Guatemala: the Chixoy Dam and the Rio Negro Massacres

Maya Achi Communities Finally Heard in Twenty-Year Struggle for Human Rights and Environmental Justice

When the Guatemalan government's decision to build a large hydroelectric dam on the Rio Negro river required the "resettlement" of Maya Achi villagers whose lands would be flooded, local opposition resulted in the massacres of hundreds of men, women and children. Ultimately the dam was completed, and the river waters began to rise, and the many promises made to the communities were broken, one by one.

For over twenty years, the Maya Achi people from these villages have pressed their government and international financial institutions to right these terrible wrongs. Their demands have fallen on deaf ears until- perhaps- now.

The Chixoy Dam

The Chixoy dam is located north of the Guatemalan capital of Guatemala City, in an area where Achí-speaking Maya indigenous people have lived for hundreds of years. The Guatemalan government received financing for Chixoy from the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, and construction began in 1976, despite the government's failure to first address compensation and resettlement for the affected communities. The communities, wanting neither the project nor to relocate, were left with little choice but to negotiate a resettlement package. Yet the infertile lands and inadequate housing in the resettlement village offered by the government failed to meet basic human needs, and many community members refused to accept the resettlement package.

The Rio Negro Massacres and the Legacy of Chixoy

Problems arose between the military government and one village in particular- Rio Negro- because the community opposed the relocation from the beginning, fearing that the conditions in the relocation areas would not be as promised. The government did not view sympathetically Rio Negro's refusal to accept relocation, and the result of the community's resolve to press for just resettlement terms was a series of horrific massacres. Nearly five hundred of Rio Negro's eight hundred residents were massacred before Chixoy was even completed.

The filling of the Chixoy basin began in 1983 after the final massacre, when Rio Negro was abandoned. In the years since, the people of Rio Negro have lived in conditions of poverty, violent repression, and psychological trauma, unable to regain their previous standard of living.

Action at Last: a Damage Verification Commission

During the twenty years since the construction of Chixoy, there were numerous efforts to bring those responsible for the massacres to justice and to obtain compensation for the community's lost lands and way of life. Along the way, the Chixoy-affected communities joined together and formed the Coordinating Committee of Communities Affected by the Chixoy Dam (COCAICH) to document the social and economic problems caused by the dam and press for justice.

On September 7, 2004, members of the communities and COCAICH peacefully protested the lack of compensation and reparation at the Chixoy dam site. Finally, the government agreed to listen to the communities' demands. The communities peacefully ended their protest after signing an agreement with the government that has led to the establishment of a Verification Commission to consider their claims.

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Maya Achi of Guatemala

For us, the water is filled with the tears and blood of our people of the Rio Negro community.

- Carlos Chen Osorio, leader, Coordinating Committee of Communities Affected by the Chixoy Dam