An Exploration of the Salvadoran Mining Justice Movement, and of the Contributions of the Salvadoran Diaspora in Canada

Abstract

On March 29, 2017, after ten years with a Presidential moratorium on metallic mining in the country, the Salvadoran legislature voted to permanently ban the practice. Based on semi-structured interviews with activists, academics, and journalists, this study builds on the literature explores the contributions of the Salvadoran diaspora in Canada to the passage of the moratorium, and ultimately the ban. I discuss numerous types of contributions: coalition building involving various allies, communication and education initiatives, taking a position as members of the diaspora, and engagements with politicians in both Canada and El Salvador. I provide further context to the case by discussing both contextual elements and mobilization strategies relating to the mining justice movement in El Salvador, contextual elements that help make sense of the engagements of the Salvadoran diaspora in Canada in the movement, and challenges Salvadoran Canadians encountered while engaging in the movement. I conduct my analysis in three parts. The first outlines contributions to the transnationalism literature, the second details the results of a discourse analysis of my interview transcripts, and the third sketches contributions to the framing literature.