2017 Bajodelago Dam attack
| 2017 Bajodelago Dam attack | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Bajodelago, Zapatista, Creeperopolis |
| Date | 25 January 2017 ~5:00 a.m. (TSS) |
| Target | Infrastructure, civilians |
Attack type | Dam destruction followed by severe flooding of towns and villages |
| Weapons | Unidentified explosives |
| Deaths | 623 (official total) 600–700+ (independent estimates) |
| Injured | 3,000+ |
| Perpetrators | Mara Salvatrucha |
| Motive | Uncertain |
| Convicted | None |
| Charges | 623 counts of Murder Terrorism Waging War on God Waging War on the Empire |
The 2017 Bajodelago Dam attack (Creeperian – Creeperian: Ատաքփե դել Պրեսա Րիբադելագո դե 2017; Creeperian – Iberic: Ataque del Presa Bajodelago de 2017), also sometimes called the 2017 Bajodelago Dam disaster, was a terrorist attack carried out by Mara Salvatrucha on 25 January 2017 in Bajodelago, Zapatista, Creeperopolis. At around 5:00 a.m. local time, militants of Mara Salvatrucha detonated explosives on the Bajodelago Dam, which held back waters of Lake Atalánte on the Atalánte River, which later flows into the Zapatista River. The destruction of the dam resulted in heavy flooding along the Atalánte River, severely flooding and even destroying several towns and villages along the banks of the river. Several bridges were also destroyed by the floodwaters.
Mara Salvatrucha claimed responsibility for the attack on 27 January 2017, claiming that its own militants destroyed the dam, however, they never stated a motive for carrying out the attack. The Creeperian government listed the total death toll at 623 deaths caused directly by the explosion or successive flooding, with over 3,000 more being injured. Independent sources list the death toll as being between 600 and 700 dead, aligning with the official death toll presented by the Creeperian government. Hundreds of deaths since 2017 around the path of the flooding have been linked to the pollutants which contaminated the lake prior to its destruction.
On 17 February 2017, the Imperial Court of Justice convicted those responsible for the attack on charges of 623 counts of murder, terrorism, waging war on God, and waging war on the Empire. Although no one was actually on trial, as no one has ever been arrested in connection with the attack, the tribunal sentenced those responsible to death by drowning, a rare and unusual method of capital punishment in Creeperopolis.
Contents
Background
The Castillianan Insurgency began in 1980 an armed independence movement in the Castillianan departments of western Creeperopolis. As of 2017, the insurgency was still ongoing, making it one of the longest lasting wars in Creeperian history.
Bajodelago Dam and Lake Atalánte
| Bajodelago Dam | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Official name | Atalánte – Presa Bajodelago |
| Country |  Creeperopolis |
| Location | Bajodelago, Zapatista |
| Purpose | Hydroelectricity |
| Status | Destroyed |
| Opening date | 1973 |
| Demolition date | 2017 |
| Built by | EXPATI |
| Operator(s) | Ministry of Labor |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Type of dam | Arch dam |
| Impounds | Atalánte River |
The Bajodelago Dam, officially the Atalánte – Bajodelago Dam (Creeperian – Creeperian: Ատալընտե – Պրեսա Րիբադելագո; Creeperian – Iberic: Atalánte – Presa Bajodelago) was a water supply and hydroelectric dam which was located on the Atalánte River. It was initially named the Atalánte Dam until it was changed to the Atalánte – Bajodelago Dam in 1980. The dam artificially created Lake Atalánte upon its opening in 1973.
The dam opened in 1973 and began as simply a hydroelectric dam to provide power for districts of Tuxtla Martínez and other neighboring towns and villages, but later was briefly used as a water supply dam. The dam artificially created Lake Atalánte from the Atalánte River, which flowed northeast to the Zapatista River and later the Bay of Atlántida. The dam provided water to villages in southwestern Zapatista, where the dam was located, from 1973 to 1989. The dam had an output capacity of 135 kilowatts.
