In our countries, in developing countries, criminalization has become more and more of an issue in recent years. There are a number of factors that contribute to that, but with regard to criminality in Central America and El Salvador, companies have come in and used the problem of the high crime rate in our countries to cover their tracks when they threaten leaders.
When it comes to resisting—not so much resisting, but defending the people's rights—before the mining companies arrived, we didn't have a high crime rate the way we do now; we didn't have the level of insecurity that we have now. If you know about what's happening to the people in Cabañas, I think you would be frightened. I would ask you to visit El Salvador to hear not only the position of communities, but also that of the government, which is also against mining companies. The law against mining companies has not yet been passed, but it sees the issue in the same way.
With regard to corporate social responsibility, with all due respect I can say that I do not know of any company that is socially responsible in El Salvador, particularly in the mining sector. Aleisar was saying that they are creating projects. The companies are trying to create small social projects, but what kinds of projects? They can perhaps outfit a baseball team, something like that, but that's not sustainable in the long term. The companies talk about green mining. They talk about responsible mining. They talk about mining for development. They also talk about using mining as a way of eradicating poverty, but what happens is when the mining projects are over and the companies leave, the situation is far more complicated with regard to health care, with regard to education, and the poverty is even more acute.
Have mining companies been socially responsible? The answer is no. I can tell you very sincerely that I do not want that situation for the future generations in my country, so something has to be done.
We have to demand that mining companies be truly responsible, and if the communities tell those companies that they don't want mining, then there should be no projects. Seventy-eight per cent of the population in El Salvador have spoken out and stated that there should be no mining. There have been five consultations in El Salvador nationally, and 99% of the people who participated in that national survey said no. But the companies continue to go ahead and explore.
I have to say, with all due respect, that those companies are not being socially responsible.