The politics of implementation: Social movements and mining policy implementation in Guatemala

The Losing Battle Against Neoliberal Trade Agreements in Latin America: Social Resistance Against the MTA Between Ecuador, Peru, and the European Union

“…Many contemporary investigations focus on antineoliberal social movements resisting the expansion of neoliberal policies in Latin America (Petras 2008; Roberts 2008; Silva 2009, 2012; Von Bülow 2010; Almeida 2014; Spalding 2014, 2023; Almeida and Cordero Ulate 2017; Silva et al 2018; Almeida and Pérez Martín 2022; Preusser 2022; Feoli 2023). The present article contributes to this body of literature by studying the influence of the social movements in Peru and Ecuador that criticized the Multiparty Trade Agreement (MTA, Acuerdo Comercial Multipartes ) both Andean countries subscribed to and implemented with the European Union (EU).…”

“The Situation Will Most Likely Turn Ugly”: Corporate Counter-Insurgency and Sexual Violence at a Canadian-Owned Mine in Guatemala

“…In another eviction two years later, cGn's chief of security Mynor Padilla shot community members German Chub and Adolfo Ich: private security guards hacked Ich to death, and Chub was left paralyzed.4 Padilla pled guilty in Guatemala and was sentenced to two years in prison for Ich's murder, and another eight months for the shooting of Chub(Prensa Comunitaria, 2021). In 2015, Carlos Maaz Chub, a fisherman protesting the mine's pollution of Lake Izabal, was shot to death by police, and in 2021 martial law was declared near the mine in order to enforce a controversial state-sanctioned community consultation intended to legitimize the Fénix project(Cuffe, 2021;Spalding, 2023). The struggle against the Fénix mine continues, while the corporate managers of the mine (which is now owned by Switzerland-based Solway Investment Group) continue to seek tools to ensure extraction at any cost.…”