April 1, 2002

"WATER, LIGHT, AND LAND FOR ALL!"
Reflections from the Mesoamerican Forum for Life

From the construction of the Chixoy Dam in Guatemala to the planned Three Rivers Dam in China, the creation of large dams have often come at the cost of human rights and precious ecosystems. Dam opponents have repeatedly lobbied for projects that account for energy needs without sacrificing human rights and ecological protection. As a result of the growing debate, the World Commission on Dams was formed in 1998. In 2000, the Commission released a comprehensive report, Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making, which found that dam construction has displaced over 40 million people while fueling the deterioration of local economies and the disintegration of communities. It also acknowledged that the construction of dams have resulted in an overwhelmingly negative effect on biodiversity, led to the extinction of aquatic species, and caused massive depletion of forests and farmable land. The benefits have largely gone to the rich at the expense of the impoverished indigenous and farming communities living in the vicinity of the dams. Now, with the assistance of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, the Plan Puebla Panama threatens to expand dam building in Southeastern Mexico and Central America. Since the commencement of the PPP in June of 2001, dam opponents have continued to encounter violence. For example:

• On June 30th, 2001, security forces for Energisa Corporation murdered Carlos Roberto Flores, a Honduran community organizer protesting the construction of the Babilonia River Hydroelectric Project. Two weeks later, on July 18th, police forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons at campesinos and indigenous peoples camped in front of the National Congress of Honduras in Tegucigalpa, demanding justice for Flores and the suspension of the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (BCIE) supported dam.
• Along the Salvadoran-Honduran border, COPINH (the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) is protesting against the proposed creation of the El Tigre Dam which would displace up to 20,000 people. This has led to the illegal detention, harrasment, and injury to those who have voiced resistance.
• On January 18th, 2002, Jacobo Martinez, leader of a community-based ecological group in El Salvador, evaded a murder attempt by supporters of the construction of the "El Chaparral" hydroelectric project . Upon completion, the project will displace over 1,500 families and effect more than 18,000 people.

Multilateral development banks have longed played a role in the violation of human rights and displacement of peoples related to the construction of dams. Over the past fifty years the World Bank has invested 75 billion dollars for the creation of 538 dams in 92 countries, displacing over 10 million people. This includes the Chixoy Dam in Guatemala where nearly 400 Mayan people were massacred in the early 1980's. Not until 1996 when human rights groups learned of the massacres did the World Bank acknowledge the conflict.

Given the unstable situation in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, tragic events such as those in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador could easily repeat themselves. There is concern that dams will be constructed on some of the 42 potential sites in the conflict zone, leading to the forced displacement of Zapatista autonomous communities. Many worry that eventually some of these sites will be used in order to sublimate the indigenous population currently struggling for autonomy in the area. Chiapas already produces over 45% of the hydroelectric energy in the country. However, 23% of state residents do not have electricity (opposed to 6.1% as a national average). As a result of the inevitable forced displacement of communities, the unequal benefits of the construction of the dams, and the lack of community consultation, the PPP looks to create hydroelectric energy by forced submission of poverty-stricken communities.

In response to such controversial plans, NGOs and effected communities have created the Regional Front Against Dams culminating in the First Mesoamerican Conference for Life in La Quetzal, Guatemala in March, 2002. Representatives from communities and organizations throughout Europe and the Americas came together to begin the long battle against dam projects within the PPP. Organizers made a concerted effort to bring representatives from effected communities throughout the Americas together with leading NGO leaders to formulate action plans to confront the projects. The conference was measured a success with local, regional, and global action plans created by representatives of 98 organizations from 21 countries convening in the isolated jungle town of La Quetzal; a community which potentially could be flooded by dams planned along the Usumacinta River. The next community and NGO based forum will be held next year in Colomoncagua, Honduras on the World Day of Action Against Dams. Below you will find find the Declaration from the conference released March 24, 2002.

Cooperativa Unión Maya Itzá, Petén Guatemala

Between March 21st - 23rd men and women representing 98 organizations and communities from 21 countries met faced with the general preoccupation caused by the plans for the construction of dams with different ends in different regions.

