“Chixoy Dam Reparations Payment Begins”, Oct 2015

On October 15, 2015, the Guatemalan Government began paying reparations to hundreds of families from 33 former communities displaced or submerged during the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam and subsequent flooding of the Chixoy River basin in the early 1980's. The infamous Chixoy hydroelectric project, funded by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is a well-known case study on how transnational capital prioritizes economic development projects above human rights…According to Rio Negro massacre survivor…“this payment is a right, and not a gift from the authorities. And it has come after decades of struggle and hundreds of lives lost”…