Much as expected there was no reconciliation at the hearing which took place at noon on Tuesday February13th in Correctional Court number 11 in Buenos Aires. The legal proceedings were part of the lawsuit begun by Minera El Desquite Inc, a subsidiary of the Canadian company Meridian Gold Inc., against six people from Esquel on charges of "violating a secret".

Only one of those being sued was able to travel the 2000 kilometers from Patagonia to attend the hearing, where he refused to come to any agreement with the company, which still plans to go ahead with the extractive mining project. Gustavo Macayo from Esquel highlighted the importance of this first stage of the proceedings because, "both sides have maintained their position and this emphasizes the stance of Esquel, since we cannot come to any sort of agreement with the mining company. The hearing was positive and the judge was impartial in the proceedings which were fair to both sides".

An escrache (political demonstration) against the mining company at their offices in Esquel

While the hearing took place in Buenos Aires, the neighbors of Esquel gathered at the corner where Minera El Desquite Inc. has its offices. While they handed out information leaflets to local people and tourists, they used a public radio system to broadcast the audio from a business meeting where the mining company was explaining the next steps for changing the minds of the people of Esquel.

They also painted graffiti with slogans such as "Time to judge the mining companies, time for them to leave" and "corrupt governments support them". In front of the building they placed a "NO TO THE MINE" banner and a placard with the slogan "Meridian Gold: your nightmare continues in Buenos Aires" with reference to the fact that the people of Esquel and the surrounding mountain areas are willing to continue their fight against the mining projects in Buenos Aires.

Who's who in the mining company's lawsuit against the neighbors of Esquel
AGENCIA LA VACA / www.lavaca.org

The lawsuit started by the Canadian multinational Meridian Gold against six people from the No to the Mine Assembly of Esquel is tantamount to a confession. The pro-Kirchner publicity agency Braga Menéndez; spokesman for Carlos Menem, Jorge Azcarate and the cousin of the Argentinean consul in New York, Raúl Timerman are exposed in this lawsuit as the authors of a plan which aims to "look for the breaking point" amongst the neighbors who have mobilized themselves to resist the installation of a mine which would contaminate the region with cyanide. For the first time as well, you can listen to their "proposals" and identify their voices.

Meridian Gold vs. the Neighbors of Esquel / A scene from a movie:

On March 23rd 2003 the neighbors of Esquel were successful in securing a referendum so that the whole community could express their views about the Canadian multinational Meridian Gold's project. The result: "No to the Mine" won with 81% of the votes.

Six months after this resounding success, Meridian Gold organised a three-day meeting in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires, which cost them 9,670 pesos ($3,100) plus VAT, according to the bill presented as proof in trial number 6777/72 which began in court number 13 under the supervision of Judge Luis Alberto Schelgel. The bill gave details of how on September 16th, 17th and 18th 2003 the company requested a continuous coffee break service, lunch for 16 people, broadband internet access, a simultaneous interpreting team (English-Spanish/Spanish-English), a screen, a projector and seven microphones.

It is not the content of this meeting that is the object of the lawsuit, but its conclusion: the company wants to identify those who recorded what was said there and criminalize the No to the Mine Assembly, which publicly disseminated the material. The consequences of all this nonsense is, in the words of the lawyer of CELS Santiago Felgueras, counsel for the defense for the Assembly members being sued, "like the script of a Hollywood movie".

The characters

As the mining company explains in its legal presentation, "between the months of April and July 2003 it hired the foreign NGO Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) which, in order to establish the causes of and solutions to the conflict, would be in charge of carrying out a field study of the town of Esquel, and discovering people's opinions, knowledge, social frames of mind and interests". In the report BSR presents itself "as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping companies obtain successful results while respecting ethical values, people, communities and the environment". The organization has been used by 450 companies including Shell, General Motors, British Petroleum and Sony, and has intervened all over the world in places where there is organised public resistance to abuses of power by multinational companies: in the north of Peru, Bolivia or Venezuela to give just a few examples that they themselves use.

