On June 4, NISGUA, along with 33 other organizations from around the world, submitted a letter to the Executive Directors of the World Bank calling on them to delay their vote on the approval of a $340 million loan for Guatemala. The signing organizations ask that the bank cease to extend any loans to Guatemala until victims of the Chixoy Dam, which was constructed with funding from the World Bank, receive due reparations.
On June 4th, Prensa Libre reported that the Bank delayed the vote on the loan and will schedule a meeting to discuss its approval within 12 days.
Read the full letter below.
Dear World Bank Executive Directors:
It is our understanding that on June 4, 2014, the Board of Governors
of the World Bank intends to review and vote upon a $340 million loan
to the Government of Guatemala. We write to ask that you suspend that
vote until the Government of Guatemala has begun compliance with the
2010 Chixoy Reparations Plan.
As you know, the Government of Guatemala is currently in a dialogue
with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank regarding
long overdue reparations for the indigenous Mayan communities impacted
by the construction of the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam, which was
constructed during the height of Guatemala’s armed conflict in the
1980’s.
The residents of 33 affected communities have survived over three
decades in dire poverty provoked by the flooding of their lands, forced
displacement, loss of access to water, loss of transportation routes and
other impacts. Many also suffered violence. One of the communities
most impacted by the project was Rio Negro. Rio Negro was subject to a
series of five massacres, including the March 13, 1982 massacre of 107
children and 70 women, which the United Nations sponsored Truth and
Reconciliation Commission found were directly related to the dam’s
construction.
In April 2010, after decades of protest, international pressure, and
repression, the Organization of American States mediated a negotiations
process that culminated in a reparations agreement, signed by a
Guatemalan government delegation and representatives of the affected
communities. The World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights witnessed the
process. However, the agreement was never implemented. Though
initially seed funds were designated by the Guatemalan Congress to begin
compliance with the plan, the funds were eventually redirected and the
executive decree needed to implement the agreement was never issued.
In late 2013, after the U.S. Congress expressed concern regarding the
legacy issues related to the Chixoy dam, the World Bank and the IDB
again began to raise the issue with the Guatemalan government. However,
to date the executive decree has not been issued and the Reparations
Plan has not been put into action in a durable way.
More than three decades after the Chixoy development disasters, the
World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank have so far been unable
to ensure that communities forced into extreme poverty by projects they
funded have access to the resources they need to recover a dignified and
sustainable way of life. Even in the early 1980’s, the World Bank had
established safeguards and received extensive reports that the Chixoy
dam project was out of compliance with those safeguards, but the World
Bank continued supporting the project, which was carried out by a
repressive military government.
We ask that you make it clear that the World Bank takes compliance
with its safeguards and respect for fundamental human rights seriously
by instructing staff that the Board will not be able to review loans to
the government of Guatemala until the government of Guatemala has
demonstrated its commitment to redressing the legacy issues related to
the Chixoy Dam. Loans to Guatemala should be conditioned or delayed
until the following occur:
1) An executive decree by the executive of Guatemala gives legal
effect to the Reparations Plan of 2010 (after achieving the consent of
communities for the decree’s content),
2) The government of Guatemala ensures a funding stream that will
last into future government administrations to pay for Reparations Plan
implementation in its entirety, and
3) Credible steps are taken to implement the Reparations Plan of
2010, as in work on actual projects after the executive decree and
long-term funding are set in place.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
International Rivers Network, US
Rights Action, US
Rights Action, Canada
Guatemala Human Rights Commission, US
Environmental Defender Law Center, US
Amicus Foundation, Canada
Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, Canada
Building Bridges Human Rights
Bank Information Center
Both Ends, Netherland
Building Bridges Human Rights, Canada
Bretton Woods Project, UK
Center for International Environmental Law, US
Centre National de Coopération au Développement, CNCD-11.11.11, Belgium
Common Frontiers, Canada
Coordinadora de Afectados por Grandes Embaleses y Trasvases (COAGRET)
Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, US
Inclusive Development International, US
Indigenous Peoples Links, UK
Instituto Mexicano Para el Desarrollo Comunitario, A.C., Mexico
Jamaa Resource Initiatives, Kenya
Jubilee Debt Campaign, UK
Mining Injustice Solidarity Network
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA)
Oxfam International
Salva la Selva/Rettet den Regenwald, Germany
Social Justice Connection, Canada
The Corner House, UK
Urgewald, Germany
Re:Common Water Campaign, Italy
Rochester Committee on Latin America, US
Salva la Selva/Rettet den Regenwald, Germany
Social Justice Connection, Canada
South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People, India
11.11.11-Coalition of the Flemish North-South Movement, Belgium
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