Communication From Catholic entities confronting growing mining projects in panamá

The earth has blood and is bleeding, the multinationals have cut
the veins of our Mother (Beloved Amazon, 42).

           On World Environment Day, various movements, associations, Pastoral groups and religious
congregations of the Catholic Church of Panama signed this statement expressing our concern about some
actions and processes currently in play that are turning Panam into a “mining country”. The fact is:
Panama is granting more than 25000 acres of land between Coclé and Colón to be used for mining.
Negotiations with international mining companies without consultation of the Panamanian people and
affected communities is evident and concerning. International mining deals are occurring without the
inclusion of actors who oppose this new mining model for the country. Lastly, the continuous mention of
the areas of the Ngäbe-Bugle Region without respecting the clear rejection of these populations to mining
and a special law that prohibits such activity in their territories is concerning.
 
          Examples of environmental damage, combined with weak institutionality and corruption, have been
caused by the mining issue over the last few decades. To mention a few: abandoned mining sites, such as
the Santa Rosa mines in Cañazas and Petaquilla in Molejón have left serious environmental damage and
precarious situations for nearby communities. So far, the Panamanian state has not been able to resolve
these dangerous situations. Another painful example, little known to the Panamanian people, is that the
Panamanian state paid an American mining company nearly $16 million in November 2020, in the midst
of a pandemic. When a World Bank arbitration mechanism ruled in favor of the company that wanted to
follow its illegal activity in Cerro Chorcha of Ngäbe-Bugle Region (ICSID case ARB/16/13).
 
          Among the various mining-related issues that concern us, we can mention environmental damage, its
weakness as an economic model, and the lack of participation of affected communities in decision-
making…
 
         Caring for Our Common House: As part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, Panama enjoys
being one of the most biodiversity-rich places on the planet. As believers, we see in that blessing the
commitment to care for our common house. The language adopted by mining companies and
governments (clean, sustainable, green) are completely false expressions that negate the
irreparable and non-mitigable damage that this industry innately creates. As Pope Francis mentioned
in Laudato Yes, “exports of some raw materials to satisfy markets in the industrialized North have
produced local damage, such as mercury pollution in gold mining or sulfur dioxide in copper mining.” As
the current example of Molejón (Laudato Si', 51), mining in the context of Panama destroys vast expanses
of tropical forest.

These damages are not mitigated by the planting of monocultures elsewhere, just as monocultures are not
“reforestation”. “The replacement of wild flora by forested areas with trees, which are generally
monocultures, is not usually the subject of adequate analysis” and can “seriously affect a biodiversity that
is not hosted by new species that are implanted” (Laudato Si’ 39). Water use and pollution is also
significant. Mining, at last, is a finite activity that when it depletes resources only leaves destruction,
desolation and little capacity for environmental regeneration.
 
Seeking Fair Economic Models: The justification by the government and other entities such as the Inter-
American Development Bank in boosting mining activity at this time in order to reactivate the post-
pandemic economy.
On this issue, we wish to echo our Bishops from Central America, who said that “not every investment is
desirable; this is the case with mining.” The countries of the region, including Panama, “have weak
foreign investment laws and lax regulations that do not guarantee that pollutants such as cyanide are

handled safely for the health of the population” (SEDAC, November 26, 2010). We must bear in mind
that Panama is a small country with very fragile ecosystems, so it is necessary to lay the foundations for a
green economy and circular production that benefits us all along with the environment.
Instead of accepting a mining “development” model that has caused serious inequality in other countries,
with a healthy post-pandemic vision, we aim to seek “an alternative, integral and supportive development
model, based on an ethic that includes responsibility for a true natural and human ecology. Ideally, it will
be based on the gospel of justice, solidarity and the universal destiny of goods, and that it will overcome
utilitarian and individualistic logic, which does not submit to prioper ethical criteria of economic and
technological powers” (Aparecida, 474.c). It is time to stop seeing God’s creation simply as “market
goods.”
 
Respect the Dignity of All Populations.

