Winner of the 2021 Duke University Juan Mendez Award
Named one of The
Progressive’s “Favorite Books of 2021” and one of the “Best
of Books 2021” by Foreign Affairs
The David and
Goliath story of ordinary people in El Salvador who rallied together
with international allies to prevent a global mining corporation from
poisoning the country’s main water source
At
a time when countless communities are resisting powerful
corporations—from Flint, Michigan, to the Standing Rock
Reservation, to Didipio in the Philippines, to the Gualcarque River
in Honduras—The Water Defenders tells the inspirational
story of a community that took on an international mining corporation
at seemingly insurmountable odds and won not one but two historic
victories.
In
the early 2000s, many people in El Salvador were at first excited by
the prospect of jobs, progress, and prosperity that the Pacific Rim
mining company promised. However, farmer Vidalina Morales, brothers
Marcelo and Miguel Rivera, and others soon discovered that the river
system supplying water to the majority of Salvadorans was in danger
of catastrophic contamination. With a group of unlikely allies, local
and global, they committed to stop the corporation and the
destruction of their home.
Based
on over a decade of research and their own role as international
allies of the community groups in El Salvador, Robin Broad and John
Cavanagh unspool this untold story—a tale replete with corporate
greed, a transnational lawsuit at a secretive World Bank tribunal in
Washington, violent threats, murders, and—surprisingly—victory.
The husband-and-wife duo immerses the reader in the lives of the
Salvadoran villagers, the journeys of the local activists who sought
the truth about the effects of gold mining on the environment, and
the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of the corporate mining executives
and their lawyers. The Water Defenders demands that we examine
our assumptions about progress and prosperity, while providing
valuable lessons for those fighting against destructive corporations
in the United States and across the world.
