Complexifying environmental conflicts in the Guatemalan highlands

<p>Over the past ten years, changes in the patterns of mining investment in Latin America have generated a spike in environmental conflicts between peasant communities and transnational corporations. In Guatemala, this resistance has assumed the form of municipal referenda known as consultas c...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Michael L. Dougherty
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Published: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, sede Ecuador 2013-11-01
Series:Letras Verdes: Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Socioambientales
Subjects:
Online Access:http://revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec/letrasverdes/article/view/1019
Description
Summary:<p>Over the past ten years, changes in the patterns of mining investment in Latin America have generated a spike in environmental conflicts between peasant communities and transnational corporations. In Guatemala, this resistance has assumed the form of municipal referenda known as consultas comunitarias. Drawing from survey and open-ended interviews carried out in the municipality of Tectitán, Huehuetenango, this study aims to deepen our understanding of the factors that drive these conflicts on the part of indigenous peasant communities. I use the ecological distribution conflicts theory to frame this analysis, concluding that the explanatory power of this framework could be extended by explicitly incorporating political-cultural dimensions of these conflicts.</p>
ISSN:1390-6631