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Enrique V. Iglesias, President
Inter-American Development Bank
1300 New York Avenue, NW
Room E1213
Washington, DC 20577
RE: Do not fund Boca del Cerro hydro-electric dam!
Dear Mr. Iglesias,
As an American citizen and taxpayer, I very strongly oppose any funding by the Inter-American Development Bank for the proposed Boca del Cerro hydro-electric dam in Mexico and Guatemala. The Boca del Cerro is the first in a proposed series of dams on the Usumacinta River that would flood dozens of ancient Maya ruins, displace thousands of people, and inundate tens of thousands of acres of rainforest and wetlands habitat. The Usumacinta River, flowing from northern Guatemala into Mexico, forms the biological backbone of the largest tropical rainforest north of the Amazon. A remnant of the lush jungle that once blanketed Central America, the watershed is home to ocelots, crocodiles, howler and spider monkeys, and many tropical and migratory songbirds -- as well as archaeological sites so significant they've been called the Maya Vatican. The Boca del Cerro would take an enormous economic and ecological toll, flooding 153 square miles of vital habitat in Mexico and 108 square miles in Guatemala. This mega-dam has been proposed twice before, but local communities -- who would bear the burdens of the dam without receiving many of its benefits -- have rejected it soundly.
The Inter-American Development Bank has announced that it will fund massive infrastructure projects throughout Central America as part of the Plan Puebla Panama, which would require a major increase in electricity generation capacity. I am very concerned that the Boca del Cerro and associated dam projects may be part of this plan. In view of the devastating ecological, archaeological and social consequences these dams would cause, I urge you to publicly commit that the bank will not allow funding from the Plan Puebla Panama to be used for the Boca del Cerro dam or other infrastructure projects that would undermine the integrity of the Maya Rainforest.
Most Sincerely,
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