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Article

30 Nov 2011

Author:
Tobias Roberts, in ALAI

Guatemalan Archbishop unable to sway Italian energy giant

Tension…in...western Guatemala as indigenous leaders and representatives of ENEL, an Italian-based energy company building a huge hydro-electric dam on ancestral indigenous lands, held their final negotiation session…[The tension arose in] September 2...after ENEL refused to consider a profit-sharing arrangement that would have given the indigenous communities…a 20-percent share of revenues from the 84-megawatt Palo Viejo dam. The parties have not met again since. Meanwhile, construction of the…dam, which is set to open in March 2012, continues…The negotiations marked the first time in Guatemalan history that a multi-national company had been forced to negotiate directly with communities affected by a large development in their ancestral territory…people in the San Juan Cotzal communities hoped their face-to-face negotiations with ENEL would set a new precedent for fair and transparent dealings…