A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

The Chixoy Dam

By the mid-1970s, Guatemala was in the throes of a severe energy crisis. Over half of the country's export earnings were going to import oil to generate electricity. Blackouts were frequent.

The Chixoy Dam: under attack.

In February 1975, in an effort to generate electricity, the state owned National Institute of Electrification (INDE) unveiled a plan to dam the Rio Negro at Chixoy and flood 31 miles of the river valley. Initial funding for the dam came from the Inter-American Development Bank ($105 million) and Italian aid. The Italian company Cogefar took the lead on construction.

The first roads for the Chixoy project were built in 1976, but that same year a massive earthquake delayed the plan and forced a revision, when the dam site was found to be straddling a seismic fault. Even so, INDE secured a large loan from the World Bank ($72 million) in 1978. INDE measured out the land that was to be flooded and decided to award between two and three hectares of land to 150 families from Rio Negro.

The precise nature of this compensation plan remains controversial. INDE officials descended on Rio Negro by helicopter and told the villagers that their land was to be flooded. They would have to leave. Under pressure, the villagers negotiated with the INDE team. Together, they came up with a provisional agreement on a resettlement site at Pacux, next to the town of Rabinal. According to the survivors, INDE agreed in writing to provide land and cement-block houses. Building began in Pacux.

Only 20 families from Rio Negro agreed to move to Pacux. They found that after building a few cinderblock houses, INDE's contractors were now using wood instead of cinderblock (which is much stronger and longer-lasting). Disgusted, the 20 families returned to their traditional land. From the community's side, the agreement was null and void.

Both sides dug in their heels. The villagers refused to leave their traditional lands, and a few families even began to build houses on the upper reaches of the valley.

INDE was equally adamant. Cogefar, the construction company, went ahead with preliminary construction, and INDE hired a French archaeological team to remove sacred Mayan objects from the ceremonial sites before they were flooded. This was seen as desecration by the villagers.