Community leader from Huehuetenango testifies at the World Bank

Last month, Cecilia Mérida testified at the World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. about the damage being inflicted by the Bank's financing of the Cambalam hydroelectric dam in the municipality of Barillas, Huehuetenango. She testified to the strategies of criminalization being employed by the Guatemalan government and the dam's Spanish owner - Hidro Santa Cruz - in an attempt to silence local opposition. She spoke first hand about the impacts on families and communities when leaders are illegally detained and imprisoned for months, or even years on end.

The World Bank continues to be a major funder of resource extraction companies around the world, loaning hundreds of millions of dollars each year to companies working in the global South who are unable to guarantee that these investments are not contributing to human rights violations. A recent investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed the hypocrisy of the World Bank's motto to "do no harm." The investigation showed that mega-development projects financed by the World Bank have pushed at least 3.4 million people out of their homes around the world. The tragic situation in Santa Cruz Barillas is an example of this systemic problem: the Inter-American Infrastructure Finance Corporation (CIFI), a US-based private sector lender funded in part by the World Bank, loaned Hidro Santa Cruz more than $8 million for the construction of dam.

Click here to read more about the struggle to defend territory in the department of Huehuetenango, and the leaders who have been criminalized while speaking out against hydroelectric dams being imposed without their consent. 

Below is Cecilia's statement before the World Bank. To read the original statement in Spanish, click here.

Cecilia Mérida: Statement before the World Bank

I am Cecilia Mérida. I come from the department of Huehuetenango in Guatemala, from the municipality of Santa Cruz Barillas, which is where the Spanish company Hidralia Ecoener has been operating without consent since 2008. Their goal is to construct a hydroelectric dam on the Cambalan River, situated on the periphery of the urban center of the municipality. This company has received financing that flows from the World Bank to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and its Inter-American Infrastructure Finance Corporation (CIFI).

I come in the name of each person affected by this hydroelectric project, to answer many of the questions put forward by OXFAM. What are the consequences for the people who are affected by the projects financed with money that comes from so far away?

Hidralia Ecoener, registered in Guatemala as Hidro Santa Cruz, Sociedad Anónima, insisted on the development of this project despite the fact that in 2007, the people of Barillas held a community consultation to protect their natural resources, under the framework of the Collective Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The company hired local people as technicians gaining political control over community organizing. In November 2009, the company pressed charges against eight community leaders, among who was my life partner - Rubén Herrera - along with Pablo Antonio Pablo and Saúl Mendez. Thus began the practice of charging community leaders in the municipality with crimes of breaking and entering, coercion, threats, aggravated arson, activity against the security of the nation, detention, kidnapping, and terrorism.

This led to the beginning of the social conflict in the municipality, and the permanent violation of the human rights of the population. What transpired were incidents of intimidation, persecution and criminalization against all of those who spoke out against the interests of Hidro Santa Cruz. In 2011, Rúben Herrera was forced to leave the municipality, abandoning his work providing social support to youth.

Towards the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, social tension worsened to such a level that the Guatemalan government declared a State of Siege in the municipality of Santa Cruz Barillas, repressing the opposition to the hydroelectric project and allowing Hidro Santa Cruz to continue its operations. On May 1, 2012, campesino leader Andrés Francisco Miguel was killed during an assassination attempt against Pablo Antonio Pablo, who was left seriously injured in the attack. One year later, company private security guards who participated in this armed attack, were absolved of all crimes by the Guatemalan justice system.

Based on what transpired on May 1, 2012, 17 community leaders were illegally detained, including Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez. Nine were unjustly imprisoned for nine months, and were never found guilty of any crime. On March 15, 2013, Rubén Herrera was arrested at the request of Hidro Santa Cruz. After spending three months in prison, he finally had all charges dropped on February 26, 2014, after a judge ruled that there was not sufficient evidence to keep the investigation open.

In August 2013, Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez were arrested again, and accused of murder, feminicide and lynching. Those of us who are at their defense are convinced that this case was brought forward by employees of Hidro Santa Cruz as a part of their strategy to criminalize community leadership. After a flawed trial, they were convicted of 33 years in prison. Today, they are going through a Special Appeals process.

In September 2013, another community member, Mynor López was illegally arrested. At the end of the month, the Guatemalan Army and National Civil Police practically launched a military offensive against the civilian population of Santa Cruz Barillas, the likes of which have never been seen before in this municipality - not even during the armed conflict.

In February 2015, three more community leaders were detained and illegally imprisoned. Adalberto Villatoro, Francisco Juan and Arturo Pablo (Pablo Antonio Pablo's son). They, like all of the others previously mentioned, believed that the presence of Hidro Santa Cruz seriously impacts the natural, environmental and cultural aspects of the municipality.