The BSR representative assigned to intervene in the conflict in Esquel is Christina Sabater who, according to the legal presentation, currently resides in San Francisco. She has a Caribbean-Spanish accent, which is discernible from the audio recordings. Her name appears at the foot of the bill from the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

According to the lawsuit "the people who are authorized to intervene in the meetings" are as follows:

For Meridian Gold Holdings: Edward Colt (executive vice-president), Darcy Edward Marud (exploration manager) and Guillermo Mendoza (head of press).
For the consultancy firm BSR: Jim Bader, Matt Jeschke and Christina Sabater.
For the publicity agency Braga Menéndez and Associates: Raúl Timerman and Juan Carlos Malagoli.
The last name on the list: "Mr Jorge Azcárate, also summoned by Braga Menéndez".

Let's see who these criollos are who pretended to be locals, and what they said.

Who's who

Braga Menéndez and Associates is a publicity agency which bears the name of its mentor: Fernando Braga Menéndez. As he himself says, he "discovered" Néstor Kirchner when no one else gave a damn about the then governor of the Santa Cruz province. Braga Menéndez decided to work on the electoral campaign which would transform Néstor Kirchner into President of Argentina with 22% of the votes, when his rival Carlos Menem stepped down from the race. The public announcement about his withdrawal was made by his spokesman Jorge Azcárate, the participant in the Meridian Gold meeting arranged by Braga Menéndez. Braga Menéndez is currently involved in Kirchner's wife Cristina's public image campaign.

Jorge Azcárate is responsible for the consultancy firm Bonaparte 48 Inc. Apart from the aforementioned participation in Menem's election campaign, he was also his media sub-secretary. He worked for Mauricio Macri in 2002 and was a spokesman for the Dolphin Group, which controls Transener and Edenor, among other companies. He is currently also editorial adviser for the magazine Debates, whose last front cover inundated the city with the image of Cristina Kirchner and an article which, in the best case scenario, will form part of the anthology of the best non-interviews in the history of journalism.

How to neutralise Greenpeace

But this game of cynical coincidences doesn't end here: on its website the agency uses as an example of an institutional campaign - on the front page and with the use of graphics and video - the campaign it ran for Greenpeace. In the graphic advert you can see a close-up of Mario Pergolini, with a chinstrap beard and the slogan: "indifference stinks of contamination". And there's more: in the audio from the Crowne Plaza meeting you can hear Raúl Timerman, a member of the Braga Menéndez agency, saying that the agency's action plan intends to "counterbalance the action of Greenpeace" in Esquel. How? By enlisting the services of other NGOs. "Those that we have identified are the Fundación Vida Silvestre (Argentinean Wildlife Foundation), Cambio Democrático (Democratic Change - he mentions a meeting with Graciela Tapia, a member of the honorary council), Poder Ciudadano (Citizen Power - he mentions that he spoke to their director Carlos March, although he does not say what this conversation was about) and FARN (Environment and Natural Resources Foundation)". The Americans add a detail: "a foundation which does a lot of work with the Mapuche people in Patagonia is that of Cristina Miguens. Her brother, Carlos Miguens, sold the company to Meridian Gold. It is like a secondary group but this is to prevent any mobilization on the indigenous issue. She can act as the contact to assure people that they are talking to the right person". We are talking about the Fundación Huiliches (Huiliches Foundation) and Miguens' Grupo Bemberg (Bemberg Group), owner of, amongst other things, Chocón and the mining company Patagonia Gold. Carlos and Cristina are the children of the late film maker María Luisa Bemberg. In the action plan presented at the meeting in the Crowne Plaza Hotel by the Braga Menéndez agency, Timerman explains what they intended to do with these NGOs, "we think that it is going to be important in the development of our strategy to give them tasks to fulfill. We will probably enlist them to do specific jobs".

