Reparations

Chixoy Reparations at Last: Checks Are In

Teodora Chen, massacre survivor, receives the first check for reparations.
After a long and painful journey, Guatemala's Maya Achí people have finally received justice: The government delivered the first reparations checks to survivors of the Chixoy massacres.

Healing Begins for the Maya Achi People of Guatemala

Portrait of Carlos Chen at the Pacux resettlement village in the outskirts of Rabinal.
On Saturday, March 13, 1982, a young Maya Achi man named Carlos Chen’s life was forever altered. That day, he painfully learned that his wife Paulina Iboy, children Enriqueta and Antonio, and sisters Marta Julia and Bernarda, had been viciously massacred.

PR – Reparations Due For Chixoy Dam Atrocities

Descendants of survivors of the Chixoy Dam massacres.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Nearly 32 years after indigenous Maya Achi communities were massacred to clear the way for building the Chixoy Dam, affected communities and massacre survivors achieved a victory. The 2014 US Consolidated Appropriations Bill instructs the US directors of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank to "report … on the steps being taken by such institutions to support implementation of the April 2010 Reparation Plan for Damages Suffered by the Communities Affected by the Construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam in Guatemala."

Reparations for the Maya Achi Chixoy Dam Affected

Carlos Chen Osorio leads a procession to remember victims of the Chixoy Dam massacres.
The word reparations ­– feared by people in the world of infrastructure development – is finally starting to find a well-deserved and long-awaited place. Reparations means making up for a past wrong. US President Barack Obama is about to sign a bill that includes in its mandates reparations for the Maya Achi communities who were affected by construction of the Chixoy Dam in Guatemala. Financiers of the project – the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank – are now on the hook to right the wrongs that accompanied construction of the Chixoy Dam.

US Congress Takes Landmark Decision for Rivers and Rights

Children in Guatemala's Rio Negro
In a landmark decision Congress has instructed the US government to oppose any new large dams in international financial institutions, and called for justice for the victims of human rights abuses in their projects. What does this amazing breakthrough mean?

Help Secure Human Rights in Guatemala

Monday, December 10, 2012
For more than 20 years, communities in Guatemala have sought justice for the massacre of loved ones that took place to make way for construction of the Chixoy Dam. They need your solidarity to demand reparations from the government, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank.

International Court Finds Guatemala Guilty for Rio Negro Massacres

Carlos Chen Osorio, who lost his wife and two toddler daughters in the massacre, leads the row during the Via Crucis
Carlos Chen Osorio, who lost his wife and two toddler daughters in the massacre, leads the row during the Via Crucis. Photo by James Rodriguez For more than 20 years, the Maya-Achi people displaced by the Chixoy Dam have sought justice for the massacre of their husbands, wives and children that took place during Guatamala's civil war in the early 1980s. Last week their years of effort were finally recognized when the Inter-American Court on Human Rights found Guatemala guilty of the violation of human rights against the communities of Rio Negro. “After so many years struggling to seek justi

Chixoy Dam

For more than twenty years, communities affected by the Chixoy Dam have demanded reparations for the damages caused by the project, which was built during Guatemala's most repressive military dictatorship. The project, financed by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, was built on the Chixoy River in the early 1980s and forcibly displaced more than 3,500 Maya Achi community members.

Letter to President Colom

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
March 10, 2009 Presidente Constitucional de la República de Guatemala Ingeniero Álvaro Colom Caballeros Casa Presidencial 6 a. Avenida, 4-18 Zona 1 Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala Fax: 011-502-2-383-8390 Excelentísimo Sr. Presidente Colom: Las organizaciones abajo firmantes que abogamos por la justicia social y ambiental hemos dado seguimiento al proceso de verificación y negociación con respecto al caso de las comunidades representadas en la Coordinadora de las Comunidades Afectadas por la Construcción de la Hidroeléctrica Chixoy ("COCAHICH"). Te

On Trust, Justice and Restoring Dignity: The Long Path for Reparations in Guatemala

Paulina Osorio was born in a village flooded by Chixoy Dam. Her parents were murdered by Guatemalan paramilitaries when she was 9.
June 2008 World Rivers Review: Legacy Issue  "History does not allow injustices to vanish just because we are unable to address them."  Colombian author William Ospina The fight for justice made by the communities affected by the Chixoy Dam in Guatemala has been going on for more than two decades. Their story is stupefying. At the time the dam was being built, horrendous persecution and even massacres of people in the dam region took place at the hands of the dictatorship. The indigenous Maya-Achí communities that lived on lands adjacent to the Chixoy (Negro) River wher

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