The Defence of Community in the Anti-Mining Movement of Guatemala

Abstract

Mining is one of the most controversial activities in contemporary Guatemala. The antimining movement was studied during five months of participant and qualitative research, focusing on its strategies and discourses. The movement is multiscalar, with local, national and transnational dimensions, but the defence of community is a central claim in its discourse. The community is reclaimed as a legitimate scale for decision-making by the anti-mining movement because it is: (a) the scale that suffers the material impacts of mining; (b) the place of Maya cultural resistance for reimagining alternative development projects; and (c) an historically marginalized sector of the population, that should be empowered in order to achieve more participative and fair decision-making processes. As in other peasant struggles, defending the community is not an objective per se, but a strategy to contest domination. The community is dialectically redefined in relation to Guatemala's historical injustices.

Refining the preconditions of a social licence to operate (SLO): reflections on citizens’ attitudes towards mining in two Finnish regions

“…In the last 20 years the mining industry has been under pressure to contribute more positively to regional development (IIED 2002, 4;Gibson 2006, 334;Slack 2009, 83;Tuusjärvi 2013, 11). The global image of mining has been negative, with concerns raised in particular about the ability of the industry to manage environmental and social impacts (Clark & Cook Clark 1999;Hilson 2002;Cademartori 2002;Jenkins & Yakovleva 2006;Trebeck 2007;Eerola 2008;Holden & Jacobson 2008;Le Billion & Levin 2009;Taylor 2011;Urkidi 2011;Akiwumi 2012). The mitigation of the environmental impacts of mining has been approached mainly as a technological and engineering challenge (Clark & Cook Clark 1999, 190;Solomon et al 2008, 142;Richards 2009, xxi;Everingham 2012, 92).…”

"La vida no tiene precio": la oposición a la minería en Honduras

“…Por su parte autores como Urkidi (2011) y Escobar (2008 han planteado que los conflictos que involucran recursos naturales cuentan con dimensiones sociales y ambientales interconectadas, lo cual se expresa como tal en los marcos de acción colectiva de los movimientos sociales. Por ejemplo, se observa la importancia atribuida al agua como una lógica especialmente relevante para la movilización en el Perú.…”

“…En Guatemala, su expansión en el siglo XXI ha generado una conflictividad social considerable (e. g. Fulmer et al, 2008;Urkidi, 2011;Yagenova et al, 2010). Similar a la investigación de Urkidi sobre la resistencia a la minería en Guatemala (2011), este trabajo está enfocado en cómo el empuje de la frontera minera tiene respuesta -un empuje hacia atrás-entre las comunidades y los movimientos sociales.…”

Environmental Governance in Latin America

“…The emergence and spread of consultations in Latin America remains poorly studied. Studies addressing mining consultations/referenda have focused on the first four cases: Tambogrande, Esquel, Sipakapa and Majaz/Río Blanco (Muradian, Martinez-Alier and Correa, 2003;Subies et al, 2005;Haarstad and Floysand, 2007;De Echave et al, 2009;McGee, 2009;Walter and Martinez-Alier, 2010;Fulmer, 2011;Urkidi, 2011;; along with the wave of consultations in Guatemala (Holden and Jacobson, 2008;Rasch, 2012;Trentavizi and Cahuec, 2012). 287 Nevertheless, the cases that followed, their connections and the institutional features of consultations have received poor scholarly attention.…”