Letter: Salem helped win compensation for coal mine's neighbors

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January 9, 2009

Anonymous The Salem News Fri Jan 09, 2009, 05:24 AM EST

To the editor:

Many people in Salem, including Mayor Driscoll and the Salem City Council, as well as members of HealthLink, have lent their support to the small Colombian village of Tabaco, violently displaced in 2001 by the Cerrejon coal mine. Dominion Energy, owner of the Salem power plant, is one of the major U.S. buyers of Colombian coal.

The village of Tabaco was razed to the ground to make room for expansion of the mine. The city of Salem was privileged to be able to host a community leader from Tabaco in 2004, and both Mayor Driscoll and the City Council issued statements supporting the villagers' right to relocation and asking that the mine recognize villagers' rights.

Last month the villagers' long struggle was successful, and the mine signed an agreement promising to purchase land and provide the infrastructure for the reconstruction of the village. The people of Salem, and our elected officials, have every right to feel proud that we have contributed in a small way to righting some of the wrongs caused by our use of coal.

I will be taking a delegation to visit coal-mining regions in Kentucky and Colombia, and to celebrate the reconstruction of Tabaco, next May. For information, please contact me at achomsky@salemstate.edu

Aviva Chomsky

Professor of History

Coordinator, Latin American Studies

Salem State College

Salem

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