In 1989, the Ministry of Internal Affairs released a report stating that the water in the lake was contaminated with insecticides, cyanides, fecal bacteria, and toxic algae, as a result of illegal dumping in the lake. The Ministry of Internal Affairs blamed the Ministry of Labor of inadequately monitoring the water quality of the lake over the period of 1973 to 1989 as management of the lake fell under its jurisdiction and also accused it of allowing the illegal dumping of insecticides, industrial waste, and sewage into the lake. The pollution in the lake was so severe, that from 1984, the water had slowly begun to turn a brownish-red color from all the illegal dumping in the lake. The local overseer of the dam and lake, several business owners and farmers from towns surrounding the lake, and the Mayor of Bajodelago were arrested and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment on charges of negligence and illegal dumping for allowing such an "environmental disaster" to occur in the lake. Efforts to decontaminate the lake from 1989 to 1993 were deemed too expensive and not practical, and instead, in 1994, the Creeperian government installed a water treatment plant in the dam to clean and decontaminate the water in the lake as it flows out of the lake and down the Atalánte River into the Zapatista River. The lake remained heavily contaminated and polluted throughout the remainder of its existence, maintaining its brownish-red color, earning it the nickname: "the Red Lake." In 2006, a false claim was made on the Shichan imageboard website claiming that the lake was red as a result of it being the dumping grounds for dead bodies and that the bodies were dumped in the lake by the Creeperian Army in an attempt to cover up massacres. The claim was further supported by the fake news website El Faro, however, the claim has later been proven to have been false by independent foreign investigators.
The town of Bajodelago was established 2 miles south of the dam in 1972 as a temporary location to house workers of the Expanding For You (EXPATI) construction company, but it later was transformed into a permanent settlement. Its name, Bajodelago, literally translates from Creeperian as "Below the Lake" in reference to its location, downstream of Lake Atalánte.
Bombing and flooding
On 25 January 2017, militants of Mara Salvatrucha infiltrated security perimeters at the Bajodelago Dam. The militants planted unidentified explosives in four different locations on the dam: at the base, at the center, at the top, and at the water treatment plant. The explosives were detonated at around 5:00 a.m. local time, killing 3 workers in the explosions. The explosions rendered enough structural damage to the dam to the point that the water pressure of the lake on the dame caused a catastrophic structural failure and allowed for the water in the lake to destroy the dam and flood downstream in a flash flood.
The floodwaters overflowed the banks of the Atalánte River and turned the river brownish-red as the pollutants in the lake were dragged into the floodwater. The floodwaters flooded towns and villages which straddled the banks of the river, including Bajodelago itself which was 2 miles downstream from the lake. After passing through Bajodelago, the floodwaters arrived at the village of Acelhuate, where the floodwaters forcibly diverted the flow of the river and flowed into a mining concession of the National Mining and Smelting Corporation (CORNAMIF), forming a new artificial lake in the mining area.
At 6:00 a.m. local time, the Mayor of Bajodelago declared a state of emergency in the town, and at 6:30 a.m. local time, José Tajañero Martí, the Captain General of Zapatista, declared a state of emergency in the department and ordered the Creeperian Army to Bajodelago to assist in search and rescue operations, and later, recovery operations.
Aftermath
Casualties
As a direct result of the flooding, 545 people died in the villages and towns along the Atalánte River. A further 73 employees of the National Mining and Smelting Corporation were also killed when the floodwaters flooded the mining concession. Another 3 workers at the Bajodelago Dam were killed during the initial explosions and another 2 were killed when the dam collapsed.
Infrastructural damages
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The floodwaters impacted villages and towns immediately on the banks of the Atalánte River. Among the villages which were completely flooded or destroyed by the flood were El Tablon, La'Mariposa, Tlaxcala, and El Morizón. Towns and villages which received some damage and flooding from the flood were Bajodelago, Acelhuate, Honté, El Tigurón, and Estala.