After seven years of persecution, the ways the Spanish company Hidro Santa Cruz operates provide some answers to the questions posed by OXFAM's recent report. What are the human costs of the loans, given the social and environmental safeguards are not working? The human costs are extremely high and very harmful. They translate into persecution, killings, imprisonment, and criminalization. During this time, the communities have not seen any benefits. Instead, they have gone from living in tranquility to living in a state of fear and terror. Our human potential and energy has not been dedicated towards local development from our own perspectives and aspirations, but instead, has been spent defending ourselves against the abuses of Hidro Santa Cruz.

The human costs [of these loans for mega-development projects] translate into the suffering of families, wives, sons and daughters, into illnesses and precariousness. We are prevented from being with our husbands. Instead, we spend our lives and the little we have traveling to the prison that is located more than 400 kilometers away. In this conflict, every community member [incarcerated] is innocent. We are the people who are suffering the consequences of bank loans that are thought to be "producing development." The pain and suffering for us "is the human face of these projects." Day to day, we live out these tangible consequences, in addition to being (as OXFAM's report indicates) "the most poor and vulnerable people of the developing countries."

We, too, have questions. Who is going to pay for all of the costs that we have had to suffer from "development," for a project that we never asked for in our community? Is it the World Bank? The International Finance Corporation? The CIFI? Or is it Hidro Santa Cruz that is going to pay for all of the economic, social and organizational harms they have caused in our community? Who will return to the families all the years taken from the men who have been incarcerated? We know that no one will give back to us those who have been killed.

US groups call on new US Ambassador to Guatemala to promote justice

The following letter was originally sent on October 14, 2014

Ambassador Todd Robinson U.S. Embassy
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Dear Ambassador Robinson:

We write to congratulate you on your recent appointment as the United States ambassador to Guatemala, and we recognize your extensive experience and service in country as well as throughout the Western hemisphere. As U.S.-based human rights and policy organizations, we closely follow the human rights situation in Guatemala and the impacts of U.S. policy in the region.

We appreciate the steps the U.S. Embassy has taken in recent years to support justice and accountability in Guatemala and fervently believe that the protection of human rights must continue to be a top priority.

Unfortunately, over the last two years, the human rights situation has been deteriorating. As you are well aware, Guatemala currently suffers from increasing violence, organized criminal activity, intense conflict over land and natural resources, high rates of poverty and unemployment, and minimal social spending. When addressing these challenges, the Guatemalan government should implement policies that improve the common good; its institutions and public officials should act within the rule of law, and be held accountable when they do not. However, the Guatemalan government, through militarized policies and ineffective mechanisms for civil society dialogue, has exacerbated social conflict. Impunity rates for all crimes remains high –particularly in cases relating to human rights defenders, indigenous peoples, women, and LGBTQ individuals–and corruption within the government has not been effectively addressed.

Will new World Bank lending policies undermine advances for justice in Guatemala?

Only days after a Guatemalan appeals court emitted an historic ruling strengthening the domestic jurisdiction of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO 169), a leaked draft of the World Bank’s new Safeguard Policies revealed proposed changes to the Bank’s lending policies that could undermine international laws in place to protect the rights of indigenous communities.

A Guatemalan appeals court ruled in favor of the Sipakapense People's Council,
mandating that the government must respect international human rights laws.
Photo: CPO

The draft, "Review and Update of the World Bank's Safeguard Policies-Proposed Environmental and Social Framework", outlines a proposal to alter the Bank's Safeguard Policies following a two-year long internal review of their efficacy and application. According to the Bank these policies are designed to "prevent and mitigate undue harm to people and their environment" which may result as unintended negative externalities of Bank funded projects. However in accordance with the draft, new policies would strip environmental and social protection afforded under previous lending guidelines, leaving communities and the environment vulnerable to suffer negative consequences of mega-development projects.

The new lending policies aim to increase the Bank's competitiveness in a saturated international market for large development loans, streamlining the lending process by cutting red tape and minimizing bureaucratic oversight. However, the proposed changes do little to establish standards regarding social and environmental oversight or clear processes to complete them, and instead present flexible guidelines with ambiguous implementation and enforcement mechanisms. Under the drafted policies the Bank absconds from its responsibilities to oversee the socially responsible and environmentally ethical use of its funds, promoting its own avaricious ambitions over its stated mission of reducing poverty.

