Rabinal, Guatemala: Consultants hired by the Organization of American States have begun visiting Guatemalan villages impacted by the Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam to assess damages and recommend reparations for families.

The dam, built by Guatemala’s National Institute of Electrification (INDE) in 1983, flooded more than 30 miles of river valley and destroyed ancestral farmlands and livelihoods of thousands of rural villagers. Many believe army-supported massacres that killed more than 4,500 in the region around the same time were designed to eliminate resistance to the dam. The project was funded by the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

The Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achí (ADIVIMA), a partner of the Advocacy Project (AP), has been negotiating with the Guatemalan government to get reparations for more than 10,000 people in 28 villages.

Last week, field workers from Italian consulting firms ARS Progetti and Movi Mundo visited the communities of Chitomax, Colonia Naranjo and Pacux to hear villagers’ testimonies and explain the reparations process. Heidi McKinnon, an AP Peace Fellow volunteering with ADIVIMA this summer, attended the meetings and included some of the testimonies in her blog:

“Many of these people were orphaned. [The dam] cost so much blood from our loved ones… It is a shame, what they did to us… They ought to talk with people first… They took advantage and now we are suffering for it… We had over 2,000 acres and now we don’t even have the lands they promised us…”

The Vice President of Guatemala signed an agreement in March 2008 to negotiate reparations. A contract was signed in early June for consultants to verify damages resulting from the dam’s construction. Over the next four months, these consultants will interview survivors in each of the 28 villages. Their final report, to be completed in November, will then be used during the negotiations.