It is also worth mentioning that experiences with the mining industry in the country, as well as in all
countries, have been of little consultation and respect to the populations concerned. Manipulation and
corruption dominate rather than aim for a mutual dialog.

Therefore, the Bishops of Central America have pointed out that they have not “developed legitimately
recognized mechanisms of consultation that allow the affected communities to be informed truthfully and
to assert their demands” (SEDAC, November 26, 2010). The Pope says in Laudato Si’ that “forecasting
the environmental impact of undertakings and projects requires transparent political processes and is
subject to dialog, while corruption, which hides the true environmental impact of a project due to
common usage of ‘favors’ and unethical ‘exchanges’, usually results in spurious agreements that avoid
informing and debating widely” (182).

In these processes, populations have every right to say “no” to the
imposition of these mega-projects that will completely change their lives in a negative way. We highlight
the example of the consensus reached by the Ngäbe and Bugle indigenous peoples in Law 11 of 2012 not
to allow the metal mine in their territories, agreements that national and international agencies should
respect.
Pope Francis states in Querida Amazonia that “they do not respect the right of the original peoples to the
territory and to its demarcation, to self-determination and to prior consent, they must be given the names
that correspond to them: Injustice and crime” (14). The feeling of these words also applies in non-
indigenous territories, where rural populations continue to suffer from the unjust imposition of these
harmful projects.
 
Based on the above, we demand…
{ that the relevant institutions open up a space of wide and authentic dialog that involves all actors and
does not rule out a total mining moratorium as a result of the process.
{ That the Ministry of Trade and Industry suspend the new concession of 25 thousand hectares until the
above-mentioned process is completed (Resolution No. 89 may 12, 2021).
{ That the government effectively comply with the recent existing Escazú Agreement that applies to the
processes of true participation of the affected communities in the decision-making that affects them.
“We cannot fail to recognize that a true ecological planting always becomes a social planting, which must
integrate justice into discussions about the environment, in order to hear both the cry of the earth and the
cry of the poor” (Laudato Si’49).

Translated from Spanish by Chloé Bergeron

June 5, 2021 (Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente)

Movimiento Laudato Si´ Panamá
Red Eclesial Ecológica Mesoamericana capítulo Panamá (REMAM)
Comisión de Justicia y Paz
Universidad Santa María la Antigua (USMA)
Pastoral Social/Cáritas
Pastoral Afro Panameña CEP
Solidaridad y Misión Panamá (SOMI) – Misioneros Claretianos
Pastoral Migrantes, Vicariato de Darién
Coordinadora Nacional de Pastoral Indígena (CONAPI)
Pastoral de la Tierra, Misioneros Claretianos, Semaji
Pastoral Universitaria (CRUV)
Pastoral de la Cultura CEP
Pastoral Penitenciaria
Congregación de San Vicente De Paul, Región de Panamá
Juventud Católica Ngäbe, Soloy
Equipo de Pastoral Indígena Arquidiocesano (EPIA)
Pastoral Indígena Diócesis de David
Misión Agustino Recolecta, Changuinola
Instituto Esclavas del Sagrado Corazón de Santa Caterina Volpicelli
Hermanas de la Misericordia
Oblatas del Corazón de Jesús
Legión de María
El Instituto María de la Américas (MARILAM)
Equipo Latinoamericano para la Promoción del Cambio Sistémico
Misioneros Seglares Vicentinos Panamá (MISEVI)
Sociedad de San Vicente de Paul (SSVP)
Fundación Nuestra Señora del Camino
Pastoral Juvenil de las Hijas de Caridad
Consejo Parroquial Inmaculada Concepción, Concepción
Parroquia San Vicente de Paúl, Soloy
Sector Pastoral Renacimiento, Chiriquí
Fundación Héctor Gallego
Movimiento de Profesionales Católicos – Panamá
 
Allied Groups:
Comité Cívico Torremolinos
Fundación Humanitas
Movimiento Ascanio Villalaz Paz
Fraternidad Cristiana de Personas con Discapacidad (FRATER)
Alianza Estratégica Nacional
Movimiento Anticorrupción de Veraguas