On Sept. 23, the Guatemalan government formally brought charges against the leaders of the Coordination of Communities Affected by the Chixoy Dam.  This took place days after the government agreed in writing with this very group to negotiate compensation and reparations owed to communities affected by the dam/hydroelectric project (1975-1985) which was supervised by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The government formally accused massacre survivors and displaced people with terrorism for their occupation of the Chixoy Dam installations on Sept. 7, 2004, where they peacefully protested and demanded compensation for land, homes, property and livelihood destroyed, stolen and lost as a result of the dam project.

The action of the Guatemalan government endangers not only the possibility of a negotiated settlement in spite of having signed on Sept. 8 an agreement to do so, but also the ability of the massacre survivors' ability to participate in the trial scheduled for Oct. 19, 2004 to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice.  The massacre on March 13, 1982 which killed 107 children and 70 women in Rio Negro is only one of approximately 600 massacres committed by the Guatemalan government to come to trial in national court.  UUSC partners have been part of this effort.

Action

Please write letters to and/or telephone the following:  

Mr. James D. Wolfensohn, President
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC  20433
Tel.: 202-473-1100
Fax:  202.522.1677

Mr. Enrique Iglesias, President
The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
1300 New York Ave., NW
Washington, DC  20577
Tel.: 202.623.1100
Fax: 202.623.3096

Message

We are outraged at the continued repression and violations of basic human rights on the part of the Guatemalan government against the peaceful protests of the survivors and displaced people of the Chixoy dam-related massacre.

Your bank funded and supervised the Chixoy dam project and have profited through interest paid by the Guatemalan government.  Please use your influence to ensure good faith negotiations for reparations and an end of the persecution of Chixoy affected people.  

Background

For more that 20 years, the 17 villages which were forcibly and illegally displaced by the construction of the Chixoy Dam have lived in extreme poverty as a direct result of the loss of lands through the construction of the dam and the flooding of the dam basin.  Every year the situation of the affected people worsens, while the Guatemalan National Electrification Company benefits from profits generated off the flooded land which remains the property of the Mayan communities.

The Guatemalan government never undertook the process constitutionally established to expropriate land for national development projects, and thus never came to a negotiated agreement with communities as to the terms of their resettlement.  Instead the communities were forcibly displaced by a series of five massacres.  Those communities not massacred left their homes after learning what happened in the village of Rio Negro and when they were flooded by water as the dam basin was filled.

The land titles to this day remain in the name of the affected communities. The continued occupation of Mayan communal lands also constitutes a violation of international agreements signed and ratified by the Guatemalan government relating to the rights of indigenous people.

The World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank funded and supervised the Chixoy dam project despite the violent and illegal actions of the Guatemala government.

For almost 10 years, displaced communities and NGOs have pressured the banks through letters and visits to bank offices, investigative reports, and letters to insure proper resettlement and reparations. But the banks have not taken sufficient measures to insure proper resettlement and reparations for the affected people.  The banks have however profited from the Chixoy dam through interest paid by the Guatemalan governments.