Vidalina Morales is a member of the board of directors of the Economic and Social Development Association El Salvador (ADES) and a representative of the National Roundtable Against Metallic Mining in El Salvador (La Mesa), a coalition of civil society organizations that have opposed the introduction of industrial scale metal mining in El Salvador.  

Vidalina Morales is a small scale farmer and mother of five children who has worked with ADES for over 10 years. She has been organizing opposition to mining in the department of Cabañas since 2006, when she realized that her community would be directly impacted by the implementation of the El Dorado mining project by Canadian based Pacific Rim Mining Co.

She is recognized internationally as one of the leading voices of the environmental defense movement in El Salvador and has travelled extensively through South and North America speaking about El Salvador’s fight against mining. In 2009 she gave the acceptance speech for the Mesa’s Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award in Washing DC, recently she participated in a Canada wide tour to speak about the impacts Canadian mining corporations are having in her community.

“Instead of a law allowing Pacific Rim to sue our government, they should be sued,” she says. “The company should be made to pay for all the damage they’ve caused to our environment and our community.” -2010 Interview

“We reject the image of us just as anti-mining. We are for water and a positive future. We want alternatives to feed us, to clothe us”-2011 Interview