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Asociación Comunidades Ecologistas Usuarias del Golfo de Nicoya CEUS del Golfo
Press Release Immediate Publication
CANADIAN MINING COMPANY FACES SERIOUS PROBLEMS IN COSTA RICA
Canadian Mining Company Glencairn Gold Corporation faces serious problems in Costa Rica since it acquired the fraudulent mining rights of the Bellavista Mining Project, given during Miguel Angel Rodriguez' Administration, the corrupt former president, who is under arrest and in solitary confinement today in his country.
MIRAMAR, COSTA RICA, October 20, 2004.- Faced with the many cases of corruption recently discovered in Costa Rica in which two former presidents, together with former members of Parliament, as well as several public servants of Miguel Angel Rodriguez' (1998 - 2002) government are involved, the Association of Ecologist Communities of the Gulf of Nicoya, does not discard the possibility that the Canadian mining companies that invested almost 62 million dollars, paid some bribes to get the mining rights.
The best known corruption episodes up to now involve representatives of both major parties related to the Finnish loan for the modernization of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, the Spanish loan for hospital construction, the French Alcatel which received a contract for 400.000 GSM lines, the Spanish company INABENSA in charge of putting into tubes the electric wiring of 350 blocks in San José, the Spanish group Union FENOSA, responsible for the hydro electrical project in La Joya and donations made by the Taiwanese government to the OAS Secretary.
Faced with, all these facts and due to the masked bribes discovered in the granting of permits and concessions, community and ecological organizations asked immediately for an investigation into the permits granted to the Canadian mining companies Glencairn Gold Corporation and Vannessa Ventures in Costa Rica.
In spite of all the technical and scientific recommendations made by experts about environmental non-viability, the Bellavista mining project in Miramar in Montes de Oro, did receive the environmental permits in January 2001, authorizing the operation of open sky mining in the Upper Area of Rio Ciruelas, an area of great importance in the supply of potable water, agricultural activities, cattle –watering, and fishing in the Nicoya Gulf.
Glencairn would operate this mine in Bellavista without having an environmental impact study, since Rodriguez' government approved it by way of the Environmental Negotiation Plan controversially promulgated by the Environmental Impact Study. This plan includes the disconnection of the water fountains Montezuma I & II, connected to the local aqueduct around the middle of the last century, breaking apart everything established in the environmental legislation of Costa Rica and jeopardizing the water supply of thousands of local citizens. Likewise, in July 2000, during the Rodriguez administration, public employees of the Geology and Mining Department, in a capricious interpretation, authorized the change in the open sky tunnel extraction technique, without fulfilling the steps pointed to by this department.
Officers of the National Environmental Technical Secretariat (SETENA), of Geology and Mining and the same Environment and Energy Ministry, affected the decision of four of the five aldermen and the municipal mayor of Montes de Oro, to initiate negotiations with the mining project authorized by Miguel Angel Rodriguez. We must remember that by the end of last May, the Director General of SETENA, technical department advisor of the Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE), was arrested while trying to bribe officers with ten thousand dollars and nine bottles of whisky to 'help with' the environmental viability of a huge urban project, in which other members of this institution may be involved.
In September 2002, the actual minister, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, nephew of the corrupt former president, following the questionable environmental policy of his uncle, questioned the indefinite moratorium on open sky gold mining projects decreed by President Pacheco at the beginning of his administration, and sent a letter inciting Glencairn to buy the controversial environmental rights of Bellavista mines, granted in January 2001.
Even though the construction of the Bellavista mine started in December 2002, without the necessary permits of the Health Ministry, The National Housing And Town Planning Institute (INVU), the Montes de Oro and without the authorization to cut down the trees, Minister Carlos Manuel Rodriguez never made any attempt to stop the illegal operation of this mine. A similar situation happened when this same officer acted as Vice Minister of MINAE during the first two years of Rodriguez Administration, a period in which he allowed the illegal extraction of gold by a Canadian company, Lyon Lake Mines in Beta Vargas, located in La Pita de Chomes, Puntarenas.
With all these facts, and due to the bribes discovered in the granting of electrical and telecommunication concessions , CEUS del Golfo de Nicoya will supply proof to the Public Ministry of relations between Costa Rican politicians and Canadian diplomats who mediated for the approval of the permits of Bellavista Mines.
This last 6th. of October, the Administrative Environmental Court, an office related to MINAE, 240 days after the first accusation presented by the Miramar neighbors, and after two field inspections in which the mining company did not allow entrance to the accusers, made public a preventive measure against the Bellavista Mining Project, prohibiting any mining activity in a range of 200 meters to protect the water supplies, as the Water Lay established, ignored up to that moment.
The Court decision was supported on October 18 by the Municipal Council of Montes de Oro which rejected the request made by a mining company, so the municipal representatives disconnected the water sources of Montezuma I and Montezuma II. If this decision stands, Glencairn will not be allowed to construct the mine that already exceeds by 9 months the date of the approved plan.
This municipal reversal happened in spite of the support recently given by the Municipality to the Bellavista Mining Project because it had the environmental permits granted by former president Rodriguez and the public benefits received from the municipal corporation.
With this change of attitude, the Costa Rican authorities are tacitly recognizing that the mining rights acquired by the Glencairn mining company, could have been acquired by paying bribes to public officers of the Rodriguez Administration.
For more information: Sonia Torres Secretary Ceus del Golfo Telfax (506) 639-9441 soniatorres@racsa.co.cr
Translation provided by the professional services of monica@popper.com.ar
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