Rights Action

May 28, 2014

info@rightsaction.org

Sign-on Letter to World Bank:

No New Loans To Guatemala Until Reparations Paid To Victims Of Chixoy Dam Massacres And Forced Evictions

 

(Sebastian Iboy Osorio stands at site of March 13, 1982 massacre at ‘Pakoxom’, one of the five Chixoy dam massacres.  11 members of Sebastian’s extended family were killed. Photo: Alexandra Pederesen, May 15, 2014)

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Rights Action asks you to this letter regarding the Chixoy dam reparations campaign.  The timing of this letter is in reference to a World Bank Board vote scheduled for early June, so we have a firm deadline for signatures of May 29 to send out May 30.  Please respond to annie@rightsaction.org, and please forward this email to all organizations you believe may be interested in signing. 

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No New Loans To Guatemala Until Reparations Paid To Victims Of Chixoy Dam Massacres And Forced Evictions

Dear World Bank Executive Directors:

It is our understanding that on June 4, 2014, the Board of Governors of the World Bank intends to review and vote upon a $340 million loan to the Government of Guatemala.  We write to ask that you suspend that vote until the Government of Guatemala has begun compliance with the 2010 Chixoy Reparations Plan.

As you know, the Government of Guatemala is currently in a dialogue with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank regarding long overdue reparations for the indigenous Mayan communities impacted by the construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam, which was constructed during the height of Guatemala’s armed conflict in the 1980’s.

The residents of 33 affected communities have survived over three decades in dire poverty provoked by the flooding of their lands, forced displacement, loss of access to water, loss of transportation routes and other impacts.  Many also suffered violence.  One of the communities most impacted by the project was Rio Negro.  Rio Negro was subject to a series of five massacres, including the March 13, 1982 massacre of 107 children and 70 women, which the United Nations sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission found were directly related to the dam’s construction.

In April 2010, after decades of protest, international pressure, and repression, the Organization of American States mediated a negotiations process that culminated in a reparations agreement, signed by a Guatemalan government delegation and representatives of the affected communities.  The World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights witnessed the process.

However, the agreement was never implemented.  Though initially seed funds were designated by the Guatemalan Congress to begin compliance with the plan, the funds were eventually redirected and the executive decree needed to implement the agreement was never issued.

In late 2013, after the U.S. Congress expressed concern regarding the legacy issues related to the Chixoy dam, the World Bank and the IDB again began to raise the issue with the Guatemalan government.  However, to date the executive decree has not been issued and the Reparations Plan has not been put into action in a durable way.

More than three decades after the Chixoy development disasters, the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have so far been unable to ensure that communities forced into extreme poverty by projects they funded have access to the resources they need to recover a dignified and sustainable way of life.  Even in the early 1980’s, the World Bank had established safeguards and received extensive reports that the Chixoy dam project was out of compliance with those safeguards, but the World Bank continued supporting the project, which was carried out by a repressive military government.

We ask that you make it clear that the World Bank takes compliance with its safeguards and respect for fundamental human rights seriously by instructing staff that the Board will not be able to review loans to the government of Guatemala until the government of Guatemala has demonstrated its commitment to redressing the legacy issues related to the Chixoy Dam. Loans to Guatemala should be conditioned or delayed until the following occur:

1)      An executive decree by the executive of Guatemala gives legal effect to the Reparations Plan of 2010 (after achieving the consent of communities for the decree’s content),

2)      The government of Guatemala ensures a funding stream that will last into future government administrations to pay for Reparations Plan implementation in its entirety, and

3)      Credible steps are taken to implement the Reparations Plan of 2010, as in work on actual projects after the executive decree and long-term funding are set in place.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,


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More Information

Film: Chixoy Dam Massacres and Evictions: No Reparations, No Justice, No Peace

16 minute film by Lazar Konforti, August 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF3YI7XMNEE&feature=youtu.be

The Rio Negro Project: http://rionegroproject.blogspot.com/

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Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)

To support the Chixoy Dam Reparations Campaign, make check payable to “Rights Action” and mail to:

  • United States: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
  • Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

Credit-Card Donations (Canada & U.S.): http://www.rightsaction.org/tax-deductible-donations

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Letter Writing

Please send copies of this information, and your own letters, to your own elected politicians (MPs, Congresspersons, Senators) and other government officials, urging your government to demand that the WB and IADB ensure implementation of the Chixoy Dam Reparations Plan.

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