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Written by Jason Wallach  
Sunday, 27 December 2009
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2279/74/

Six days after heavily armed men took the life of a respected
anti-mining activist in Cabañas, El Salvador, another prominent
community leader has been assassinated. On December 26 at 3:30 pm Dora
?Alicia? Sorto Rodriguez, 32, was killed as she returned from doing
laundry at the river near her home in Cantón Trinidad, in the
municipality of Sensuntepeque, Cabañas. ?Alicia,? as she was known to
friends, was eight months pregnant and carried her 3-year-old son in
her arms as she was shot dead. The child was shot in the foot and is
receiving medical care.

Since 2005, many Cabañas residents like Sorto Rodriguez have been
involved in a fierce battle over whether the US/Canadian Pacific Rim
Mining Company can re-open the shuttered El Dorado gold mine. Late last
year, outgoing President Tony Saca responded to local pressure and
negated Pacific Rim?s permit applications for gold extraction.
Activists are concerned that re-starting the mine will threaten local
water supplies and ruin their ability to grow crops. Supporters?mostly
Pacific Rim employees and their families?see the revival of the mine as
a source of job creation and economic development.

Alicia Sorto Rodriguez together with her husband, José Santos
Rodriguez, were active members of the Cabañas Environment Committee.
Santos Rodriguez holds a position on the CEC Board and was attacked
with a machete for his anti-mining views in May 2008. According to
Hector Berríos of MUFRAS-32, the now-deceased Alicia recently told
fellow CEC activists that armed men showed up at the couple?s home
looking for her husband. She said that he had not been present at the
time.

Sorto Rodriguez?s murder has further shaken Cabañas, a region which was
already reeling from the Dec. 20 killing of the Vice President of the
Cabañas Environmental Committee (CEC), Ramiro Rivera. Rivera had been
the target of a previous attacks and was under police protection at the
time of his murder. The police presence, however, did not deter the
hitmen, who rode up to the side of the Rivera?s pick-up as he drove and
shot him repeatedly in the head and chest. A passenger in Rivera?s
pick-up was killed and a teen girl was injured. According to elfaro.net, a fourth passenger escaped by running into the woods.

Information for this article was taken from a report by Hector Berríos,
MUFRAS-32, previous Upside Down World reports, and recent coverage in
the Salvadoran press.