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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, we 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.
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