorities and Pacific Rim to the crimes.
Pacific Rim responded on January 6 with a statement condemning the
"false accusations made by certain anti-mining groups" and denying
involvement in the murders. Pacific Rim maintains a small
workforce in the country, including administrative staff and
security personnel to protect their landholdings in Cabanas.



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The Left's View: A Vast Mining Conspiracy

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3. (C) PolOff met with Francisco Pineda, president of the Cabanas
Environmental Committee, Hector Berrillos, the Committee's
attorney, and representatives from the National Anti-Mining Working
Group to discuss the murders. The group told PolOff that the June
2009 murder of Marcelo Rivera and the Trinidad murders in December
are "part of a terror campaign by Pacific Rim to silence
anti-mining activism." They allege that several other members of
the anti-mining movement have received threatening letters and text
messages since Rivera's killing.




4. (C) Pineda and company told PolOff that because the murderers
used expensive M-16 rifles and "sophisticated tactics" in the
Trinidad attacks, only well-financed, professional killers could
have carried them out. (Note: Military-grade weapons are readily
available on the local black market and routinely used in criminal
activities. End note). According to the group, only Pacific Rim
and its right-wing local government allies had the motive,
resources and local knowledge necessary to plan such attacks. They
also pointed to several investigative mistakes and inconsistencies
in the authorities' working hypothesis in the Marcelo Rivera case
(see para 5) as evidence that Pacific Rim may be financing a
cover-up. These accusations against Pacific Rim contradict the
view of the National Anti-Mining Working Group's own attorney, Luis
Francisco Lopez, who told PolOff in a separate interview that he
has "no evidence" linking Pacific Rim to the crimes. Still, Lopez
and his clients agreed that authorities had been negligent in the
Marcelo Rivera investigation and had deliberately ignored signs
that "political and economic interests" were behind the Rivera and
Trinidad murders.
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The Authorities' View: Gang Killing and Family Feud

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5. (C) Cabanas's National Civilian Police (PNC) Commander Oscar
Bogran told PolOff that the PNC's and local prosecutor's joint
investigation concluded that Marcelo Rivera was kidnapped and
murdered by gang members because he refused to give them his
backpack. The PNC arrested five suspected gang members for the
crime in July. However, the GOES human rights ombudsman in
Cabanas, Carlos Rodriguez, told PolOff in a separate conversation
that this theory does not fit autopsy results showing Rivera was
held in captivity for several days before his death. Rodriguez
also said authorities mistakenly buried Rivera's body before the
autopsy was complete, later exhuming it to finish. He believes
that the authorities' weak working hypothesis in the Rivera murder
and their mishandling of evidence created mistrust in the
anti-mining movement and encouraged the "conspiracy theories" the
movement has since promoted.




6. (C) Regarding the Trinidad murders, PNC Chief Bogran told PolOff
that the anti-mining group's version of events ignores the murders
of two other, pro-mining individuals in Trinidad. Together with
the activists' murders, these were the only killings in Trinidad
during 2009. The pro-mining victims, Horacio and Esperanza
Menjivar, were a moderately wealthy couple with long-standing ties
to the conservative National Republican Alliance (ARENA) party.
According to Bogran, the Menjivars and Rivera had engaged in an
increasingly tense political rivalry in recent years. Bogran said
both had established competing local-development working groups in
Trinidad and had several heated confrontations regarding land
access, mining, and local politics. Horacio was shot and killed in
April 2009. In August, Horacio's son, Oscar, was arrested for
attempting to murder Ramiro Rivera. Esperanza was killed in
October. Based on the families' rivalry and evidence that the
Menjivars' son tried to kill Rivera, the PNC believes the Rivera
and Rodriguez murders in December are revenge killings by someone
close to the Menjivars. Bogran also said it comes as no surprise
that the killers used M-16s, because many people in rural Cabanas
own such high-caliber weapons. He said these arms are holdovers
from the Salvadoran civil war, in which Cabanas was a major
conflict zone.



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COMMENT

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7. (C) Embassy has, since June, urged a thorough investigation into
the Marcelo Rivera case. We approached the Attorney General, PNC
director, Human Rights Ombudsman and the Archbishop of San
Salvador. Although we were satisfied with the sincerity of their
commitment to investigate the case(s),such investigations are
fraught with errors all too common to Salvadoran law enforcement.
They reflect the systemic weaknesses of a criminal justice system
in which fewer than five percent of homicides result in a
conviction. Despite these irregularities, there is absolutely no
compelling evidence, nor credible motive, linking Pacific Rim to
these murders. For now, we believe it is prudent to wait until
more details on the investigation emerge during the gang members'
court hearings before passing judgment on the authorities' case.
The case is scheduled to be heard in February.




8. (C) On the Trinidad murders in December, all evidence indicates
these are revenge killings related to the previous murders of the
Menjivar couple. The anti-mining movement's accusation that
Pacific Rim and their political allies in ARENA are carrying out a
"terror campaign" does not fit with the facts of these cases, which
even the group's lawyer admits. Additionally, President Saca, near
the end of his (ARENA) administration, cancelled the contract with
Pacific Rim, leaving it to the Funes (FMLN) administration to
settle the company's claim that it was treated unfairly. The
debate about mining is, as a result, over. The lingering
allegations do, however, reinforce the troubling political
polarization infecting public debate over El Salvador's ongoing
public security crisis. End comment.
BLAU