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March 13, 2023
41st Anniversary
Chixoy Dam / Rio Negro Massacres in Guatemala
World Bank & Inter-American Development Bank must pay reparations
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March 13, 2023, marks 41st anniversary of the Rio Negro/Chixoy Dam massacre of 177 women, children and infants from the Maya Achi village of Rio Negro.
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“A prayer for the Rio Negro victims”
By survivors of the massacres, used in popular education in Maya Achi region of Guatemala
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This was one of four largescale massacres carried out in 1982 against Rio Negro villagers, that left 450 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.
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Infamous Chixoy dam wall, constructed in a narrow mountain gorge along the Chixoy river (a.k.a. Rio Negro), flooding our some 25 millenial Mayan villagers up-river, including the village of Rio Negro, now buried under silt and mud.
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These massacres were carried out by the U.S.-backed military regime of General Rios Montt, on behalf of the World Bank (WB) and Inter-American development Bank (IADB), the major investors in and managers of the Chixoy hydro-electric dam, a “development” project built from 1975-1985 on lands violently stolen from the village of Rio Negro some 30 other Mayan villages in the Chixoy river basin.
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Depiction of Chixoy Dam/Rio Negro massacres
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Rights Action and the ‘Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign’
From 1993 through to 2014, Rights Action was very involved in documenting and denouncing the Chixoy Dam/Rio Negro massacres and forced evictions carried out by successive U.S.-backed military regimes from 1975-1985, and the direct roles of the WB and IADB.
During this time, Rights Action channeled as much funds as we could to the Maya Achi survivors of the massacres and forced evictions, planning and carrying out their own truth and memory, justice and reparations projects, including the work of the ‘Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign’.
Impunity and corruption at the highest levels
To this day, neither the WB nor the IADB have paid one penny of reparations for the death, destruction and massive theft & loss of property caused by the Chixoy Dam.
To this day, most surviving family members of the Rio Negro massacre victims live in considerably worse conditions than before 1982.
Both the IADB and WB made financial profits on their “investments” in this deadly project.
To the best of our ability, Rights Action will continue to support Maya Achi led efforts to achieve a full and proper reparations from the Guatemalan government, WB 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 Rio Negro massacres.
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More information
Carlos Chen, ADIVIMA (Association for Integral Development of Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi): [email protected];
Background information
Recommended reading:
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Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)
To support land and environmental defenders, and human rights and justice struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
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