World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Photo: Vanguard

If the new policies are approved, borrowing governments will be allotted unprecedented privileges in addressing the risk for social and environmental consequences of Bank funded projects. States would conduct their own independent social and environmental risk analyses for development projects according to their own domestic laws, and would not be required to adhere to previously used protection standards or international law. This decentralized approach to evaluating the potential for negative externalities of loans presents a clear conflict of interests as states seeking loans can downplay potential risks in order to increase their chances of receiving funding.

Furthermore, borrowing governments would be allowed to opt out of existing World Bank protection policies such as the Indigenous People's Standard, which ensures protection of land and resource rights of indigenous communities impacted by Banks loans. The failure to uphold these rights, including the right of indigenous communities to be consulted before mega-development projects are constructed on their traditional territories, represents a clear violation of international human rights law such as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization.

The proposed policies are of particular concern in the Guatemalan context, where developing judicial systems have struggled to establish and maintain the vigilance of international human rights law in domestic courts. This is particularly relevant to the rights outlined in ILO 169, which help to mitigate social conflict, violence, militarization and the criminalization of human rights defenders by affording communities the right to be consulted before such projects are constructed on their territories. If codified into national law, the rights outlined in ILO 169 would serve as a powerful tool for both communities and the state to allay conflict. In allowing governments to opt out of obligations stipulated under international human rights law such as ILO 169, the proposed Safeguard Policies use the leverage of large development loans to undermine rulings dictated by the Guatemalan judiciary aimed at strengthen the standing of international law.

The Chixoy Reservoir, created by the World Bank funded Chixoy Dam
Photo: James Rodríguez

The Bank's attempt to abscond from its responsibility to ensure the social and environmental rights of the projects it funds is furthermore worrying in the Guatemalan context given the Bank's history of funding projects that have brought egregious outcomes to local communities. Notably, the Bank's funding of the Chixoy Dam played a central role in the massacres of Rio Negro in the early 1980s, when government security forces and paramilitary groups murdered over 444 men, women, and children near the dam construction site. More recently, the Bank granted Canadian mining company Goldcorp with a $45m loan for the operation of the Marlin Mine, seemingly without concern for the vast human rights violations associated with its operation, including the pollution of local water supplies, public health concerns, and the failure to respect the results of a community consultation that voted against the project. In 2010, both the International Labor Organization of the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights called for the immediate suspension of mining activities at the Marlin Mine, however to date, and thanks to funding from the World Bank, the mine continues to operate.

Local communities have been devastated by the environmental
impacts of the Marlin Mine, located in San Miguel Ixtahuacán.
Photo: Allan Lissner

On July 30, the World Bank's board of directors declined to amend the drafted Safeguard Policies despite strong objections from civil society and international rights groups. The draft will continue to be reviewed internally, and a decision regarding its implementation is not expected until early 2015.

ADH denounces World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank

The Departmental Assembly of Huehuetenango in Defense of Territory and for the Autonomy and Free Determination of the People – ADH – informs the national and international community:


During 1981, 1982, 1983, the Guatemalan Army massacred the Achí communities that lived on the banks of the Chixoy River; 444 people, including youth, children, men and women were executed. The justification of the massacre was the existence of an internal armed conflict, but in reality, they carried out this strategy in order to clean the zone and implant the construction of the Chixoy hydro-electric project. The National Electrification Institute – INDE – was responsible for the execution of this project, having received a loan from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank for almost 1 billion dollars. In 2012, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights condemned the State of Guatemala for the massacres of Rio Negro and called for fulfillment of the reparations to the victims' family members for the damages caused, including the expropriation of land, crops, animals, identity and culture.

On January 17, 2014, after a 32-year community struggle, the Congress and President of the United States made a declaration demanding that the State of Guatemala and Otto Pérez Molina should pay the $154,000,000 in damages to the victims. The response of “ Mr. President “ was immediate: “To give these communities $154,000,000, is like saying that we are going to privilege these communities and leave others out.”  “Mr. President” this is a historic debt owed by the Guatemalan State to the victims of the massacres and the civilized world. The communities of Río Negro continue living in extreme poverty and in inhumane conditions. Your response, “Mr. President”, is irresponsible and aberrant.

Today, February 7, 2014, the Departmental Assembly of Huehuetenango – ADH – and the people of Santa Cruz Barillas, demand that the military government of Otto Pérez Molina respond responsibly and quickly to resolve once and for all the conflict in Barillas. 31 years later, the same methods are being repeated by Hidralia-Hidro Santa Cruz. It is time to end the conflict created by the Spanish company in its attempt to implant two hydro-electric projects in the Q’am’balam River. The conflict has gone on for five years and has resulted in the persecution, intimidation, and co-opting of community leaders. There have been assassinations, imprisonment; there is fear and terror. “Mr. President,” it is necessary to stop these companies.

