Lettre de plusieurs organisations canadiennes envoyée au director de l’entreprise minière canadienne Infinito Gold

Plusieurs organismes canadiens, ont envoyé une lettre au président de l’entreprise minière InfintoGold préoccupées par l’impact que l’exploitation minière à ciel ouvert a sur ​​l’environnement,  et par les efforts constants déployés par la société minière Infinito Gold pour intimider les gens, le système judiciaire et le gouvernement du Costa Rica.

Malgré les protestations qui ont eu lieu au cours des 10 dernières années, contre une mine d’or à ciel ouvert, et malgré que la Cour suprême de Costa Rica  a refusé deux  fois l’autorisation de procéder avec la mine (2010 et 2011), la société continue à harceler la nation.

 Le 4 Avril dernière, dans un communiqué publié par Infinito Gold et signé par son président, l’entreprise indique que si il n y a pas d’autorisation pour aller de l’avant avec la mine d’or à ciel ouvert (connu sous le nom Crucitas) dans les prochaines six mois, La société va poursuivre le pays du Costa Rica pour avoir prétendument violé le traité d’investissement 1999, avec le Canada, apparemment à la recherche de plus de 1 million de dollars en compensation. (1)

Dans la lettre adressée au directeur général de la transnationale minière , John Morgan, le 16 Avril 2013, nous exigeons abandonner le procès contre Costa Rica, avant le Centre international pour le règlement des différends relatifs aux investissements (CIRDI) de la Banque mondiale et sortir du pays.

Dear Mr. Morgan: As Canadian organizations concerned about the impact that open-pit mining can have on the environment, we are appalled at the ongoing attempt by your mining company Infinito Gold to intimidate the people, court system, and government of the eco-conscious country of Costa Rica. Over a ten year period, despite massive public protest against allowing Infinito permission to develop an open pit gold mine not far from the San Juan river system, and despite the Supreme Court of Costa Rica having twice denied permission (2010 and 2011) to proceed with the mine, your company continues to harass this small Central American nation.

On April 4, 2013, in a release carrying your signature, Infinito Gold issued an ultimatum to Costa Rica stating that if the company were not to be allowed to proceed with the open-pit gold mine (known as Crucitas) within six months, it would sue Costa Rica for allegedly breaching its 1999 investment treaty with Canada, reportedly seeking more than US$ 1 billion in compensation.

This marks the third time that Infinito Gold has threatened to take Costa Rica to international arbitration at the World Bank’s ICSID [International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes] headquartered in Washington. On two prior occasions Infinito has used a similar threat to twist the arms of Costa Rican officials so that they would emit resolutions favourable to the company’s interests, such as forcing the overturning of a finding that had rejected the company’s environmental assessment study as being fundamentally flawed.

As you are well aware, the Costa Rican courts have launched an investigation into the actions of some Costa Rican government authorities who face dereliction of duty charges for trying to fast-track resolutions favourable to Infinito’s interests. The Courts have also ordered an investigation into an alleged payment made to the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress by Infinito’s main Canadian financial backer just days before then-President Oscar Arias declared the Crucitas mine to be in ‘the national interest’ (an action deemed illegal and annulled by the Costa Rican justice system) in an attempt to overturn a previous ban.

Late in 2012 Canada was sent an official request by Costa Rica to provide them with key financial information that could shed light on the possible transfer of funds to the Arias Foundation. Canada’s Department of Justice has recently responded to this request from Costa Rica, though no details have yet been made public.

At the request of Costa Rican authorities, a team of experts went to the site that the company had ordered to be clear cut without proper authorization, and determined that $10 million worth of damage had already been done to 300 hectares of tropical forest.

Over the past year Infinito Gold has continued to meddle in the national affairs of Costa Rica. Infinito Gold’s lawyers recently challenged the authority of Judge Fernando Cruz in an effort to remove him from the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (SALA IV) for (apparently) being disinclined to favour the company’s position on a technical appeal under consideration.

Also in 2012, Infinito’s lawyers threatened the University of Costa Rica (UCR) with a defamation suit over a seminar that the Department of Biology was scheduled to run in the fall semester, even suggesting that the company should have the right to vet the course content before it was given. The UCR President told the mining company that it had no jurisdiction in the internal affairs of a Costa Rican University, and the seminar went ahead as planned.

In addition to the intromission into the affairs of a sovereign nation already mentioned, Infinito launched 5 civil and criminal cases against Costa Ricans who spoke publicly about the likely damage to the environment of an open-pit gold mine in an ecologically sensitive part of the Central American nation. The first two of these cases against UCR professors have recently been heard, and the two different judges involved found no merit to the company’s case, and in both cases ordered that the company pay all the costs involved.

Infinito Gold’s decade-long efforts to intimidate the small nation of Costa Rica is nothing short of an outrage, and will further sully Canada’s reputation in that country. Over the past decade this case has drawn some of the largest street protests ever seen, and opinion polls consistently show that over 80% of Costa Ricans favour keeping the Crucitas mine site closed.

We demand that Infinito Gold respect the will of the vast majority of Costa Ricans and drop the threat of international arbitration.

We also demand that Infinito Gold ‘cease and desist’ regarding all its pending court cases in Costa Rica, and that Infinito adhere to the Supreme Court decisions indicating that the company pack up and leave.

We are calling on the Canadian government to immediately make public any and all information it may have pertaining to this case, including the information requested by Costa Rica with regard to funds allegedly transferred by Infinito Gold’s major Canadian backer to the Arias Foundation.

This case provides one more example of the damage done by corporations using ‘investor-state’ provisions to try and override the will of a small, eco-friendly nation like Costa Rica.