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THE CIVIL PATROLS

In 1981 the noose further tightened around the community of Rio Negro when a new strategy to combat "subversion" was introduced by the Guatemalan government. Part of this strategy involved wiping out existing villages as part of the army's scorched earth policy and replacing them with "poles of development," which contained groupings of "model villages." These model villages were more centrally located and under the strict control and observation of the military. The "resettlement" community of Pacux was one such model village.

The second element of the new strategy was the creation of armed units in the communities. These were known as Civil Defense Patrols (PACs). One PAC was created near Rio Negro in Xococ, with the aggressive name of "Combative Village of Xococ." The Xococ PAC was to become an instrument of terror to be used against Rio Negro.

On February 13, 1982, villagers from Rio Negro were told to bring their identification cards to Xococ and return a week later to get new cards. Carlos Chen did not think it was worth the effort. Others were afraid.

Seventy-four villagers made the journey, and 73 never returned. One terrified woman came rushing back to Rio Negro to announce that everyone was being killed. Carlos hurriedly consulted with his wife, and they decided that it would safer if he and the remaining men fled for the hills. They were sure the women and children would not be harmed.

A month later, on March 13, they were proved terribly wrong when the vengeful patrolmen of Xococ arrived in Rio Negro and killed 177 women and children. Two months later, the army attacked and killed another 84 people at a place called "Los Encuentros" in the Rio Negro valley.

Fifteen women were taken off by helicopter and never seen again. On September 14, 92 villagers were burned to death in a nearby community. The victims included 30 youngsters from Rio Negro who had survived the previous massacres.

The community of Rio Negro had been completely destroyed. According to a census taken by INDE, 791 people had lived in the community in 1977; by 1983, 444 were dead. The community had cultivated 1,440 hectares of land; by 1983, it was mostly under water. Also lost were the land titles.

The dam had drowned Rio Negro's links to its rich Mayan past-its burial grounds, ceremonial sites, and artifacts. (One of the 16 sites that were flooded along the valley, at Cahuinal, reemerges like a ghost every year when the water level falls. Each year it bears more signs of deterioration.)

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THE CAUSE AND EFFECT

One key question is whether the villagers of Rio Negro were killed because they refused to move to make way for the Chixoy dam. If the link can be made, many feel that it implicates all those who supported the dam. This extends to the two multilateral development banks (the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank), which provided financing for the project.

Carlos Chen has no doubt: "If the Chixoy dam had not been built, then most of our community would be alive today," he says. The timing is certainly highly suspect. Construction on the dam began in January 1983, almost immediately after the final massacre of 1982.

The World Bank was apparently aware that the Chixoy project had been surrounded by turmoil, but according to an important, comprehensive study produced by Witness for Peace (WFP) in 1996, the Bank's project completion report (issued in 1991) appeared to put the blame on guerrilla activity. The problems associated with resettlement were "due to the insurgency activity in the project area during the years 1980 to 1983."

Five years later, in 1996, the Bank came to a more nuanced judgment. In response to the WFP report, a Bank mission was sent down to investigate the Chixoy controversy, and it concluded that "neither the Bank nor other observers knew of the extent of the violence occurring in (Rio Negro)." The executive summary of the investigation also noted that "there are still conflicting interpretations of the causes of the violence that occurred."

The clearest and most authoritative link between the construction of the dam and the massacres was made by the Commission of Historical Verification (Truth Commission), which was set up by the United Nations as part of the Guatemalan peace process. The Commission issued its report in February 1999.

The Commission selected a series of case studies to illustrate different aspects of the violence. One of the case studies looked at the "massacre and elimination of the Rio Negro community." It described the context of the massacre as being "the hydroelectric project. . .and the resistance of the Rio Negro community to being removed from their land." The case study also concluded that Rabinal had been the target of genocide.

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