NISGUA Spring 2008 Midwest Tour

The Damages of Development: The Xalalá Dam in Ixcán, Guatemala 

Tour Speaker: Jerónimo Osorio Chen

ABOUT JERONIMO OSORIO CHEN

For over a decade, Jerónimo Osorio Chen has worked to promote indigenous rights, cooperative economics, and citizen participation in the face of threats from corporate-led development schemes, including mega-projects and free trade. Jerónimo has played a key role in organizing and doing follow-up work on a 2007 referendum in which people in the Ixcán voted against the Xalalá Hydroelectric dam and oil exploration in the region.

Jerónimo is an Achi Maya from Río Negro, where the Guatemalan government committed several massacres in the 1980s against communities that opposed the building of the Chixoy dam on their lands. He will speak about people’s struggles to oppose the Xalalá Dam and the importance of avoiding a repeat of the Chixoy tragedy, including the repression, loss of lands, and damage to the ecosystem associated with massive dam projects.

Jerónimo represents the Ixcán Referendum Commission, a grassroots group that engages in education, organizing, and legal strategies to ensure that the people of the Ixcán determine their own resource use and development priorities.

ABOUT THE XALALA DAM

The Xalalá hydroelectric dam is a contentious mega-“development” project in the Ixcán, Quiché region that would displace indigenous communities and damage the ecosystem under the guise of fueling free trade. 

In a referendum held last year, almost 90% of Ixcán’s inhabitants voted against the construction of large hydroelectric dams, including Xalalá, as well as oil exploration in the region. Disregarding this overwhelming opposition, the Guatemalan government is currently accepting bids from national and international investors interested in the Xalalá dam.

This period of bidding, to be followed by feasibility studies, represents a key window of opportunity to oppose the Xalalá dam. The NISGUA tour will offer action ideas to support struggles for local resource management in the context of self-determination and participatory democracy.

 

MIDWEST TOUR SCHEDULE

April 10-12: Upper Peninsula, MI

April 13: OFallon, IL

April 14-15: St. Louis, MO

April 16-17: Columbus, OH

April 18: Minneapolis, MN
    6:15 pm: The O'Shaughnessy Room (aka the Leather Room) of the O'Shaughnessy Library on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas 

April 20-22: Madison, WI

April 23: Spring Green, WI 
    7 PM: The Shed Restaurant (123 N. Lexington Street)

April 24-25: Milwaukee, WI

 

Please contact Jillian Tuck at jillian@nisgua.org for more information about tour events.