How to find the breaking point within the community

At the meeting in the Crowne Plaza Hotel - which took place six months after the resounding victory of the people's group No to the Mine - the agency sent its head of press Juan Carlos Malagoli to make a speech: "The issue today is the problem with the community. 70% of the people of Esquel today think that the company is going to keep advancing. And if something is obvious, you can't cover it up. However much we say that the company is taking a break from its work, 70% of the people of Esquel know that the company is going to keep advancing. They already know that".

After explaining the internal "filtration" problems which are worrying them, the North American directors of Meridian Gold, in unmistakable gringo Spanish, announce the aim of the meeting: "to turn the community around". Malagoli then explains the agency's plan. First of all they should carry out some investigation work to find what they call "the breaking point amongst those whose first priority is the environment even though they may be dying of hunger, and those who are most concerned about money, as an absurd and exaggerated focal point. In other words, how many of these people are there in Esquel". The proposed way of carrying out this investigation is a survey which will take advantage of the provincial electoral situation to help hide its real intentions. The agency explains what it believes is the ideal consulting firm to undertake this task: Catterberg and Associates, which routinely carries out surveys for the radical politician Carlos Maestro. "We have chosen this consultancy firm because of its link with Maestro and with radical elements within the province (...) These people are very friendly with Maestro, therefore if we agree that we are going to carry out this survey, they will talk to Maestro first before launching the survey. We would get the OK from them first".

How to get to Kirchner

Raúl Timerman is the cousin of the Argentinean consul in New York, Héctor Timerman and the nephew of the legendary Jacobo. He thinks of himself as an expert in marketing, he has a degree in Chemical Sciences and he also has a program on El Mundo radio, whose title is perhaps a premonition: "Without asking permission". At the Crowne Plaza Hotel meeting Timerman was entrusted with presenting a PowerPoint presentation entitled: "How to generate trust". In his own words: "What are the mechanisms of generating trust that we intend to use?"

The first mechanism described by Braga Menéndez's plan was the following:
"There is a list of members of the national government who are going to receive the information which we are going to prepare: planning minister Julio De Vido; mining secretary Jorge Mayoral; Chief of Cabinet Alberto Fernández; presidential spokesman Miguel Núñez; general secretary to the presidency Oscar Parrilli; private secretary to the Nation's president Pepe Salvini and head of the president's political advisers Carlos Cunten. And Néstor Kirchner of course. In other words, this is Néstor Kirchner's circle of trust and it is in our interest to keep them informed to ensure that anyone in the president's entourage who he consults with has access to the information".

Malagoli elaborates: "The idea is to keep them informed. The same as with journalists, only this time with politicians".
Next you can hear the Caribbean accent of Christina Sabater asking:
"Do you think that any person from the company has contact with these politicians? Because this was the problem: until now the company hasn't had this contact".
Malagoli replies:
"We think that first of all there is a job to be done on our part, because they are going to talk more calmly and are going to say a few things, which although they may not be correct and although they may annoy us, we have to listen to. They need to explain and say what they think in order to prepare a visit where the company can say something specific. This does not mean that they don't do what all politicians do: they cut us off, they call Darcy (the head of Meridian Gold), if he is the person in charge of the issue they are discussing and they say: calm down, we're on your side"; because this is part of their job as politicians".

How to be honest

As Meridian Gold said in the lawsuit, the corporation had not asked for the meeting to be recorded. As they suspected, the recording which was relayed publicly - and which the neighbors of the No to the Mine Assembly, among others, received anonymously - corresponds exactly to the use of microphones by each participant: you can't hear the other voices, only those who were using microphones.

It is for this reason that the lawsuit presented by the corporation has two groups of defendants. On the one hand it requests that all staff from the hotel, sound engineers and translators who were present give a statement. They plan to discover who realized that what was going on was of an interest to the public which it intended to manipulate. They allege that this anonymous avenger is responsible for the crime against law 24,766 which sanctions behavior "contrary to honest commercial practice". Having said that: there is no irony here, only cynical coincidences.

