Cabanas Department
Cabañas banned gold mining in 2017 after community opposition, remaining among El Salvador's poorest while Ilobasco ceramics preserve artisan traditions.
Cabañas Department exemplifies how mineral wealth can divide rather than develop communities. Gold mining proposals by foreign companies triggered intense conflict with local populations who feared water contamination and land displacement. The government's 2017 mining ban—unprecedented in the hemisphere—reflected community organizing power but also closed a potential revenue source that remains contentious.
The department ranks among El Salvador's poorest and most rural. Agriculture centers on basic grains (corn, beans) and livestock, with limited commercial production. The civil war devastated infrastructure and displaced populations; recovery remained incomplete when peace came in 1992. Emigration has accelerated, with remittances now supporting households that local employment cannot sustain.
Ilobasco, the department's largest town, maintains traditions of handicraft production—painted ceramics, figurines—that provide modest artisan income. This cottage industry survives because products serve both tourist souvenir markets and religious festival demand. Whether Cabañas can develop economic alternatives to mining it rejected—or whether poverty forces eventual reconsideration—poses questions that current conditions leave unanswered.