We have shared information and experiences, as well as analyzed the negative enviromental, cultural, economic-social effects that have already been caused and the potential damages of these projects.

We have confirmed information that states between 40 and 80 million people in the world have been displaced by the construction of these projects, which have been mostly to the benefit of those with economic power with the support of the international and multilateral financial institucions, highly tied to the projects of the Plan Puebla Panama, Plan Columbia, commercial trade agreements and the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

We have also confirmed that these projects, supported by transnational and national capita,l do not comply in its' totality, with environmental legislation at the national and international levels, which obliges us to adopt measure of resistance and to reiterate the validity of the proposed alternatives that have come from the people.

At the end of our discussions we agree:

1. To oppose the construction of dams in our countries that alter or divert the natural flow of the rivers, flood, affect, or displace people from their communities, destroy sacred and historic sights, and cause the death of ecosystems and biodiversity.
2. To oppose the construction of dams because with their effects they flagrantly violate the autodetermination of our communities on our lands, affecting the patrimony and cosmovision of indigneous communities in the region.
3. To reiterate our call to all Latin Americans to continue the popular resistance against the construction of the dams and all complimentary neoliberal politics.
4. Our repulsion and condemnation of the institutions that have financed these projects (World Bank, Inter-american Development Bank, Central American Bank for Economic Integration) and the governments that support the transnationals involved in this dirty business (AES, Union FENOSA, Endesa, Harza, among others).
5. Our solidarity with the threatened people and organizations that have been persecuted and have suffered from violations of human rights in the name of the struggle resisting the construction of dams.
6. To stress our rejection of the construction of whichever dam on the Usumacinta River because it would seriously damage the communities and ecosystems in the area. At the same time, we reject whichever project related to the generation of electric energy constructed in the name of the Plan Puebla Panama.
7. To confirm that the plan to displace people from the mountains of Mesoamerica, especially those integrated into the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, is an inseperable part of the regional plans for the occupation of the basins and constructions of dams.

Immediately we demand:

1. Immediate justice and comply to the responsibilities related to genocides and the corresponding reparation of damages caused to the affected people by dams already constructed.
2. The suspension of persecution, intimidation, disappearance, death threats and strategies of disarticulation against people and organization struggling against dams.
3. To the national governments, the suspension of the imposition of projects that do not benefit the communities and towns in the region.

As a final resolution we agree:

1. Our solidarity with the movements at the Latin American level in the struggle against dams (Usumacinta in Guatemala-México, Chaparral in Frontera Intibucá El Salvador-Honduras, Itzantún and El Cajón in México, La Maroma in El Salvador, Susuma in Honduras, El Tigre in la Frontera El Salvador-Honduras, Chalillo in Belice, Bayano and Tabasará in Panamá, Guaigüi in República Dominicana, among others).
2. Our rejection of the complimentary projects to dams such as those in relation to biopiracy, comercial trade agreements, and intellectual property rights.
3. On the World Day of Action against Dams, we will meet again next year in Colomoncagua, Honduras.

Unión Maya Itzá, Petén, Guatemala, 23 de marzo de 2002

Organizations which signed onto the declaration:

Belize:

• Belize Alliance Conservation NGOs BACONGO

Bolivia:

• Coordinadora por la Defensa del Agua y la Vida de Bolivia

Colombia:

• Cabildo Mayor Embera-Katío del Río Verde y Río Sinu de Colombia.

