How do grassroots strategies for the defense of territory inter-relate with the "politics of time" in the early phases of socio-environmental struggles? This article addresses this question via ethnographic research and in-depth interviews in Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Opponents of mines and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in this region invoke comunalidad and Guendaliza'a— indigenous ways of life associated with mutual aid and territorial sovereignty. These values are enacted by networks of activists seeking to protect the land and livelihoods of future generations against global capitalism's drive for cheap raw materials. By rejecting dualist distinctions between Society and Nature, indigenous cosmovisions can help defensive movements forge alternatives to socio-environmental violence. Engaging with this case brings separate theoretical frameworks of defensive resistance, cheap nature, ecological-distribution conflicts, and indigenous cosmovisions into dialogue with one another.Key words: social movements, indigenous peoples, global capitalism, ethnography, anti-mining

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Ethnographic field interviews collected in three municipalities of Oaxaca explain how the Mexican state’s response to the Chiapas earthquake facilitated capital accumulation while intensifying indigenous-campesino grievances against megaprojects and resource extraction. State policies in Oaxaca’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec during the fall of 2017 reinforced social inequality by way of three key mechanisms: neglect, dispossession, and pacification. Making sense of the way state institutions exercised power during this disaster benefits from combining a critical perspective on global capitalism with long-standing frameworks of cultural genocide and internal colonialism. Las entrevistas de campo etnográficas recogidas en tres municipios de Oaxaca nos muestran cómo la respuesta del Estado mexicano al terremoto de Chiapas facilitó la acumulación de capital al mismo tiempo que intensificó las quejas de campesinos indígenas contra los megaproyectos y la extracción de recursos. Las políticas estatales en el istmo de Tehuantepec en Oaxaca durante el otoño de 2017 reforzaron la desigualdad social a través de tres mecanismos clave: abandono, despojo y pacificación. Para poder dar sentido a la forma en que las instituciones estatales ejercieron el poder durante este desastre es importante combinar una perspectiva crítica sobre el capitalismo global y marcos teóricos de larga data en torno al genocidio cultural y el colonialismo interno.

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