Residents of 37 villages in the eastern Guatemalan municipality of Rio Hondo are protesting the construction of two hydroelectric dams in the area, the center of two seismic faults. In 1976, an earthquake along the Motagua fault registered 7.9 on the Richter scale and killed more than 25,000 people, and the Polochic fault runs through the Minas Mountains, points out Rio Hondo Mayor Felipe Méndez.

The Electroriente Company aims to build a dam 140 meters across and 35 meters high on the Colorado River. A second dam, 70 meters long, would be built on the Jones River.

The environmental impact studies for the projects were conducted prior to Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which changed the course of the Hondo River, and affected the Colorado, says Méndez.

Furthermore, the two dams would leave 20,000 Guatemalans without a water source, Mauricio Vásquez, activist with the non-governmental group Organized Civil Society, told Tierramérica.