The sad and terrifying story of Chixoy is related to the current persecution in Barillas through international financial institutions. The World Bank and the Inter- American Development Bank are financing Hidro Santa Cruz through the Inter-American Corporation for Infrastructure Financing (CIFI), which in 2010 provided financing for the Canbalam hydroelectric dam. In 2008, CIFI received an $80,000,000 loan from the International Financial Corporation of the World Bank Group.  In 2001, CIFI received $10,000,000 from the Inter-American Investment Corporation of the Inter-American Development Bank. We believe that these investments are responsible for the human rights violations and the damages suffered by the communities of Barillas.

Mr. Otto Pérez Molina, do you want to continue protecting companies that act illegally? What do you and your government stand to gain? Will you continue to repress the Q’anjob’al and Mestizo communities of Santa Cruz Barillas? Or what are your plans for this region that has been abandoned by the state of Guatemala?

For all of the previous reasons, as the ADH we demand:

A: The end to persecution, repression and criminalization of community leaders.
B: That the Spanish company Hidralia-Hidro Santa Cruz be expelled from the country given the harm it has caused to the communities of Barillas.
C: That Hidralia-Hidro Santa Cruz pay material, physical, physiological and cultural damages to the victims.

We call on:

• International organizations and the Inter American Commission on Human Rights – IACDH to visit in order to investigate the damages caused by Hidralia-Hidro Santa Cruz and that they issue a public statement.
• The governments of Europe, Canada and Latin America to investigate and make a public statement against the improper use given to funds provided by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. 
• International solidarity organizations to denounce these acts and remain vigilant to the evolution of Otto Pérez Molina’s military government so that he upholds his responsibilities and that the persecution, repression and criminalization ends. 
• National organization to close our ranks in solidarity and unity of the People.

We demand liberty for our political prisoners.

The people of Barillas are not responsible for the violence; they are the object of a dark plan of repression and criminalization.

We are all Barillas
Life and Territory have no owner

Departmental Assembly of Huehuetenango – ADH – February 7, 2014

Victim of Río Negro massacre exhumed from Cobán mass grave and buried in Rabinal

Boys carry Martina Rojas' photo through the streets of Rabinal. Photo: CPR Urbana

On September 7, Martina Rojas was buried in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, 31 years after she was forcefully detained and disappeared from her home community of Río Negro, situated on the banks of the Chixoy River. On May 14, 1982, the Guatemalan military disappeared Rojas and dozens of other Maya Achí victims, as part of a series of massacres aimed at displacing the people of Río Negro in order to make way for the Chixoy dam. It was reported that Rojas was taken away by helicopter to an unknown location, until only recently confirmed to be a military base in Cobán, Alta Verapaz.

Rojas is honored on the eve of her burial. Photo: CPR Urbana

Earlier this year, Rojas' remains were uncovered in the mass grave located in the "Regional Training Command Center for Peacekeeping Operations", or CREOMPAZ, what used to be a functioning military base in Cobán, Alta Verapaz. The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG) and the Association of Families of the Detained and Disappeared (FAMDEGUA) began exhumations of the mass grave in February 2012. Despite the fact that anthropologists have uncovered the remains of at least 500 people, many with signs of torture, military officials continue to claim that, "The graves that have been discovered in Cobán are part of a cemetery".

So far, FAFG has positively identified seven individuals based on DNA collected and cataloged in their genetic database. Martina Rojas was identified before being buried on September 7 in Rabinal, near the community of Pacux, where her family members and other Río Negro survivors currently live.

The Chixoy river, once only a few inches deep and surrounded by the community of
Río Negro, is now flooded due to the hydro-electric dam. Photo: Elizabeth Bain

Guatemala's National Institute of Electrification (INDE) began speculation for the Chixoy dam project in 1976. Between February and September 1982, during the height of Guatemala's internal armed conflict, at least 444 men, women and children were killed in Río Negro. Financed by the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank, construction of the Chixoy dam began in January 1983.

In 2008, a Guatemalan court sentenced five ex-members of the civil patrol to 780 years in prison for the largest massacre in Río Negro, which killed 177 women and children on March 13, 1982. In June 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights heard the Río Negro case and by September emitted a sentence in favor of the survivors. The court strongly recommended that the Guatemalan state search for those who were disappeared, investigate and charge the material authors of the massacres, and assume responsibility for the atrocities committed.

NISGUA provides ongoing human rights accompaniment to the Río Negro survivors and accompanied the 2008 legal process in the national court as well as the 2013 burial of Martina Rojas.