A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Responding to the Massacres

Survivors from the massacres trickled back into Pacux in the years that followed the 1983 violence. In 1993, they formed a community organization to campaign for compensation for their losses, as well as pursue legal action against the authors of the massacres. In the years since 1983 they have achieved impressive results on both fronts. They have uncovered mass graves and brought prosecutions against some of the killers. They have also pressured the Guatemalan authorities into providing them with new farmland.

This campaign has turned Rio Negro into a source of inspiration for other Guatemalan communities that fell victim to violence in the 1980s. It has also attracted intense support outside the country.

One reason is the link to the Chixoy dam. The survivors have always felt that the massacres were intended to force the villagers out of their homes to make way for the dam. As a result, they have turned their sights on the World Bank, which helped to finance the dam.

This has greatly amplified the message of Rio Negro. Environmentalists have long criticized the World Bank for subsidizing large projects that displace people against their will, and Rio Negro has always seemed an extreme example.

But in the last two years, this has merged with a more general international campaign against the Bank's role in promoting globalization. As a result, when Carlos Chen Osorio, a leader of the Rio Negro community, visited Washington in April 2000 on the occasion of the spring meeting of the World Bank, he received a rapturous reception at rallies held to criticize the Bank's policies.

Ultimately, though, the appeal of the Rio Negro campaign does not lie in the noise it generates. It lies in the dignity and commitment with which Carlos and the others bring to their cause. This is what attracts international partners like Rights Action (formerly Guatemala Partners), which has funded the survivors' community work in Rabinal for several years.

These qualities also appeal to The Advocacy Project. Our involvement with Rio Negro began in March of 2000, when at the suggestion of Rights Action, AP associate Peter Lippman traveled to Guatemala to meet with the survivors in Guatemala. Peter's material appeared in a series of 'On the Record' that was published on the eve of Carlos's visit to Washington.

All of these initiatives have, in their own way, helped to keep the Rio Negro story alive. It needs to remain on the front burner. The survivors are clearly worse off than they were before the destruction of their community. Only three killers have been put on trial. Many mass graves have yet to be opened. The multilateral banks have not accepted responsibility.