Ituango Hydroelectric Project: Drowning Transitional Justice in Colombia

CIEL supports Movimiento Ríos Vivos Antioquía and the communities in the municipalities of Briceño, Ituango, Toledo, San Andrés de Cuerquia, Valdivia, Sabanalarga, Peque, and Caucasia Antioquia who are impacted by the construction and future operation of the Ituango Hydroelectric Project. With an international coalition, we have filed a complaint challenging investments by the Inter-American Development Bank in the project.

The Hidroituango hydroelectric dam project, currently under construction in northwest Colombia, would be the nation’s largest hydroelectric plant.

Environmental and community assessments show the dam could lead to not only environmental degradation — deforestation, habitat and ecosystem loss, and deteriorated air, water, and soil quality — but also dire social impacts and human rights violations. When completed, the dam’s reservoir is projected to flood 11,120 acres, which may impact the livelihoods of many of the 180,000 people who live in the municipalities along the river, who depend on the river for fishing, artisanal mining, and agriculture.

Despite HidroItuango’s impacts on vulnerable populations who are dependent on the river for their income, the company and government have not adequately consulted or shared information with impacted communities.

Instead, since Movimiento Ríos Vivos began its active, public opposition to the project, four of its members have been assassinated and 17 have received death threats. They have also denounced cases of torture, trumped-up criminal charges, mass detentions, harassment, public defamation, discrimination, and surveillance. Concerns have been raised over the involvement of the company’s private security in aggressive actions toward communities, as well as over allegations of torture by Colombian armed forces. Already, an estimated 700 families have been forcibly evicted from their homes or displaced from areas that ensure their livelihood to make way for the project’s construction.

Further complicating the situation is the location of the project, an area that saw intense violence during the internal armed conflict in Colombia. Over 50 massacres and hundreds of victims of forced disappearance have been documented in the 12 municipalities that will be most impacted by the dam. Many thousands were forcibly displaced. With the signing of the peace accords, families and communities in the region are now facing a long and difficult process to understand the legacy of the violent past, locate and exhume the remains of their loved ones, preserve and cultivate historical memory, and advance transitional justice initiatives. HidroItuango could truncate these vital processes of transitional justice and healing, as the reservoir may flood the graves of hundreds of people killed or disappeared during the war and displace families and communities once again.

CIEL is working closely with Colombian partners Movimiento Ríos Vivos and with Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), and International Accountability Project (IAP) to bring these concerns to international investors in the project — particularly the Inter-American Development Bank, who oversees a $1 billion loan package from multiple international banks and has provided more than one loan to the project. In 2018, an international coalition supported Movimiento Ríos Vivos in filing a complaint to the Inter-American Development Bank, which alleges the Bank’s investment in the project violates its policies and safeguards.

Last updated June 2018

Cover photo by John Jairo Jaramillo, via Hidroituango/Flickr