Guatemala

Population: 12000000
Central America

1977 Country Profile:

Total Population of Guatemala:

6.4 million

Annual Population Growth:

3% growth (2010: 3%)

GDP Growth:

1975- 1.9% 1976- 7.6% 1977- 8%

Main Exports:

Coffee 25% of total exports 1973-1976, sugar and bananas

Maya Achi

The Maya Achi are an indigenous people who are found in Cubulco, Rabinal, San Miguel, Salamá , San Jerónimo, parts of Granados y el Chol, most areas of Baja Verapaz. They are an important stakeholder in the Rio Chixoy/Rio Negro Basin.

History

According to expert witnesses during the 2012 proceedings at the Inter-American Court for Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica for the Rio Negro Massacres v. the Republic of Guatemala and the CEH’s final report, the Maya have lived on the Rio Chixoy/Rio Negro basin since the pre-classic period and the Maya-Achí community specifically as a defined group, since the 1800s or before, centering their structures around Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. During this time, their culture, defined through their cosomovision, history, and language was passed down by each generation to the next orally and in written mediums. Their livelihood was maintained through agriculture, fishing, and light commerce with neighboring communities, such as Xococ, one of communities affected by the Chixoy Dam and Rio Negro massacres. Their dependence on the river was integral to their way of life, for water consumption, bathing, cleaning, food, irrigation, travel, and spiritual practices along the river’s edge in designated sacred areas.

The Environment

During the trial, expert witness and member of congress, Rosalina Tuyuc, also indicated that the Mayan cemeteries are considered sacred ground. Thus, she stated that: […] the remains of all the family, friends and acquaintances are deposited there […]. [H]owever, many of the victims of the armed conflict do not have this; in other words, they were left on the streets or they were buried elsewhere; thus the need to find those who have disappeared, those who were massacred and who are in clandestine cemeteries, so that they can be taken to that sacred place where the victims […] can take flowers, food, celebrate rites […]. [F]or many years that has not been possible for the families who are searching for their loved ones who have disappeared. Additionally, Alfredo Itzep Manuel stated that the construction of the Chixoy plant “signified the closing or blocking off of the water, which means the closure of life itself.” This view is reflective of Mayan cosmovision’s intimate connection to the environment as a part of their history, ancestry, culture, and livelihood. Those who survived the massacres lost contact with their sacred grounds, because many of these sacred sites which were flooded in the construction of the dam.

The Massacres of Rio Negro

Rio Negro Massacre(s) 1978-1982 440 Maya Achi- 5,000 dead

As a part of the UN sponsored Peace Accords of 1996, which ended the conflict in Guatemala and instituted a liberal democratic government, the Comisión para el Esclarecimiento Historico (CEH) truth commission was formed. In its final report, Guatemala: Memory of Silence, of an estimated 250,000-300,000 victims, 42,275 were named; of these, 23,671 were victims of arbitrary executions, and 6,159 were victims of forced disappearances. Furthermore the commission found that the Maya population accounted for 83% of the victims, and that 93% of the atrocities committed during the conflict had been the work of the government's armed forces. The report concluded that the government had very likely committed “act of genocide” naming among others of the 23 indigenous groups of Guatemala, the Achí and massacres at Rio Negro. Recently, after decades of effort to see the case of the survivors of the massacres to come to justice through the courts, the case was heard in 2012 before the Inter-American Court for Human Rights (IACHR) in whose verdict, the court stated that genocide had been committed and ordered the Guatemalan government to investigate the case further to bring those responsible to justice, to pay reparations to the victims and their families, and to give national recognition and apologies for the acts committed.

In this regard, according to the INDE “Final Report of the Technical Support Commission,” issued in January 2008 and provided by the State with its final written arguments, in 2006 a “Political Agreement” was signed between the Government of Guatemala and the Coordinator of Communities affected by the Construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam (COCAHICH), among them that of Río Negro, for the “identification, verification and, as appropriate, reparation plan for the harm caused to the said communities owing to the construction of the Chixoy River Dam and Reservoir.” Based on this agreement, the State of Guatemala built 150 houses and 4 public buildings in Pacux, including a Catholic church, school, health post and community center.

However, according to the 2012 court proceedings:

“the consequences of the persecution and forced displacement experienced [by the survivors of the massacres perpetrated against the population of Río Negro …] go beyond the violent expulsion from their land and the plundering of this land, [… but also have] psychological, cultural, social and even religious dimensions.” In addition, they indicated that, “[t]o this day, the survivors of the community of Río Negro live in [the Pacux settlement] in overcrowded conditions, on lots on which it is physically impossible to carry out their traditional activities such as fishing and agriculture […].” According to the representatives, the community’s voluntary return to its traditional lands is impossible, on the one hand, because “most of the fertile land of the survivors […] and their ceremonial and religious centers were totally flooded” by the Chixoy dam. And, added to this, “the only access to the territories where [the Río Negro community] was located […] is guarded by State security” forces, and a “prior administrative formality” is required to obtain INDE authorization. This “has greatly limited the movement of those originally from Río Negro […],” in particular because of the financial cost of that formality. Moreover, they indicated that it was impossible to reach the said land without hiring boats or canoes, the cost of which “most of the survivors of the Río Negro massacres are unable to afford.”

From this except, it is evident, that even 30 years after the implementation of the Chixoy dam and the subsequent massacres that the affected communities have still not been compensated nor sufficiently aided to regain a standard of living at least comparable to the pre-dam period; not accounting for the cultural and spiritual cost.

Articles linked to Guatemala

Riparians	Water Features

Projects and Initiatives	Agreements and Treaties
Other - Hidroelectrica Chixoy (Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam)