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March 13, 2025


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** 43rd anniversary of complete World Bank and IDB impunity for Chixoy Dam-Rio Negro massacres in Guatemala
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By Grahame Russell
[link removed]

Today marks the 43st anniversary of the massacre of 177 women, children and infants in the Maya Achi village of Rio Negro, carried out with extreme savagery. It was one of four largescale massacres carried out in 1982 that left 450 Rio Negro villagers dead, their bodies dumped in mass graves, buried deep under the mud and silt of the flood basin of the Chixoy hydro-electric dam, or strewn in the surrounding mountain sides.

The massacres were planned and carried out by the U.S. and Western-backed genocidal Guatemalan regime headed by General Efrain Rios Montt, that partnered with the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in building the Chixoy hydro-electric dam from 1975-1985.

The World Bank and IDB must release all internal documents about ‘genocidal’ Chixoy dam project, acknowledge the full truth about their roles and responsibilities, and pay reparations.

“A prayer for the Rio Negro victims”.
Drawing by survivors, used in popular education in Achi region of Guatemala

Chixoy dam wall constructed along the Chixoy river (a.k.a. Rio Negro) flooded out, in whole or in part, 25 millenial villages up-river, and dried up 7 more villagers down-river

The four Chixoy dam-Rio Negro massacres were the “relocation” of Rio Negro, as promised by the World Bank and IDB, to make way for the completion of the dam wall in 1982 and the slow filling of the flood basin up river. The massacres were carried out by Guatemalan soldiers, “civil defense patrollers” and security guards working at the project construction site.

Depiction of Chixoy Dam/Rio Negro massacres

Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign
Rights Action has again this year sent small funds to massacre survivors to remember and commemorate the lives of their loved ones killed. From 1993 to 2014, Rights Action was very involved in documenting and denouncing the Chixoy Dam-Rio Negro massacres and eradication of the village. During this time, Rights Action channeled as much funds as we could to survivors of the massacres and forced evictions who were leading work and struggle for truth, memory and justice, and for reparations and rebuilding projects.

Impunity and corruption at the highest levels
To this day, neither the World Bank nor the IDB have ever acknowledged any responsibility. Neither “development” bank has released their internal documents about the project. Neither has paid one penny of reparations for the death, destruction and massive theft and loss of property and land caused by the Chixoy dam. Both banks profited financially from their “investments” in this genocidal project.

Inter-generational harms and suffering
It is impossible to document or even describe the amount of suffering, destruction and harm caused by the Chixoy Dam/Rio Negro massacres. To this day, many survivors of the massacres (and their children and grand-children) live in worse conditions than before 1982. Some of their children and grandchildren are amongst the countless thousands of people forced to flee Guatemala and seek any kind of life they can create for themselves in Mexico or the U.S.

To the best of our ability, Rights Action will continue to support massacre survivor-led efforts to achieve a full and proper reparations from the World Bank and IDB, and –separately- to pressure the Guatemalan government to comply with the sentence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and pay reparations specifically to the surviving family members of the four largescale Rio Negro massacres.

Further reading
* “Generating terror: The role of international financial institutions in sustaining Guatemala’s genocidal regimes”, [link removed]
* “The Genocidal Chixoy Dam Project”, by Nathan Einbinder, found in TESTIMONIO-Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala, chapter 1, pp. 14-24, edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell (Between The Lines, 2021)
* “Chixoy Dam: No Reparations, No Justice, No Peace”, 15 minute film (2013) by Lazar Konforti ([link removed])
* Chixoy Dam/Rio Negro Massacres & Reparations Campaign
* Rights Action archives: [link removed]

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To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights, justice and democracy defense struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2

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