Media Work
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NISGUA Articles and Interviews

Guatemala and the PPP
Interconnect
By Sarah Aird
June 2004

When Mexican President Vicente Fox first announced Plan Puebla-Panamá (PPP) in 2001, dams became one of its most controversial elements. Intellectual architects of the PPP claimed it does not include dam construction. Yet this neoliberal model requires massive electricity generation to support industrial corridors, free trade zones, and maquiladoras. Today there are about 330 hydroelectric projects in varying stages of construction or study. Many analysts believe it is simply ingenuous to pretend the PPP and dam construction on such a massive scale are unrelated.

Resistance has been strong. In March 2002, activists met in Guatemala to talk about the PPP and hydroelectric projects, bringing together 300 people to share experiences and support each other’s struggles. The formation of the Mesoamerican Forum against Dam Construction met in Honduras in 2003 and has planned a third meeting for El Salvador this July.

For Guatemalan activists, the most worrisome of the contemplated projects are two large dams proposed along the Usumacinta River, which threaten to displace as many as 15,000, mainly indigenous Qeqchi, people from the Petén region. On March 15, in honor of International Day against Dams, more than 500 Peteneros blocked highways, demanding that all information about PPP projects be made public and rejecting the silence and lies of the Guatemalan and Mexican governments. Protesters were met with violence. Unidentified assailants shot into one of the crowds, wounding two protesters.

Mexican President Fox and Guatemalan President Berger have both publicly denied plans to begin dam construction along the Usumacinta. When resistance to the PPP because too strong in 2002, PPP promoters virtually force all PPP publicity while they invested in high-priced public relations services to give a facelift to the PPP’s deteriorating image. Today, following the recommendation of U.S.-based advertising agency Fleishman-Hillard, PPP promoters publicly applaud the social aspects of the PPP while continuing to direct more than 85% of funds toward highway construction. Particularly controversial projects were removed from the PPP, and today are known only as “secondary” projects.

NISGUA believes it is vital to support Mesoamericans who resist. Since 2001, NISGUA has provided direct support to local communities and organizations in Guatemala by financing community representatives’ presence at PPP forums, facilitating the production and distribution of PPP-related materials in the countryside, and subsidizing as an investigative delegation to the Usumacinta River.

Sarah Aird, a lawyer, is past Director of NISGUA. For info 202-518-7638