Several roadways and bridges across the Atalánte River were destroyed by the floodwaters. The Atalánte Bridge of the Creeperian Highway 1 (AC 1) was destroyed by the floods, as were five bridges in Bajodelago, one near Acelhuate, and one in El Morizón. A total of six cars fell into the river when the bridges collapsed under them and a further twelve more when they failed to stop before they spotted the broken bridges. The Creeperian government believes that more cars and people would have fallen into the floodwaters had the flood occurred during the day when more drivers would have been on the road.
The dam itself was considered to be a total loss by the Creeperian government, which opted to demolish the dam entirely, rather than spend the money to rebuild the dam, citing that demolition would be cheaper than reconstruction and that the dam had since lost efficiency and that its costs to upkeep it had grown very expensive. The government stated that it would have never demolished the dam in the first place since it would have been extremely expensive to clean the water on top of demolishing the dam, but since the water had already been drained, it was now the most cost-effective option to demolish the dam.
The Creeperian government estimates that a total of ₡2 billion colóns (₵250 million credits) worth of damage were caused by the explosions and the flooding.
Environmental damages
The destruction of the dam and subsequent flooding of the Atalánte River allowed for the polluted and contaminated water of the river to flow out into the rest of the river and into the towns and villages on the banks of the river. Since 2017, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has attributed the deaths of thousands of animals in the surrounding areas to the flooding, either through the flood itself or from the effects of the pollutants in the water. Also since 2017, hundreds of deaths have been linked to cancers and other diseases caused from the polluted water of the flood.
The path of the Atalánte River was severely altered by the flooding, as the floods forcibly diverted the path of the river into a mining concession of CORNAMIF. From January 2017 until May 2018, the waters of the river flowed into the newly created artificial lake, locally known as the Lake of Death (Լագո դել Մփերտե; Lago del Muerte), where the level of water increased, further spreading the pollutants of the water into the nearby soils. The course of the river was returned to its original and normal flow when the government constructed a new dam to stop water from flowing into the new lake.
The Creeperian government declared a state of emergency and stated that the situation at Bajodelago was an environmental disaster and issued several warnings in the months following the disaster, warning people to stay out of the waters of the Atalánte River and even the Zapatista River, in the risk of negative health effects as a result of ingesting or coming into contact with the pollutants in the water. The warnings remain in place as environmentalists and health experts have estimated that it will take around 50 to 100 years for all the pollutants from the former lake to be completely drained from the lakebed and river through natural means.
Investigation and charges
Initially, the Creeperian government listed the flooding as possibly being linked to a design flaw in the dam, however, the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA) opened an investigation into the disaster possibly being linked to terrorism from any of the several rebel groups in the country since workers at the dam reported hearing and seeing explosions. On 27 January 2017, two days after the flooding, Mara Salvatrucha claimed responsibility for the attack, however, the group did not give a motive as to why the attack was carried out. The DINA closed its investigation on 17 February 2017 and it listed the motive as "terrorism," however, the real motive remains unknown. That same day, the Imperial Court of Justice convicted those responsible for the attack on charges of 623 counts of murder, terrorism, waging war on God, and waging war on the Empire, however, no one was actually on trial as no one was identified as having committed the act, but they were charged and sentenced in absentia regardless.
| Count(s) | Crime | Ruling | Sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charges | |||
| 1–623 | Murder | Guilty | Death |
| 624 | Terrorism | Guilty | Death |
| 625 | Waging War on God | Guilty | Death |
| 626 | Waging War on the Empire | Guilty | Death |
Those involved were sentenced to death by drowning after being found guilty of all 626 charges. The Creeperian government publicly condemned Mara Salvatrucha for carrying out the attack.
Legacy
The dam disaster was the deadliest such disaster in Creeperian history, surpassing the 1924 San Sebastián dam disaster by 128 fatalities. The attack was the deadliest act of terrorism in Creeperian history, excluding massacres and other war crimes which are classified as military incursions and events. The dam disaster is commemorated every 25 January with a memorial service in Bajodelago. A memorial was erected at the site where the dam used to be on 25 January 2018 commemorating the 623 who died in the flooding.