On the other hand, it identifies six neighbors from Esquel - notorious for their participation and involvement in the No to the Mine Assembly - as being responsible for the crime against article 153 of the Penal Code, which gives a prison sentence of 15 days to six months to whoever "unduly seizes a letter, a document, a report, or another private paper, even if it is not sealed". In other words: to distribute the audio which has been reproduced here.
The judge's first decision was to reject the case. The argument: it wasn't even clear in the presentation who Meridian Gold wanted to sue. However, the Chamber decided to give the case a chance.

The lawsuit was started nearly a year ago, but the neighbors of Esquel only found out last October when they received the warrant about the lawsuit. As the case was heard in a court of the Federal Capital, the first problem they had was the most obvious one: to get there, to get accredited lawyers in this jurisdiction, to have enough time and money to go to court and face a corporation and numerous other problems of an unimaginable human scale.

Finally they procured the legal representation of CELS, who last Tuesday asked the judge to delay the first hearing, since two of the defendants had medical certificates proving that they were unable to travel: one due to her advanced pregnancy and the other due to a complicated diabetes condition. The judge, however, refused to delay the hearing, a decision which the lawyers appealed against.

David vs. Goliath

So far only one of the neighbors sued has been able to get to Buenos Aires: the lawyer Gustavo Macayo. In a conversation with lavaca, he was given the job of summarizing the situation:

-I don't think that they are going to be successful, the mining company is mistaken. What is more: they are grossly mistaken, because they have allowed us to come to Buenos Aires to spread the word about the situation. They are either crazy or desperate.

-It is a paradox that the lawsuit intends to penalize those who distributed the secret plan to manipulate the Assembly.

-Not only the Assembly but the entire population of Esquel. If you listen to the recordings you realize that they do not only want to influence ordinary people but all the relevant political figures as well: deputies, senators, political party leaders, civil servants who are close to the governor and the President, those who are closest to the provincial and national executive power. They talk of "keeping them informed" of the company's plans, which lets them see that the whole world knows that the company is going to go ahead with the project.

- How did the mining company manage to carry on in Esquel after this consultation?
- The consultation didn't matter, they couldn't stop. We did a lot: a range of important administrative, judicial and legal actions, but these were not enough. Clearly we are involved in a very unequal fight, faced with a company that handles millions of dollars and has political influence at every level. This is a company that has plenty of money to withstand years of being worn down, because they are trying to wear us down and we are trying to wear them down. But we work flat out, without resources, you could say...we work towards the utopia of seeing if we can get them to stop. We have no funding or structure and the task is very difficult because other conflicts keep arising, like the hydroelectric company which they want to set up in Corcovado or the advance of other companies in the area of the plateau. A huge number of mining concessions have appeared and the struggle is becoming more and more complicated for a single community to be able to continue resisting it. And these companies have carried on advancing; wherever they could carry on they have done so.

- For example?
- They extended their concessions.

- In Esquel itself?
- In the entire province there are more than 200 concessions. The government keeps handing them out. What is more: the province used a law to ban open cast mining using cyanide and the provincial management continued handing out concessions. We stopped the project in Esquel, but there is another outside Esquel, in another part of the mountain range, where Meridian Gold has tried to advance. We also had to go out and stop this project by deactivating it, but there is no guarantee that it is not going to continue. This is the way things stand, the situation is very complicated, very long and very difficult.

- Are Meridian Gold's offices still open?
- They now operate with a low profile. They still have offices and staff although they have become invisible, nobody sees them. They don't hold discussions or speak to the press. Sometimes they issue a press release but they don't have a representative. No one wants to take on this role at the moment because the pressure from the neighbors is very strong.

- Is this why they started the lawsuit in Buenos Aires?
- I think they are trying to get us out of Esquel. Partly because in Buenos Aires people are less informed about the mining issue and also because they want to wear us down by making us travel here.

Gustavo Macayo does not look like Julia Roberts, but this lawsuit seems like an improved version of the character that won her an Oscar: Erin Brockovich.