Church seeks justice amid social problems from Honduran gold rush

Published: 2008-04-01

PALO RALO, Honduras (CNS) -- Nine years ago, Rodolfo Arteaga was sitting on a gold mine -- literally. In fact, so was his village of Palo Ralo, in the central Siria Valley of Honduras. But Arteaga said his and his family's lives have not improved and he wishes he could turn back the clock. Arteaga and his village were relocated less than a mile away to allow the Canadian company GoldCorp to build the San Martin open-pit gold mine. He worries about the security of land tenure for the community of 25 families in their new location and about the long-term effects of mining operations on their health. He wonders if he and his children will ever be able to farm the land again. "Far from contributing to development, mining has provided few jobs, damaged the environment and strengthened corruption," said Pedro Landa, deputy director of Caritas Tegucigalpa, the local affiliate of the international Catholic umbrella group Caritas Internationalis. Mandated by Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Landa has led the church's struggle to reform Honduras' 1998 Mining Law, which was promoted by the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean to draw foreign investment in the wake of Hurricane Mitch.

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