Public Citizen

Pacific Rim Mining Corp. is a Canadian-based firm attempted to establish a gold mine in the River Lempa basin, El Salvador’s largest river. This generated a large debate about the health and environmental consequences of mining in El Salvador, an already water-stressed country, and leaders and organizations began to express concerns. The firm responded by filing a claim under the CAFTA demanding compensation for not being able to drill in El Salvador. This article explains the case between Pacific Rim and El Salvador, and how Pacific Rim has used CAFTA to demand hundreds of millions in compensation.

https://www.citizen.org/documents/Pacific_Rim_Backgrounder1.pdf