In El Salvador, Francisco Pineda, a subsistence farmer, is embroiled in a fight to protect the land he loves from a company that will stop at nothing to achieve its goals: The Pacific Rim Mining Corporation.
They touted themselves as a "socially and environmentally responsible company" (as noted on their signage for their $1.6 million El Dorado mining undertaking). The mayor of San Isidro, Jose' Bautista, tried to assuage fears, insisting that the company wasn't coming into the community to exploit them. He pointed to the school classrooms and hospital improvements the company had undertaken.
The film shows Thomas C. Shrake, President and CEO of Pacific Rim Mining, testifying about the El Dorado project, claiming that the mine was designed to maximize environmental concerns. He stated, "The ways we protect the water are numerous." He also states that Pacific Rim employees are told to use "Gandhi as a behavior model."
(Note: The Canadian-Australian company OceanaGold acquired Pacific Rim Mining in 2013. They sold El Dorado in 2019.)
Water availability is a significant problem in El Salvador, especially as 90 percent of surface water is contaminated. The local residents had major concerns when a river dried up in 2004. They followed the river to its source and found that Pacific Rim had installed pumps extracting water in such high volumes that Pineda explained that in one hour, they had pumped out the same amount that an "average family" would use in three decades.
Gold mining uses extensive amounts of water while releasing lead and arsenic, both heavy metals. The information that two tons of cyanide per day are used in the mining process is paired with images of children in the river and women washing clothes. DuPont cans of cyanide are on the scene as viewers learn that the amount equal to a grain of rice is deadly to humans.
Pineda evangelizes about the hazards to the local population. He organizes twenty-six groups while initiating the Cabanas Environment Committee. After Mayor Bautista declines to get involved, a race for a new mayor is underway.
It's impossible to look at the political dynamics without considering the impacts of El Salvador's brutal civil war (1972-1992). A continued fear of confronting the powers in charge remains. During the struggle, over 70,000 civilians were killed by the military and death squads. The FMLN left-wing rebels promised equality and social justice. The Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) is anti-Communist and promoted private land ownership over land rights.
Pineda defined his campaign as an authentic quality of life concern against financial profits. He supported a law that "prohibits metallic mining in El Salvador". He spearheaded marches accompanied by Catholic clergy, whose backing gave gravitas and momentum to the anti-mining cause. Possibly due to national polling findings in 2009 taken prior to the election, President Mauricio Funes banned all mining, officially ending mining in El Salvador.
With this door closed, Pacific Rim strikes back by taking a legal route. They sue El Salvador for $300 million on the premise of a violation of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). It is a move, that if successful, would irrevocably impact the country's economy.
In the summer of 2009, Pineda began to receive death threats. A colleague is slain and dumped in an abandoned well. Pineda hires bodyguards. By December, there is another activist killing and people are disappearing. The re-elected mayor suggests that the anti-mining groups were the culprits, creating a "martyr for the cause". Also offered as a deflection is the excuse of "gang activity".
It takes ten years, but El Salvador wins its case against Pacific Rim. The company must reimburse the country $8 million in legal expenditures. The Attorney General of El Salvador gave specific credit to the people of San Isidro. In 2017, the Congress of El Salvador became the first country to "ban the mining of gold and all other metals". (Note: In December 2024, under President Nayib Bukele of Oval Office fame, the ban was overturned. The only opposition came from environmental advocates and the Catholic Church.)
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Berta Caceres stands as an example of courage and leadership to women, Indigenous rights advocates, and environmentalists worldwide. A defender of the Lenca people and the "sanctity of nature", Caceres fought to guard the Gualcarque River in Honduras. She elucidated, "It signifies life." With its sustenance of medicinal plants and its necessity for growing food, Caceres saw her fight to preserve the river as an "honor".
National politics again is a backdrop. In June 2009, a constitutional crisis precipitated the removal of President Manuel Zelaya by the army (he was exiled to Costa Rica), despite the United Nations calling for his reinstatement. When interviewed, Zelaya asserted that the coup was in response to the "socio-economic policies that my government took to gain market freedom". He suggested that his oil purchase from Hugo Cha'vezï ? ? ž of Venezuela had antagonized European and American oil companies. During his time in office,ï ? ? he worked with Caceres and recognized the claims of "ancestral land rights."
The Lenca people, with a population of 450,000, are the largest Indigenous group in Honduras. Referencing the government allowing international businesses to come into Honduras, Caceres informs, "We are experiencing one of the greatest handings over of sovereignty that we've seen in the past five hundred years." She spoke of the takeover of river resources and the approval of over 1400 mining and hydroelectric concessions.
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