Río Negro massacres

The Río Negro massacres were a series of killings of villagers by the government of Guatemala between 1980 and 1982.

The Río Negro massacres took place during the midst of the Guatemalan Civil War; a period of time where Guatemala was experiencing intense political violence. It is also important to note that the Guatemalan Civil War was happening during the Cold War, a main influencer in sparking the conflict in Guatemala in the first place. After the War began in 1960, Indigenous communities were continuously accused by the Guatemalan Military to be supporters of guerrilla movements, and were thus seen as enemies of the state. This massacre, along with the many others that occurred during the Silent Holocaust period of the Guatemalan Civil War, was a part of the "scorched-Earth" policies meant to target Mayan communities.

In 1978, in the face of the Guatemalan civil war, the Guatemalan government proceeded with its economic development program, including the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam. Financed in large part by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, the Chixoy Dam was built in Rabinal, a region of the department of Baja Verapaz historically populated by the Maya Achi.

To complete construction, the government undertook voluntary and forcible relocations of dam-affected communities from the fertile agricultural valleys to the much harsher surrounding highlands. Government officials initially promised that communities displaced by the reservoir created by the Chixoy Dam would receive land of equal or better quality than the fertile valley that would ultimately be flooded. However, many residents reported that the resettlement areas lacked sufficient farmland and water access for agriculture, one of the primary ways these communities made an income. When hundreds of residents refused to relocate, or returned after finding the conditions of resettlement villages were not what the government had promised, these men, women, and children were kidnapped, raped, and massacred by paramilitary and military officials.

More than 440 Maya Achi were killed in the village of Río Negro alone. The string of extrajudicial killings that claimed up to 5,000 lives between 1980 and 1982 became known as the Río Negro massacres. The government officially declared the acts to be counterinsurgency activities, even though local church workers, journalists and the survivors of Río Negro deny that the town ever saw any organized guerrilla activity.