Costa Rica:

• Asociación Espíritu de Lucha, Boruca
• Asociación para el Bienestar Ambiental de Sarapiquí ABAS
• Federación Costarricense para la Conservación del Ambiente FECON
• Mujeres Indígenas Espíritu de Lucha MIEL
• Proyectos Alternativos para el Desarrollo Social - PROAL

El Salvador:

• Ayuda en Acción
• CESTA- El Salvador
• Comité Ecológico del Cantón La Estancia
• Comunidades Unidas de Bajo Lempa
• Instituto Salvadoreño de Permacultura
• Sistema Económico Social

Spain:

• Colectivo de Solidaridad con Chiapas

United States:

• Chiapas Support Committee
• CONCERN-América
• Global Exchange
• Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC
• Red Internacional de Ríos / Internacional Rivers Network (IRN)
• Rights Action / Derechos en Acción

Guatemala:

• Asamblea Consultiva de la Población Desarraigada ACPD
• Asociación Campesina Río Negro Rabinal Achí ASCRA
• Asociación Civil del Medioambiente Recursos Naturales
• Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén ACOFOP
• Asociación de Desarraigados en Desarrollo del Petén ADEP
• Asociación de Mujeres Ixmucané
• Asociación para la Promoción y el Desarrollo de la Comunidad CEIBA
• CEDES
• Centro de Acción Legal en Derechos Humanos - CALDH
• Centro de Educación Popular Padre Hermógenes CEPAHER
• Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular CIEP
• Centro de Investigaciones de Desarrollo Económico de Centro América CIDECA
• Colectivo Madre Selva
• Comité ProMejoramiento de las Comunidades Fronterizas del Río Usumacinta-Peten
• Comité Promejoramiento Retalteco Petén
• Comunidad Vista Hermosa Los Chorros
• Comunidades Populares en Resistencia del Petén - CPR-P
• Cooperativa Canahan
• Cooperativa Mario Méndez Montenegro
• Cooperativa Nueva Guatemala, Sayaxché
• Cooperativa Unión Maya Itzá
• Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas CNOC
• Estudiantes Universitarios Petén
• Federación Luterana Mundial
• Foro de ONGs
• Fundación para el Apoyo Técnico en Proyectos FUNDATEP
• Guías Espirituales
• Hijos e Hijas por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio HIJOS
• Instituto Mesoamericano de Permacultura IMEP
• Ixchel
• Mamá Maquín
• Parroquia Poptún
• Red Comunitaria de América Central para la Gestión del Riesgo
• Sindicato de Carbonera
• Zona de Adyacencia Petén

Honduras:

• Confederación de Pueblos Autóctonos de Honduras COMPA
• Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras COPINH

• Convergencia de los Pueblos de las Américas en Honduras COMPA
• Organización Fraternal Negra de Honduras OFRANEH
• Unión Revolucionaria del Pueblo

Italia:

• Ya Basta

México:

• AMOR
• ARIC Unión de Uniones
• Asociación Ecológica Santo Tomas
• Asociación Rural Independiente de Interés Colectivo - ARIC
• Ayuntamiento Huitiupán
• Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas de Acción Comunitaria - CIEPAC
• Coalición de Organizaciones Autónomas de Ocosingo
• Comunidades Indígenas de la región de Simojovel de Allende CIRSA
• Consejo Ciudadano del Agua del Estado Tabasco A.C. CCATAC
• Consejo de Organizaciones Médicos y Parteras Tradicionales de Chiapas COMPITCH
• Consejo Guerrerense 500 años
• Consejo Guerrerense 500 anos de Resistencia Indígena
• Consejo Indígena de Uxpanapa Veracruz - CIUX
• Cooperativa de Ganaderos de Carolina
• Cooperativa Nueva Alianza
• Coordinadoras Regionales de Chiapas de la Sociedad Civil en Resistencia de Los Altos, La Costa, Fronteriza, Norte-Selva y Marqués de Comillas
• Ejido Huitiupán
• Frente Independiente de Pueblos Indios
• Indymedia
• Misión de Guadalupe
• Misión San José Chiapas
• Organización Campesina Emiliano Zapata - OCEZ, CNPA
• Organización de Médicos Tradicionales y de Parteras Hwziltan
• Organización de Obreros Agrícolas y Campesinos CIOAC
• Pastoral de la Tierra
• Patronato Pro Educación
• Red Mexicana de Acción Frente al Libre Comercio
• Resistencia Civil
• Resistencia de la Costa
• Resistencia Independiente
• UMOI

Panamá:

• Centro de Asistencia Legal Popular - CEALP República Dominicana:Comité Pro-Defensa Guaigüi, La Vega