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The Madre Vieja river conflict and its relevance to agribusiness

Dossier
Water for industry14-agua-industrial.md
Domain
Industrial water, wells and dischargesagua
Room
Energy/energia
Audited
Audited

It is a recurrent conflict on the south coast over diversions of the Madre Vieja river (Tiquisate) toward oil palm plantations: in 2018 the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office accused Grupo HAME of 'opening channels that diverted the waters of the Madre Vieja river', and in 2019 the same was alleged on the Suchiate river (Mongabay, 2021, verified 2026-08-22). The description of 'loss of subsistence fishing and irrigation; annual community mobilization' comes from CONNECTAS, which was inaccessible during the audit. It illustrates the dossier's pattern: conflicts break out where industry competes for visible surface water.

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.

Figures

Acusación de la PDH a Grupo HAME por desvío del Madre ViejaMongabay 2021
2018 (Suchiate: 2019)2018-2019

Caveat

part of the account comes from CONNECTAS, inaccessible during the audit

Sources

Organizations named in the answer

  • Grupo HAMEWater-versus-agribusiness conflict precedent: parent company of REPSA; accused by the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) in 2018 of diverting the Madre Vieja river towards palm plantations and in 2019 of the same on the Suchiate riverCompany case
  • MongabayNews outlet; coverage of the REPSA / La Pasión river case and of the murder of Rigoberto Lima Choc (September 2015).Other

Directory of organizations

Related records

This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.