64. Subsequently, in 1990, a peace process was initiated in Guatemala that culminated in 1996. Over that period, 12 agreements were signed, including one for the establishment of the Historical Clarification Commission, which began its work in 1997.62 This Commission examined numerous massacres, including those of the municipality of Rabinal, department of Baja Verapaz, Guatemala,63 where the facts of this case took place. B) Background to the massacres of the community of Río Negro 65. They Mayan communities have inhabited the Río Chixoy or Río Negro basin since the Mayan pre-classic period, and the Achí people settled there at the beginning of the 19th century.64 During the 1970s, the Maya Achí community of Río Negro settled on the banks of the river in the municipality of Rabinal had a population of approximately 800 individuals based on a communal organization, who passed down their cosmovision65 and history from generation to generation through an oral and written tradition. They made a living from agriculture, fishing and the exchange of produce with the neighboring community of Xococ, among others.66 66. In 1975, the Guatemalan National Electricity Institute (INDE) presented a project to construct the “Pueblo Viejo-Quixal” hydroelectric dam in the Chixoy river basin.67 According to the CEH, “the plan included the flooding of more than 50 kilometers along the river and some tributaries, which would affect around 3,445 people […],” who would have to displace and resettle elsewhere. In 1977, work began on changing the course of the river, the containment wall and the tunnel68 and, in June 1978, the Government declared a national 62 Cf. Case of the Plan de Sánchez Massacre v. Guatemala. Merits, supra, para. 42.8, and Case of the Dos Erres Massacre v. Guatemala, supra, para. 83. 63 Cf. Case of the Plan de Sánchez Massacre v. Guatemala. Merits, supra, para. 42.8. 64 Cf. expert opinion provided by affidavit by Alfredo Itzep Manuel (merits file, tome II, folios 1034, 1035 and 1037); Report “Guatemala, Memoria del Silencio”, supra, volume VI, annex I, Illustrative Case No. 10 “Massacre and Elimination of the Community of Río Negro,” and Burgos, Walter, “Tesoros Mayas: Las sociedades prehispánicas de la cuenca del Río Chixoy,” Guatemala, National Museum of Archeology and Ethnology (MUNAE) of the General Directorate for National and Cultural Patrimony of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala, 2009 (file of attachments to the pleadings and motions brief, tome XXI, folios 12670 and 12692). 65 According to expert witness Alfredo Itzep Manuel, for the Maya Achí, the Mayan cosmovision “is based on the harmonious relationship between all the elements of the universe, in which the human being is just one more element, the earth is the mother that gives life, and corn is a sacred element, the focal point of the culture […]. Water has transcendental importance for the people […]. It is connected to their cultural structure, as an element that generates life for men and women. […] For the Maya Achí of the Community of Río Negro, the construction of the hydroelectric project meant the closing or shutting down of the water, which signifies the closing down of life itself of the human beings.” Cf. Expert opinion provided by affidavit by Alfredo Itzep Manuel (merits file, tome II, folios 1069 to 1071). 66 Cf. expert opinion provided by affidavit by Alfredo Itzep Manuel (merits file, tome II, folios 1037 to 1044); Report “Guatemala, Memoria del Silencio”, supra, volume VI, annex I, Illustrative Case No. 10 “Massacre and Elimination of the Community of Río Negro.” 67 Cf. Report “Guatemala, Memoria del Silencio”, supra, volume VI, annex I, Illustrative Case No. 10 “Massacre and Elimination of the Community of Río Negro”; Johnston, Barbara Rose, Estudio de los Elementos del Legado de la Represa Chixoy, volume one, Guatemala, Center for Political Ecology, 2005 (file of attachments to the pleadings and motions brief, tome XXI, folio 12746); FLACSO-Guatemala, Report “Generación de insumos para la verificación and identificación de daños and perjuicios por construcción de la hidroeléctrica de Chixoy,” Guatemala, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales-Guatemala, 2009, (file of attachments to the pleadings and motions brief, tome XXI, folios 13029 to 13030). 68 Cf. Estudio de los Elementos del Legado de la Represa Chixoy, supra, volume two (file of attachments to the pleadings and motions brief, tome XXI, folio 12821). 27