2007-07. The Chixoy Hydro-Electrical Dam and Genocide in Río Negro
Rabinal. Baja Verapaz, Guatemala.
July 26, 2007.
Issue: Post-War / Historic Memory / Mega-projects
“On February of 1982, an armed group, presumably guerrillas, burned down the Xococ market and killed 5 people in the process. Since the Army blamed the guerrillas as well as community members from Rio Negro for the actions, the people of Xococ broke commercial ties with Rio Negro and declared them their enemies.” Afterwards, the Army organized in Xococ a Civil Auto-Defense Patrol (PAC), a paramilitary organization conformed by community members who, “armed, trained, and guided by the Army, would confront the community of Rio Negro as of then.” (7)
“The first action taken by the Xococ PAC was to call a meeting on February 7th, 1982, which congregated 150 community members of Rio Negro under the orders of Rabinal’s military detachment. The leader of the Xococ PAC reprimanded the visitors for belonging to the guerrilla and accused them of burning down the market. Those from Rio Negro denied the accusations, arguing the market benefited them as well and hence had no motive to burn it down.” They were ordered to return to Xococ a week later. “On February 13, 1982, 74 members of Rio Negro (55 men and 19 women) returned to Xococ. Once there, they were executed by the local PAC.” (8)
“It is important to highlight the way PAC members were instrumentally forced to participate in the execution of massacres. Besides implicating them in the killings, their use involved a direct method which destroyed the structure of neighboring communities. The Army forced one village to act against a neighboring village.” (10) Today, similar strategies are being used in the forced evictions of indigenous communities (Please see: Canadian Mining Company Orders the Eviction of Indigenous Communities and Barrio La Revolucion Burns).
Meanwhile, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank continued to finance the hydro-electric project. “The World Bank actually transferred its second loan installment to the Government of Guatemala in 1985 – three years after the massacres took place… The Chixoy Dam case clearly highlights the complicity of [mentioned] international financial institutions… in the brutal and unlawful displacement of indigenous communities from their land in Guatemala.” (12)
Graham Russell (right), co-director of Rights Action, translates into English the statements of Carlos Chen. Since 1993, Rights Action has been very much involved in providing financial support to the main processes in Rabinal such as the autobiography of Tecu Osorio, the development of ADIVIMA, the People’s Legal Clinic, as well as the ongoing Chixoy Dam reparation campaigns.
Those who survived the aforementioned Rio Negro massacres sought refuge in nearby villages such as Agua Fria. Indicating a clear intention to exterminate completely the population of Rio Negro, the Army in conjunction with the paramilitary group from Xococ, continued to hunt and massacre the survivors of previous mass killings.
Graham Russell explains how the Rabinal case is fundamental in understanding not only the post-war era which Guatemalan experiences today, but also the philosophy and mission of Rights Action: “The vision of our work for global justice, sustainable development and human rights consists in financing community-designed and implemented projects; to follow-up the lead of the local leaders and organizations in determining what their funding and project priorities are, and to organize North-South education trips that focus in on how global institutions, in this case the WB and IDB, often contribute directly to and/or benefit from Human Rights violations, indeed genocide in this case.”
Tecu Osorio, who managed to finance the school through his Foundation Nueva Esperanza – Rio Negro thanks to a prestigious international human rights award, focuses on the future: “I continually seek projects with new alternatives so that one day all of those affected by the state-sponsored violence will feel satisfied in having some level of academic achievement.” (13)
Regarding the highly controversial postwar era, Suazo shares his insight: “This transition into times of peace – the formal, written peace – was not well formulated. The general population, who lived under a smashing clout of silence, was not about to negotiate the peace agreements in a whim. This general population continues to be suffocated by silence when the Peace Agreements are signed… The people were muted, full of fear, traumatized. The general public was not involved in any way in the peace process, and hence, the result is what we have now.”
Nevertheless, the symbolic achievements have served as key elements in this chain of events and continue to do so. Inside the Rabinal Achi Community Museum, the Panama hat which once shaded former dictator Efrain Rios Montt serves as a perfect example. On June 14, 2003, Rios Montt, who ruthlessly ruled Guatemala in 1982-83, scheduled a campaign stop in town through his right-wing FRG (Guatemalan Republican Front) Party. Adding insult to injury, the rally coincided with the proper burial of 70 war-time victims recently exhumed from mass graves. The locals couldn’t hold back and stoned Rios Montt out of Rabinal. During the revolt Rios Montt lost his hat which ended up at the community museum, and so giving birth to a local holiday denominated the Day of Rabinalese Dignification, celebrated of course, every June 14.
For more information regarding any of these projects, to organize or participate in an educational delegation to Rabinal, or to provide economic support to the Rabinal Integral Development Program (full proposal available on request), please contact Rights Action at info@rightsaction.org
Versión en español aquí.
2 Ibid. PP. 45-46.
3 Ibid. P. 46.
4 Oj K’aslik / Estamos Vivos: Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica de Rabinal (1944-1996). Publicado por el Museo Comunitario Rabinal Achi. Rabinal, Guatemala. Julio 2003. PP. 29-30.
5 CEH. Op. Cit. P. 47.
6 Ibid. P. 48.
7 Ibid. PP. 48-49.
8 Ibid. P. 49.
9 Ibid. PP. 49-50.
10 CEH. Capitulo Segundo: “Las Violaciones de los Derechos Humanos y los Hechos de violencia”, Parte 2. P. 373.
11 Tecú Osorio, Jesús. Memoria de las Masacres de Río Negro: Recuerdo de mis Padres y Memoria para mis Hijos. Fundación Nueva Esperanza, Río Negro. Rabinal, Guatemala. Reimpresión 2006. P. 101.
12 Continuing the Struggle for Justice and Accountability in Guatemala: Making Reparations a Reality in the Chixoy Dam Case. Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) Mission Report, 2004. PP. 5-6.
13 Tecú Osorio, Jesús. Op. Cit. P. 165.
I met Jesus in Spokane 2001 when He spoike at our univesity.
You should go interview the forensic team in zone 1 that partook in the exhumation and others in the altaverapaz
In 1984 a German agronomist took me to a "resettled" town near Salama and Rabinal which consisted of widows and children from the Chixoy dam area. Interesting to see writings about it decades later.