The IDB withdraws financing in two hydroelectric plants after pressure from Mayan groups in Guatemala

Pressure from Mayan groups in northern Guatemala paid off.

After indigenous communities organized to protest two hydroelectric plants financed by the private arm of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), IDB Invest, alleging that they were damaging the environment and the social fabric, the bank announced that it had withdrawn financing from the projects.

According to environmental activists, this is an unprecedented decision that represents a victory for their interests and for indigenous rights throughout Latin America.

However, for the communities in the Ixquisis region, much remains to be healed.

The IDB Invest informed through an email that, at the end of last year, the bank settled the debt with the private company Energía y Renovación SA, which is in charge of the construction of both dams in the Yichk'isis microregion. (also known as Ixquisis), and withdrew funding from the projects.

The total amount of the IDB investment was 13 million dollars.

In addition, in a ten-page document, the bank also proposes an "action plan" to leave communities responsibly, including a commitment to "disclose and disseminate information on the environmental and social impacts of projects and measures of prevention and mitigation adopted” in the languages ​​of the communities.

"It was always requested that neither the company nor these projects reach the territories," says Rigoberto Juárez Mateo, general coordinator of the Plurinational Ancestral Government of the Akateko, Chuj, Q'anjob'al and Popti' Original Nations, on the phone from the municipality of Olintepeque.

“It has been 11 years, practically, that violently arrived.

For the communities, this is an important achievement.

However, there is damage caused, there is irreparable damage, not only in the specific place where the construction of these hydroelectric plants was planned, but rather at the level of the region, among the communities, at the level of the Nation.”

According to activists and residents of the area, the proposal, made in 2010, was to bring development projects such as schools, sports fields and roads to the region.

At the same time, two hydroelectric plants would be installed to take advantage of the river's resources, a central point of rituals and routines for the community, especially for women.

In a short time, the inhabitants say, the company began to generate divisions between the communities, hiring residents and offering them salaries well above what the rest of the inhabitants earn.

Development projects did not materialize.

The communities organized and began to protest.

In 2017, a community leader, Sebastián Alonso Juan, was killed during a demonstration.

His companions assure that the bullet that killed the activist came from State security, either from the National Civil Police or the Guatemalan army, which, they assure, guarded the construction of the thermoelectric plants for years.

It was from this fact that the towns decided to file a complaint with the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (MICI), an independent IDB office that handles civil society complaints about projects financed by the agency due to possible breaches of policies. .

After an investigation in the territory, the MICI issued 29 recommendations to IDB Invest, including the withdrawal of financing, which "paved the way" for the IDB to make this decision, according to AIDA.

For its part, IDB Invest assures that it has expanded and improved its environmental and social standards.

“IDB Invest has been taking important steps to increase our ability to address social issues and assess contextual risks,” a bank spokeswoman said in an email.

The bank designed a new Environmental and Social Sustainability Policy in 2020, he added, and all projects financed after December 2020 are carried out in accordance with the latest practices, which have a focus on human rights and indigenous communities.

This decision "has scope for others, for other latitudes," says Juárez Mateo.

“That the bank is recognizing that it has to improve its internal policies regarding indigenous peoples is an example for other groups” in Latin America.

Rosa Peña, a lawyer from AIDA's Human Rights and Environment Program, agrees: "This is a great advance, but it is not the end."

The work of repairing the social fabric and the environmental damage that the bank has promised to do is just beginning, explains the lawyer.

In addition, there remains the issue of the private company, which, according to reports in local media, sued the state of Guatemala in an international arbitration court for not guaranteeing the construction of the works.

Being incorporated in Panama, the company seeks to protect itself in the commercial agreements of Guatemala.

At the moment, construction has been paralyzed since 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic hit.

Two other IDB Invest investments have ended up in the MICI, the mechanism in charge of collecting complaints about violations of guidelines and guarantees.

In Colombia, local communities claim that a hydroelectric project did not have an environmental impact assessment, blocked community participation and access to information, was developed in a context of human rights violations and disproportionately used the force against those who defended their territory and water.

Meanwhile, in Chile, a dam financed by IDB Invest affected the economic activities of the community, also limiting the recreational and tourism use of a river, according to residents.

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