A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
- Africa
- Asia
- Europe
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management
- Equipo Peruano de Antropología Forense
- Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi
- ADIVIMA – Guatemala
- Middle East
- North America
- Outreach Partners
- Criteria for Partners
The Impact of Service
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Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi
ADIVIMA
Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi
Issue: Massacre Victims
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean
Location: Rabinal, Guatemala
Background
In the late 1970s the government of Guatemala decided to construct a large hydroelectric dam on the 
Chixoy River, or Rio Negro (Black River). One of the communities affected, also called Rio Negro, suffered a series of murderous attacks in 1982, just as the dam was being built.
The following year, 1983, the valley was flooded. Those inhabitants of Rio Negro who survived hid in the mountains, and were eventually resettled in a shantytown named Pacux on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Rabinal.
In 2000, AP staffer Peter Lippman visited survivors of the Rio Negro massacres (1982) in the central highlands of Guatemala. Following the massacres, the survivors organized an extensive community-based network: ADIVIMA. By 2000, they were lobbying the World Bank - which had financed a major dam in the affected area - to provide reparations for survivors. In 2007, ADIVIMA launched a scholarship program for girls from families that were affected by the massacres. AP has been sending Peace Fellows to ADIVIMA since 2004.
Telling The Story
Photographs:
Visit the Advocacy Project's Guatemala Flickr collection
Visit ADIVIMA's photo galleries on Human Rights and Community Participation
News Bulletins:
January 28, 2009: Guatemala Massacre Survivors Use Memorial Quilt to Seek Reparations
January 16, 2009: Deadly Landslide Adds to the Misery of Guatemalan Massacre Survivors
November 26, 2008: Breakthrough Accord Could Bring Reparations for Guatemala Massacre Survivors
June 16, 2008: Justice is Bittersweet as Killers are Sentenced for 1982 Massacre in Guatemala
August 27, 2007: Guatemalan Massacre Survivors Struggle to Rebury Their Dead and Pursue Justice
January 25, 2005: World Bank Asked to Intervene Following Arrest of Guatemalan Community Leader
March/April 2003: Survivor Describes the 1982 Rio Negro Massacres in Guatemala
Peace Fellow Blogs:
In 2008, AP sends Peace Fellow Heidi McKinnon to work with ADIVIMA. Read Heidi's blog.
An AP Peace Fellow, Abby Weil, voluteered with ADIVIMA during the summer of 2007. Read Abby's blog.
AP sent Charles Wright to work with ADIVIMA in 2006. Read Charles' blog.
AP sent Paula in 2005 to work with the organization. Read Paula's blog.
In 2004, AP sent Carmen Morcos to work with ADIVIMA. Read Carmen's blog.
In 2000, AP staffer Peter Lippman visited survivors of the Rio Negro massacres (1982) in the central highlands of Guatemala. Following the massacres, the survivors organized an extensive community-based network (ADIVIMA). By 2000, they were lobbying the World Bank - which had financed a major dam in the affected area - to provide reparations for survivors. Peter produced a series of On the Record, and illustrated pages for the AP website detailing the issue and ADIVIMA's work.
Advocacy Quilting:
The Río Negro Memorial Textile is a collaborative project between The Advocacy Project and weavers from the resettlement village of Pacux in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, who were displaced by the construction of Chixoy Dam in the early 1980s. Fifteen weavers created textiles to commemorate family members who died during a series of genocidal massacres perpetrated by the Guatemalan Army in and around the Maya Achí village of Río Negro between 1981 and 1982. Read profiles of the weavers.
ADIVIMA's Work
Campaigns:
Taking advantage of the political opening that occurred in Guatemala in the mid-1990s, ADIVIMA'S members filed requests for exhumations, pressed charges against war criminals, called demonstrations, and erected monuments in memory of the victims. Within months, ADIVIMA had attracted 800 members. (ADIVIMA- Getting Organized)
As part of the drive to create a "collective memory," ADIVIMA has created a museum. Four of its members spent a month in Oaxaca, Mexico, learning how to organize a museum, catalogue items, and collect oral histories. The exhibition was displayed in the church for a month and is now awaiting a more permanent location. (Recovering the Memory-Exhumations)
In 1999 Rights Action helped ADIVIMA to set up a legal clinic, known as the Bufete Juridico Popular. The Bufete staff lawyers help to file requests with the district court, press charges, file complaints about intimidation, or straighten out property disputes. (The Legal Remedy)
Carlos Chen, an ADIVIMA leader, brought his campaign for reparations to the World Bank in the spring of 2000. (The Campaign Comes to Washington)
ADIVIMA is also engaged in: forcing a review of the Chixoy resettlement plan and securing new farm land; building an income-generating carpentry workshop; giving hundreds of popular education courses in human rights; training courses to run local enterprises and and self-help organizations; pursuing legal causes against civil defense patrolers who participated in massacres. (Profile of a Campaign)
In August 2007, ADIVIMA launched a scholarship program for girls to attend school from families that were affected and displaced by the Rio Negro massacres. While several organizations in the area offer scholarship programs, none are specifically designed to serve children of survivors of the massacres in the Rabinal area. ADIVIMA saw this as a chance to uniquely serve their constituent population by contributing to the education and development of the next generation of leaders
Social Change:
Legal: Jesus Tecu Osorio, a founder of ADIVIMA, had been an eye witness to the March 13, 1982 massacre, and in 1993 he accused three former leaders of the Xococ civil defense patrol of participating in the killing. Based on evidence from the exhumation and testimony from Jesus and other witnesses, the three accused men were sentenced to death. (The Legal Remedy)
International Agencies: The Rio Negro campaign achieved a major breakthrough in 1996, when the World Bank committed itself to ensuring that the Rio Negro community received compensation. (The Sahomax Farm)
International Agencies: On April 18, 2000 Carlos Chen met with a group of senior officials at the World Bank. This signified that the Chixoy dam-and the related Rio Negro massacres-were back on the Bank's agenda nine years after the Bank had closed its books on the project. This was a testament to the power of advocacy. Still, the World Bank refused to express anything other than sympathy. (The World Bank Responds)
Donate to ADIVIMA
Make a donation to ADIVIMA through their website
Contact ADIVIMA
ADIVIMA's website has sections about their mission, organization, history, the documents they have released, and photographs and other multimedia. It is available in both English and Spanish.
Mailling Address
Av. 2-06 zona 2. Rabinal
Baja Verapaz
Guatemala
Tel: (502) 7938-8230
Fax: (502) 7938-8687
Email ADIVIMA
Find ADIVIMA on Facebook