El Salvador Continues To Sound The Alarm Over Guatemalan Gold Mine

Desperate to ward off what they claim is a “slow and sure danger” to residents in El Salvador, frustrated opponents of “Cerro Blanco” – a Canadian-owned gold and silver mine under preparation just over the border in Guatemala – are now hoping for help from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Chile Divided Over Corporate-Friendly Fisheries Bill

Against the objections of artisan fishers, environmental groups and some opposition lawmakers, Chile’s Congress is inching closer toward approving a controversial government-backed overhaul of the country’s fisheries regulations.

El Salvador In The Cross-Hairs Of Climate Change

Sobering studies by development organizations, government offices and UN agencies continue to underscore what many in El Salvador say they have already learned first-hand: climate change is a real and present danger for the disaster-prone Central American country.

World Bank Helps Canadian Miner Continue Its Pursuit Of Salvadoran Gold

Civil society groups lobby to keep mining out of El Salvador (zambomba/flckr)

El Salvador has already paid dearly for its trend-bucking decision not to open up the country to foreign mining interests. The government has had to shell out millions of dollars in legal fees to fend off arbitration suits filed by jilted mining firms. For anti-mining groups operating on the grassroots level, the high-stakes standoff has been even costlier: at least four Salvadoran activists have been murdered in recent years.

Legislature Finally Turns Its Attention To El Salvador’s Water Woes

El Salvador’s Rio Lempa (IUCNweb/Flickr)

For the million or so residents of greater San Salvador whose faucets run dry on a regular basis, the message they received in late April from the Administración de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (ANDA) was a familiar one: “It’s going to be a while.”

Chile’s Sea Lions In The Cross Hairs

Lobos marinos in Chile's Region V (Naturaleza/Flickr)

Under pressure from both artisan fishermen and lobbyists with the powerful farmed salmon industry, Chilean authorities are revisiting a 17-year-old hunting ban on one of the country’s most iconic species: the South American Sea Lion.

Billion-Dollar Deluge Socks El Salvador

Tropical deluge '12-E' caused widespread damage in October, 2011 (YouTube)

The devastating tropical depression that pounded Central America for 10 days last month won’t go down as the deadliest act of Mother Nature to strike disaster prone El Salvador. But when it’s all said and done, tropical storm 12-E, as it was officially called, is likely to be one of the costliest.

El Salvador Wins First Round In Bout With Mining Companies

Marcelo Rivera was kindapped and killed for his opposition to foreign mining interests (credit - elsalvadordoc/flickr)

El Salvador has won an important first victory in an ongoing, high stakes showdown with North American mining companies desperate to access the Central America nation’s precious metals reserves.

El Salvador Declares First Environmental State Of Emergency

Years after neighbors of a now defunct battery factory first began airing concerns about toxic lead pollution, the Salvadoran government has finally declared a state of “Environmental Emergency.” Long overdue, the declaration – the first of its kind in El Salvador’s history – is “better late than never” for residents of San Juan Opico, where dangerous levels of the heavy metal have sickened well over 100 children.

Chile’s Piñera Pulls Plug On “Barrancones” Power Plant

Six months into his presidency, Sebastián Piñera – Chile’s first conservative head of state since dictator Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) – continues to prove a penchant for perplexing his more liberal opponents.